Vindictive Narcissism
A primer in malicious acts of cruelty
Contemplating revenge or retaliating against those who have wronged us is bound to seep into consciousness at some point in life. After all, managing hurt and conflict by imagining avenging scenarios is a natural, albeit primitive aggressive impulse. The more disregulated and enraged one is, the more likely these spiteful fantasies will take on an obsessive tenacity and morph into a calculated act of vengeance.
Founder of analytic psychology Carl Jung reminds us,
“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”
Hence, given that none of us are exempt from having a shadow, meaning raw conflictual traits that are repressed or rejected, we are all susceptible to vindictiveness. Furthermore, as Jung imparts the more psychologically oblivious we are to our darker dimension, the more we are prone to act out vindictive impulses.
On the other hand, if responsibly and consciously managed fantasies of revenge can assist an injured party with coping and sublimating instinctual aggression. Repeatedly attending to fictitious scenarios in which abusers are put in their…
