I’m a covert narcissist and working towards being a better person to myself and to others. I’ve created this podcast because after I was diagnosed with my personality disorder and have accepted the facts, I wanted to learn more about it. I’ve found dozens of books written by or for victims of narcissistic abuse, but have found almost no help for Covert Narcissists themselves. I understand why that is. Most narcissists will not acknowledge their narcissism or are willing to change. It’s also my understanding that Covert Narcissism is a somewhat recent discovery, and experts are still trying to figure out how to effectively help people diagnosed with the personality disorder. So I decided to use my insights to on the one hand give victims of narcissistic abuse an unfiltered view into my brain and maybe help them heal, but mostly to reach out to other Covert Narcissists who are trying to be less toxic.
Welcome back to Season 3 of the Covert Narcissist. And as this podcast’s name suggests, this is a Podcast about covert narcissism. In Taylor Swift’s song anti-hero, a line caused my attention: “Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism?”
We know that Taylor is a terrific songwriter and most of her songs are based on her personal experience. She also said in her Midnights Mayhem decribins this song, and I quote here: “"We all hate things about ourselves, and it's all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we're going to be this person. So I like 'Anti-Hero' a lot because I think it's really honest."
With that in mind, let’s go down this rabbit hole. Let’s assume Taylor Swift did not mean to call herself a Covert Narcissist for fun, but that she is indeed a Covert Narcissist.
In Season 3, I want to dedicate each episode to an album by Taylor Swift, scanning her lyrics for covert narcissistic clues. I’m only using the original albums, no re-recordings or bonus tracks from deluxe versions etc. Of course all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt as with any piece of literature, things are open to interpretation and what I might see as a clue, holds to someone else a completely different meaning.