I Second That Emotion
The emotional spectrum afforded to my kind is limited. The bulk of the positive emotions that you experience have either been stripped away or moulded into one all-pervasive sensation and that is of power. Whereas you might experience joy, elation, happiness and delight, we feel power. That surging sensation which courses through us as a consequence of the receipt of fuel, be it positive or negative. Secure a promotion? I feel powerful. My football team wins? I feel powerful. I seduce a new victim? I feel powerful. I experience amusement, indeed, I have an excellent sense of humour but if I make you laugh through my sense of humour I feel a sense of power once again.
I do not feel sadness. I have, for the sake of gathering fuel, sat through numerous films which are described as tear-jerkers and entertained myself as I have alternated between watching the film and the reaction of the person, invariably an intimate partner, as their expression alters to one of compassion, sympathy and then the tears to begin to flow. I have watched the same film yet I feel nothing. I recognise that the scenes played out by the relevant actors are ones which would be labelled as moving, sad and upsetting, but I feel nothing. When I shift my gaze to the sobbing intimate partner besides me, I begin to feel something. I feel contempt for the weakness exhibited by becoming upset. Not only the fact that these tears flow at all but because they have been generated by acting. How readily people fall prey to what is acting, but I am thankful for that, because if they did not, my existence would be far more difficult. I experience a degree of amusement, because someone is moved by something which is not even real. At least when the tears fall because a pet has been run over in the street, or because a relative has exhaled their last breath on this earth, there is a genuine event which causes grief. Yet, it is always in others. You could flash a montage of images, snippets of footage which encapsulate what people would regard as tear-inducing responses, be they grief or joy and I would remain unmoved. It means nothing to me. The capacity to feel sadness, grief, woe and misery have been removed. I knew them once. I can vaguely remember, or at least I think I can remember, being sad. I do not know what the feeling is but I recall the image from the depths of my memory.
I do not know guilt. Remorse is a stranger to me. I feel no regret nor penitence. Compassion has never been available to me. As for empathy, I do not feel that either. I am, because of my heightened abilities and intelligence, able to understand how people must feel. I have spent many years watching and observing the way that people react to certain situations. I understand when happiness is expressed, I know when regret should be exhibited, I recognise when sadness should make an appearance but I do not feel any of them. If I see you in pain, I know I should demonstrate a concerned expression for you and ask how you are. That is the accepted societal expectation. During my seduction of you, I will indeed adopt that mask of concern and compassion in order to con you into thinking that I am a caring and warm person. I can don the mask which places my facial expression in the correct places. I am able to adopt the appropriate tone of voice and place my hands on you in the gentle manner which is associated with expressing concern for somebody yet despite all these learned expressions, words and gestures I feel no concern for you. I do not feel sorry for you, I do not share your pain, I am not worried about you. I know however that if I am to bind you to me and to extract fuel from you, through your expression of thanks and your gratitude for my apparent care of you, I am obligated to place the mask of compassion on. Of course, as such time as your devaluation commences, I see no need for the pretence and indeed my lack of compassion provides its own reward as your pain is increased by my dismissive attitude, refusal to help and contemptuous sneer.
The Lesser of our kind often do not even know what mask should be adopted and during the seduction stage rather than clumsily grope for an appropriate mask, they will prefer to vacate themselves from the situation, conjuring up some excuse as to why they cannot stay and help. The Mid-Range and the Greater of our kind understand that certain responses are preferred by you and therefore the masks will be brought forth and worn, but only in order to achieve what we want. If the situation dictates that our interests are better served without donning a mask, then that is what will happen.
People often make the mistake of assuming that we are totally devoid of emotion. That is wrong. Yes, there are many emotions, as I have explained above, which we do not possess, but we are not empty of all emotion. I know only too well the emotions of hate, malice, frustration, annoyance, irritation, shame, envy, fury and jealousy. Why am I afforded these emotions and not others? In my discussions with the good doctors and my own consideration of these matters it is evident that in my evolution to what I am, it is necessary for me to have these emotions because they are the catalyst for causing me to behave in the way that I do so I will drive forward, that I will be brilliant, charming and seductive, that I will be outrageous, grandiose, belligerent and destructive, because ultimately all of those things must exist in order to compel me to gather the precious fuel.
If I did not become envious of those in my social circle praising a friend, I would not feel compelled to draw the spotlight of attention on to me by upstaging that person, telling a glorious anecdote or causing a scene. If I was not jealous I would not take those steps and thus I would be denied fuel.
If I was not envious of my neighbour’s new sports car, I would not be driven to throw battery acid over it during the night and then watch from the window his horrified reaction on seeing the damage the next day. Again, I would gain no fuel.
If I felt no hatred towards you for failing me, I would feel no need to keep doling out the various prejudicial and abusive manipulations. Thus you would not be hurt, upset or frightened and I would gain no fuel.
