3. Her emotional needs are neglected – no true connection
Whenever the wife might be upset about something, no matter how legitimate the feelings are, the husband is not going to be supportive. We see a lack of empathy, which, of course, is very common with narcissism.
We also see an unwillingness to even get involved with the exploration of feelings. Part of this comes from a lack of depth, but also this comes from centeredness. If the emotions that the wife is experiencing interfere with something the narcissistic husband wants, then his behavior might be even more destructive than just simply ignoring the wife and not engaging her in a conversation.
He might also go on the offensive. He might criticize her for being weak and emotional. So again, we really see no true connection. The husband is callous and emotionally distant.
4. Encourages children to disrespect her
So he is not only trying to manipulate the wife directly, which we would expect from somebody who’s narcissistic, but he also tries to manipulate her indirectly by manipulating the children into disrespecting the wife.
He’s really encouraging the children to take sides with him against the wife. Some of this could be just plain Envy. He wants the admiration. The kids admire the wife, so for the narcissistic husband, this means, he’s not getting as much admiration as he believes he should be getting.
Narcissists do not like to share, even if we’re talking about a resource that really cannot be depleted. For example, children could admire both a mother and a father. It’s not like they use all their admiration up on one and don’t have anything left over for the other.
5. Only his choices matter – no give and take
When choosing activities to do together, the narcissistic husband really only wants to do things that are enjoyable to him. The selection of television shows, movies, restaurants, vacation destinations, and even something like choosing which friends to hang out with. There’s no give-and-take. He’s always going to have a reason why the life selections don’t work and why his selections make sense.
In this situation, the wife might find herself really going out engaging in activities alone. She finds herself going places alone all the time. But when the husband wants to go someplace, she goes with him because he demands that. Again, this is very consistent with narcissism.
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