Why Narcissists Don’t Truly Criticize You: They Erase Your Identity
As a registered social worker and therapist in Toronto, Ontario, with over 14 years of collective experience and five years specifically as a psychotherapist, I often draw on leading thinkers to help clients understand the subtle yet devastating dynamics of narcissistic abuse. In this post (which accompanies my recent YouTube video), I explore a profound concept from psychology professor Sam Vaknin that has transformed how I—and many of my clients—understand interactions with narcissistic individuals, especially parents.
The Key Insight: Narcissists Don’t Criticize—They Annihilate
Most people expect criticism from a narcissist to feel like direct attacks or harsh feedback. Yet, as Sam Vaknin explains, narcissists rarely truly criticize. Why? Genuine criticism requires first recognizing another person as a separate, external human being—someone real, independent, and worthy of being shaped or improved.
Narcissists do not grant you that recognition.
Instead, they aim to erase your independent identity and convert you into an “interior object” or fixed “snapshot” inside their own mind. Vaknin calls this process snapshotting. You cease to exist as a living, evolving person and become a dead, controllable object they can idolize or (more commonly) devalue at will.
“The narcissist does not criticize — he annihilates.” – Sam Vaknin
This annihilation feels like verbal, emotional, or psychological abuse from the outside—and it is abusive—but it originates from the narcissist’s internal monologue with a frozen version of you.
Solipsism and the Narcissist’s Inner World
At its core, the narcissistic mind operates from a form of implicit solipsism (the philosophical idea that only one’s own mind is sure to exist). The narcissist experiences themselves as the sole real consciousness; everyone else exists merely as extensions or “interjects” within their psychological universe.
When you speak, challenge, or simply exist independently, they are not responding to the real you. They are arguing with, devaluing, or idealizing the outdated snapshot they created—often from your childhood.
This explains why covert narcissistic parents rarely deliver overt criticism. Instead, they:
- Plant subtle seeds of doubt
- Align silently with others’ negative comments
- Undermine indirectly so you begin to question your own reality
There is rarely a clear “smoking gun,” which makes the abuse so confusing and difficult to name.
Narcissistic Families and the Scapegoat Role
In narcissistic family systems, differentiation—becoming a separate, autonomous self—is experienced as a direct threat to the parental false self. As Murray Bowen taught, healthy development requires differentiation of self: the ability to maintain emotional connection while remaining psychologically independent.
Narcissistic or emotionally immature parents resist this process. They fuse with their children and punish any attempt at separation. Siblings often become extensions of the narcissistic parent, carrying the same transgenerational patterns of projected identification (Bowen’s term for how undifferentiation passes down family lines).
If you are the scapegoat—the one who begins to see through the shared family fantasy and speak truth—you become the primary target for erasure.
The Path to Healing: Differentiation Through Limited or No Contact
The most reliable way to reclaim your authentic self from this dynamic is to limit or end contact. When the locus of control shifts from external (the narcissistic family) to internal (your own rational, grounded centre), you stop reacting from the assigned role-self and begin living as a differentiated adult.
As Bowen emphasized:
“Differentiation means the ability to be in emotional contact with others yet still autonomous in one’s emotional functioning.”
Separation is painful, but it is the only consistent route I have seen that allows true healing from narcissistic family systems.
Recommended Resources for Deeper Understanding
- Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents – Lindsay C. Gibson
- The Narcissistic Family – Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman & Robert M. Pressman
- Bowen Family Systems Theory resources
- Sam Vaknin’s channel and writings (approach with critical thinking, as with any expert)
Download the Reports for The Scapegoat & Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Course + 45-page Healing Toolkit here:
https://blaketherapy.ca/the-ultimate-toolkit
If you recognize these patterns in your own family, know that you are not alone—and recovery is absolutely possible. Feel free to share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below or reach out for a free 15-minute consultation.
Blake Anderson, MSW, RSW
Toronto Therapist Specializing in Narcissistic Abuse & Family Systems
