Many people ask, what is narcissism and what does narcissism mean especially in terms of how it affects relationships.

This is a disorder which affects people and whose most know characteristic is self-centeredness and a seemingly unending need for praise and admiration from others that narcissistic people have.
People with narcissism often have a feeling of superiority and an entitlement that they are better than everyone else around them and therefore like to push for their own ideas to be followed by everyone else. To narcissists, the rest of the people are either inferior or daft, including their spouses and they should therefore be allowed to make all the decisions
In simple words, people with this disorder feel kingly and tend to treats others around them as subjects whose only duty is to listen to them and follow instructions as narcissists are poor listeners and great speakers who enthrall others with stories of their exploits in various fields and their life accomplishments.

Because of their feeling that they are better than others, people with this disorder expect to be treated differently from other people during events and be accorded special treatment and failure to do this can make them very upset and angry and they can overreact with dangerous consequences.

How to know if someone is a narcissist.

A narcissist has five or more of the following traits:

? Envy: A narcissist is often very jealous of others or has a deep feeling that other people are very jealous of the achievements that he or she has made over time.

? Feeling of self-importance: these people exaggerate their alleged achievement and expect others to praise them

? They have confusing feelings: People with the narcissistic disorder have feelings which change abruptly. At one point they are full of love and the next time, they become critical and mean to their spouse or partner. This can be very confusing to their lovers who often find themselves unable to decide what to do next.

? They have no empathy for others: Narcissistic people only care about themselves and everyone else plays second fiddle. For them, their demands come first and everything else will follow. They do not care much about their spouses and focus too much on their own personal interests. Narcissistic people never apologize for their mistakes. Even when they do something that they know will hurt their spouses, they find a way to blame their spouses and take no responsibility for whatever wrong they did.

? They are exploitative: Narcissistic people never love people genuinely. They only get into relationships so as to benefit from something that the spouse can offer. Once they succeed, they can walk out of the relationship without remorse as their partners suffer in pain.