The Art Of Implication

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Narcissists master the art of implication well when it comes to conversation. Narcissists use so many tactics to control and manipulate their victims which explains why conversations with narcissists can be not only circular (never-ending in topics that don’t have a point) but also questionable. I say questionable because every time I have left a conversation with a narcissist, I question what I just experienced with them. It is only after the conversation that I process all I heard the narcissist say.

Narcissists say a lot without saying very much. Much of what is said is not said in words but by implication. An implication is something that is suggested as an idea or feeling in an indirect way. For instance, when I had a conversation with a narcissist recently, there was the implication made that I had done something that I clearly had not such as forgetting to close a door so that an insect flew into the room. Despite this not happening, I was led to question within myself whether I actually did leave a door open even though I was not the last one to enter the room. With the narcissist I remained silent.

In essence, the art of implication with narcissists is often used to gaslight and otherwise manipulate their victims into accepting something being said as truth when usually there is no truth whatsoever. I find that this tactic of implication often causes me to question the events that the narcissist points out. During my recent conversation with a narcissist, this is exactly what the narcissist did … implied so much that was not said that I filled in the blanks after the fact. I left the narcissist realizing that the narcissist was using statements that I had made to imply that I was a narcissist!

After my enlightening conversation with this narcissist, I realized then that there would never be a time that I would be able to call her out for her bull without her twisting everything to make her look innocent and me look guilty and crazy. I am so on to her! I am on to her games, but she is quite cunning and really knows how to work conversations to her advantage. Our stroll down memory lane was basically her pointing out instances that would portray me in the light of her projected narcissistic character traits. Usually, I must process our conversations to see her manipulations at work, but I have become so adept at her subtleties that I was actually following her and watching her trying to reflect me while projecting herself. It was so uncanny … like watching a serial predator at work. I was dumbfounded!

Narcissists love to imply without being direct. They will assume that their victim is clueless as to what their implications mean. They will also assume that they have gotten one over on their victims leaving the narcissists as the winners in a competitive conversational match to which the victims are most likely unaware is a competition. In the end, narcissists take pleasure in knowing that victims leave conversations with narcissists in an ignorant daze … unless, of course, the victims have become the narcissists’ worst nightmare.