Both my parents were NPD. I spent a life time wondering if mother knew how unkind she was. She didn't know, right? I mean no mother would deliberately torment their own child? One day she said gloatingly
'You can make a child's life a misery without ever hitting them'
A sly smile played on her lips.
That day I knew, it was deliberate, she knew EXACTLY what she was doing. A malignant narc knows, they enjoy it a sadistic streak runs through them.