I have lots of scattered thoughts on this so this should be fun. I am self diagnosed npd (yeah yeah I know)and am currently suffering from ongoing psychosis. my whole psychosis has had a theme of "listening". I am constantly being told to listen to others and to myself. it is amazing the things I have seen when I do "listen"....which can mean pay attention, quiet upstairs, feel my own emotions and let them direct me instead of the intellect getting in the way. when I heard others mention if you know how you felt when your loved ones died then you can empathize (quasi or otherwise) with someone your talking to who has went through the same thing. problem is, it's never the same and it never can be......which means, your not listening to them but you have inserted yourself (mirror) into them. the goal is for you to put the "self" on a shelf while you listen to someone express themselves and their feelings. not to feel what they feel. love is listening in this respect. if you only listen to yourself you will only ever love yourself.......and I'm talking about the narcissus way, where he withers away staring at a reflection of his own beautiful self. how does he know he's beautiful? he listens to himself. he listens to nothing else and even the beautiful echo who pined for him couldn't be heard. we will never find love and beauty in anything but ourselves if everyone becomes a reflection of self.