If I felt no malice towards the world and its treatment of me, I would not be compelled to seduce people to provide me with that shield from the world and its outrageous injustices.
It is these negative emotions, the Dark Motivators, which cause me to always be driving forward. The absence of The Hindrances – remorse, guilt, empathy, regret etc. – means that I am not stopped or slowed in my ever onward march. I am not distracted from the sole and necessary task of gathering fuel.
This approach does not mean that my life is less fuel. I am still able to appreciate much that is beautiful, engaging, fascinating and scintillating in this world. I can appreciate the grandeur of centuries old architecture. I can appreciate the magnificence of a musical composition. I can appreciate the athletic prowess of a sprinter to win a gold medal at the Olympics. I can appreciate the taste of excellent cuisine. I can do this because of my higher function above others of my kind who have little or no interest in such spectacular elements of the world. Whereas you will enjoy the piece of music in that moment, I am using the experience of that piece of music to further my aims.
- I may tell you how brilliant a song is because I know that you will be pleased with me for telling you this and thus you will smile, appreciate me and give me fuel;
- I may use the experience of having heard the philharmonic orchestra play Scheherazade in order to boast about it to other people and draw fuel from their admiring and/or jealous responses;
- I may use the experience of knowing all of Depeche Mode’s music to be appealing to a target because she likes that music too, or just to demonstrate that I have a detailed interest in a particular band so that I am of greater interest to her;
- I may use the experience of having heard a particular song in concert to trump your tale about having heard a different one played in order to assert my superiority over you and draw a reaction from you and others.
You experience certain emotions when engaging in certain experiences. I experience a sense of power in that moment or if I do not, I store the experience to use it feel powerful when it is allied with something else, usually an appliance.
My kind mimic emotions because we are unable to feel so many of them. Thus we will second the emotions that we have seen you exhibit and make it seem as if we feel them. I know many of your emotions; I do not feel them. We second your emotions because we are reliant on your emotions to exist. It is something of a paradox that we have never cultivated certain emotions and/or we have been stripped of them in order to make us lean, effective and efficient, yet we also must receive those emotions from you in order to sustain us. We do not want to see your joy directed towards us for something we have said and done because we will then feel joy, but rather for the power that is unleashed as a consequence of your joy providing us with positive fuel.
I am filled with hatred, jealousy, envy, fury and malice but that does not mean there is no room to accept your hatred towards me, indeed I welcome it. As a consequence of my manipulation of you, I want you to stand there screaming your hatred at me until your voice is hoarse and your eyes stand out from your face. The fuel I gain from such an intense expression of negative emotion is immense. Once again I appropriate your emotion and use it for my own purposes. Whether I take it in order to allow me to mimic and copy it, to make me appear more acceptable to other people or whether I seize your emotion as fuel in order to power me and allow my existence to continue, I will always find a use for your emotional output. I put to good use your emotions.
I am the ultimate recycler.
36 thoughts on “I Second That Emotion”
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Thankyou AV. After reading the article, it occurred to me the emotions mentioned were extremes on the emotion scale. I understood HG could not feel the extreme positive emotions, but I wondered if he might be able to feel those which would be considered less extreme. I chose a few feelings that I thought might be possible. I agree it was nice to see his responses.
HG – if you please, do you ever feel the following:
curious, comfortable, enthusiastic, expectant, fascinated, grateful, doubtful, cynical, cheeky, optimistic, relieved, obstinate, discombobulated (that last one is a joke, of course)
curious, yes
comfortable yes
enthusiastic yes albeit not in a wide-eyed moronic manner
expectant occasionally
, fascinated, no
grateful no
doubtful yes
, cynical yes
, cheeky occasionally
optimistic – I am realistic
relieved – not now
, obstinate – yes
, discombobulated no
Thankyou for your answers, HG. I picked several of these because I believed I had noticed them. I am sure I am not the only one….
Annaamel, what a great idea, asking about specific emotions! This is eye opening! Thank you!
This is one of the most eye opening and educational posts I’ve read so far. This is so well written and explained. It’s unimaginable to me but I can understand narcissism so much better by reading this.
My brother has Asberger syndrome and he is reclusive. Never going out of his home unless with me and then never getting out of the car. He also has agoraphobia. He just lives alone in his little house and I take him out for a drive now and then and get his groceries because he won’t go into a store.
I sometimes get a very powerful feeling of sadness and sympathy for him that he is “ missing out” on so much of life. Then I realize that this is all he has ever known and he has adapted and become comfortable in his isolation. I hate it but it’s true. He shows no signs of being lonely or sad. This puts my sadness for him into perspective and makes me feel somewhat better about him.
It’s the same for you HG, I can’t feel too sad for you like I did in the beginning because this is what you know and you are not “feeling” any loss or sadness yourself as a result of the narcissism and the inability to feel those positive emotions. You can’t! You are completely unable to just like my brother has become comfortable in his isolation from the world.
