"As his son lay on the floor sobbing, Hammock told him, "See? This is why I'm not successful." Hammock's wife, Delaney, happened to walk in at that exact moment. She was appalled, which he considered another perfect example of how his family was holding him back. He shouted at her until she stormed out. She yelled from the doorway, "It's so hard living with a narcissist!""
"Later, Hammock Googled the word and found the symptoms for narcissistic personality disorder: a grandiose sense of self-importance and entitlement; preoccupation with fantasies of success, power, or beauty; demanding excessive admiration; envy; a lack of empathy. Damn! he thought. That described him pretty accurately. He Googled the cure. Therapy. Damn! he thought again. Hammock had always felt he was different from other people: less emotional and empathetic. But he'd never thought that there was anything especially wrong with him."
Lee Hammock, 32, held an engineering degree but worked in a warehouse while wanting to be an actor. A confrontation at home—blaming his infant son for his failures and arguing with his wife—prompted him to Google narcissism. He identified with described symptoms including entitlement, fantasies of success, demanding admiration, envy, and lack of empathy. He experienced shame and surprise, then discovered a Facebook group for people with NPD where he felt unexpected empathy for others. He decided to enter therapy and received an official diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder, later posting videos during the pandemic.
Read at Intelligencer
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