[abeeraad]

Good afternoon,

I just want to know if empaths/narcissists are born this way by nature or they became empaths/narcissists due to social interactions and due to their history.
Thank you.

[healingme4me]

It is possible that an empath has a slightly different brain structure.

I was typically under the impression that narcissism was part environmental.

I found these two blogs in the archives, hopefully they lead you to more answers.

New Research May Support the Existence of Empaths

A Surprising Cause of Narcissism

[WishfulThinker66]

Interesting reads. Thank you healingme4me.

Yet, when I read the second I found myself disagree with key points in the argument. Namely, how difference in the manifestation of Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) plays itself out.

To sum it up the article suggests that the child who 'bears' with the neglect grows up a CEN the child who is punished for it becomes the narcissist. The example given was bullying. The first child comes home and keeps it himself and tries to cope alone. However the second child comes home and in response to their emotional behaviour is punished.

There have been narcissists in my life of whom I am very much aware of their upbringing. While the two that come to mind definitely fit the bill of CEN I am pretty certain their parent(s) did not punish them for the emotions and feelings that they exhibited. The neglect they primarily received was their parent(s) not being present in their lives much really at all. To use the example given, both as children were heavily bullied yet both had to cope on their own keeping their emotions in check and unseen.

Of the other narcissists I have encountered, they difinitely were not CEN. In fact they were the opposite what with their every need, physical and emotional, being attended to. You might say even they lived ridiculously 'perfect' childhoods.

I have seen thus, that a child can grow into an extreme narcissist regardless of whether CEN occured.

I have also seen the child who was used in the example of being punished for their feelings grow up into the most empathetic of adults I know.