Looking into the Dark - Chapter 1.1

Narcissists, Psychopaths and Sociopaths. How do we recognize them and protect ourselves? Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1.1 – How Does a Narcissist Behave?

There is a story about Steve Jobs that his daughter Lisa tells in her memoir, Small Fry. She is a teenager, sitting in a therapy session with her father. She is crying. She tells the therapist she feels lonely, that she wants her parents to say goodnight to her. Her stepmother responds on behalf of the family. “We’re just cold people,” she says.

Jobs says nothing.

Lisa Brennan-Jobs grew up as the daughter he denied having. He publicly claimed he was sterile when a paternity test proved otherwise. A court ordered him to pay $500 a month in child support, which he did, reluctantly, four days after Apple went public and his net worth crossed $200 million. For years, when she asked him whether the Apple Lisa computer had been named after her, he said no. On a rare family vacation, when the musician Bono asked the same question at lunch, Jobs hesitated, looked down at his plate, and finally said yes. Lisa writes that she sat up in her chair. It was the first time he had admitted it.