5: Emotional Abuse - A Conversation with Danu Morrigan

Episode 2 is with Author Danu Morrigan who runs the brilliant website Daughters Of Narcissistic Mothers and has penned the best seller "You're Not Crazy - It's Your Mother." Danu gives insight into the behaviour patterns of a narcissistic mother and enabling father and firsthand accounts of what it is like growing up in this kind of toxic environment. Passionate about putting into the public domain that it is OK not to have a relationship with your parents, Danu explains that it was to her detriment that she "bought into society's lies that you have to keep in touch with parents no matter how horrible they are to you" and that people don't have to pay the price of that with a lifetime of trauma and suffering.

Danu examines how some people's idea of narcissism is simply outwardly vain attention seeking individuals but there are various types including vulnerable narcissism, where the narcissistic parent sense of grandiose is much more inverted;  they think they deserve greatness, but are easily angered when they don't get it. Their need for control, to divide and conquer in their small bubble they have created can be subtle and calculated - they don't want to be caught out for the person they really are.