I am glad that you are! I wish you weren’t, but still I am glad you are. I wish you didn’t hurt other people in the process. That’s the really sad part of narcissism, but I am thankful at least for what you are doing for people via building your legacy.
A question I have is do you feel fear in any way? Maybe when you feel your fuel supply might get too low? Fear of death and the realization that you could be forgotten?
People strive to leave a legacy for many good reasons like what you are doing but do you think fear has anything to do with it? The fear of not being accepted or loved by others or a fear of being forgotten and insignificant?
Very eye opening article. It puts a lot into perspective for me.
Thank you!
Wensical,
HG has often spoken about fear (or lack thereof). He has said that he is capable of feeling what all narcissists fear – which is represented by ‘the creature’ – and is essentially the fear of being consigned to oblivion. Although he states that this fear rarely reaches him, as he is so well fueled.
The other type of fear, that we all know and recognize, is something that HG does not experience, due to his psychopathy.
Hi WC, thank you for explaining this. I appreciate it! I need to read up on “ the creature” so I can better understand it. Thank you! 😊
Wensical,
No problem.
I have learned so much about fear, in general, from HG – I always listen very intently when he speaks on this subject, in relation to us OR himself.
(Personally, I hope someday he gives ‘anger’ an equally indepth treatment…although he has delved into fury vs. anger.)
Yes, the creature is definitely an absolutely fascinating topic as well!
Wensical, it was interesting to read about your brother. There are variations of those who have Aspergers, even between males & females, with varying degrees of the behaviours. I ‘evolved’ in regard to some of the things that I refused to do when I was younger. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Hi Asp Emp, Yw. Thanks for listening! I love my brother and only hope he has the best quality of life regardless of what his diagnosis is. I think he is ok and will be ok. I’m there for him. I know that. 😊
Hello wensical, thank you for your response. Your brother has a loving sister who cares about him. It is good that you are there for him 🙂
Thank you Asp Emp! 😊
Yes, thoughts control is very important.
It helps, redirect attention.
I like to vent out in the form of a violent wave sometimes. But before I drain the dam, I give myself a moment to think.
Sometimes, shock and surprise bring good results.
I don’t like ill-considered “outbursts”. I feel remorse and it is against my sense of justice. They are unworthy, of getting tired of myself later.
—————–
Hate. Honest, huge hate, as a single emotion – I don’t know that feeling.
It happens, that I claim, that a person is eligible for elimination from society. I believe, that this person stay on this globe should be shortened, because further stay will bring nothing but painful losses. But that’s not hate. It is only a deep conviction, that in this special case, time this person should have already run out.
I was supposed to put under the post: “The desire to destroy the Narcissist”.
Sorry for the mess.
https://narcsite.com/2019/08/21/i-second-that-emotion-9/#comment-292099
Reading this comment made me think about the actors on tv. When it comes to the ‘crying’ scenes, they more often than not, appear to have really snotty noses for the amount of “crying” before I had cottoned on they’d use some ‘salve’ of some kind to force the ‘tears’ to form! Granted, there may be very few actors that do not need to use anything to make them ‘cry’ in acting.
Ok, they have products on the internet that are ‘menthol’ based tear sticks (LOL, poke yourself in the eyes!), or tar producing sprays.
A perfect gift to give a narcissist. Give them a ‘404’ moment as they puzzle why they are gifted that tear-producing spray……(grinning).
It’s interesting, some cry with ease. My sister has to absolutely force a single tear to come out and you can see the look of adulation just momentarily wipe across her face like she achieved it.
That said, I very rarely cry but nor do I need to force one out to please people.
AS2016, yes, I know what you mean RE: some cry with ease. That higher-up at work also “cried” when I was having a go at her for not praising volunteers for their work as a form of recognition, she never did say thank you to anyone, at all. I do cry because I am an emotional person but it depends on the circumstances 🙂
Asp Emp,
I recall watching ‘City Of Angels’ at the theater. I think movies were just beginning to be shot in HD (1080p) back then. (Incidentally, I don’t think this was flattering to many actors – especially if they didn’t have perfect skin!)
Anyway, at the time, I quite liked Nicolas Cage and of course, Meg Ryan is a solid actress. So, I really wanted to see that flick. But, if you have seen it, you will likely remember Meg’s death scene.
That scene ruined the entire movie for me – and not because it was contrived but because, if you watch closely (which was easy in HD on the big screen) Cage has one tear – a single tear at one point – and you can see that it’s absolutely fake.
Like, the tear doesn’t even move when he blinks or when the facial muscles shift under his skin – the tear just clings on, not flattening and definitely not running anywhere. Hahaha. I was like – seriously, Nicolas? You could not squeeze out just a teensy-weensy real tear for this scene?
(And special effects ppl…I dunno? Real water, maybe next time?)
I still like Nicolas Cage (less so in romantic roles).
And I still love that soundtrack.
WhoCares, thank you for your response. Yes, I know what you mean RE: the one tear that did not move (laughing) – I think the “special effects” people in those days used plastic or glue 😉 Exactly, when the facial movements, the ‘tear’ remains in place (laughing again). Well, I understand that the hose-pipe was invented quite some time ago, so why it is not being used for crying scenes is totally beyond me 😉
Asp Emp – maybe because some narcs don’t want to ‘ugly cry*’??
Lol (except if they are a middle Mid-ranger type-B, naturally).
(*Note that in the same scene I mentioned that Meg Ryan has a reddened nose and lips and a general moistness in an around her eyes. Much more believable.)
WhoCares, “ugly-cry” laughing……. yes, Meg was more believable 🙂 The Victim Narcissist, OMG, serious criers! 😉
Ugly crying + victim narcissists = ugh factor x2
Laughing……
WhoCares, I have just watched the end part of the film ‘The Hunt for Red October’ where the character ‘Ryan’ was “sweating” profusely, I mean it was literally pouring (not dripping) from the base of his chin. It did (ehem) not look like water (laughing), why was I amused? No-one sweats and has a tap running – it was seriously OTT. Then he ‘wipes’ his face with his hand. I thought to myself, at least he did not wipe off his make-up in the process!! Then at the scene where ‘Marko’ and ‘Ryan’ are chatting about fishing, I was looking for the tell-tale sign of glue on the actor who wears a toupee….. I was also intrigued to see if I could notice how the two actors were ‘co-operating’ as a ‘team’. It is interesting to do the ‘spot the narc’ when watching tv these days 🙂
Who Cares,
I loved City of Angels. It was more the imagery of the angels all gathering to watch the sunrise that stayed with me. I thought that imagery was perfect.
Nicholas Cage spoiled it for me too. I have only ever seen Nicholas Cage play Nicholas Cage. I laughed my ass off the other day. I briefly saw a snippet in the news about Rotten Tomatoes giving his latest film 10/10. In this latest film Nicholas plays….. himself. Hahaha!
TS,
“I briefly saw a snippet in the news about Rotten Tomatoes giving his latest film 10/10. In this latest film Nicholas plays….. himself. Hahaha!”
Pahaha!
The last role I saw him in was Spider-Man, In the Spider-verse. And I swear that voiceover role was written just for him. Suits him too perfectly.
Who Cares,
It probably was written for him specifically. Now that he has attained the fame that he has, that is likely to happen more often I suppose. Lucky Nicholas!
I fancy hunkering down and watching a film tonight actually. I bust one shoulder in the gym yesterday, (over training) today I went out on the back of a motorbike and we came off it on a corner. We weren’t going fast, kind of just slowly slid off it haha, and I had my body armour on, so it’s fine but I fell on the other shoulder ! So now I’m aching on both sides. I think alcohol, a good movie and a blankie on the couch is the answer.
Xx
Oh no, TS, I hope you will be feeling better soon <3 Glad to hear it was a slow slide into the dirt! I've been watching Formula One "Drive to Survive" on Netflix and some of those crashes are spectacular, thankfully most of the time not deadly. Take care xox
Also, conversation around Nicholas Cage has my spidey senses tingling. I've watched a couple of his movies again recently and if you want to see a good one maybe watch "8mm". Personally, I love "Knowing" and have watched it several times. "Leaving Las Vegas" was the most impactful and depressing movie he has ever done, I think, but also worth a watch if you're not feeling depressed at the time. Totally heart wrenching for me. Of course, "Face Off" is one of my favourites, and it sounds like "move aside, Daniel" time, but not really 😛 I just didn't realize how many Nicholas Cage movies I've watched and actually enjoyed. Oh, include "National Treasure" in there as well … OMG! I've watched far more than I thought, but maybe there's something in there you'll like xox
TS,
That sounds painful! And that sounds like a solid plan, re: the movie, etc.
Hope you’re on the mend before long. ❤️
HG
Hasn’t anyone asked about the elephant in the room- the narcissist du jour- Putin?
Has anyone commented about his lesser behavior, about his lie to accommodate his invasion, about his projection, his inhumanity, his Genocide? Or have you just not answered those comments?
I have never seen you comment about him. It’s like he’s the one whose name we will not mention. But he’s a prime example of narcissism, and what he’s done is incredibly unbelievable in so many ways.
Alice NW – you may want to check out HG’s recent YouTube content.
Alice NW:. https://youtu.be/FPZZNAKc70o
HG,
This answers part of my email question to you. Now I know you missing part of your emotional spectrum makes you a more efficient manipulator. I get that. I can see how that works to your advantage. What I still want to know is why the brain decided happiness had to be removed? What advantage is there to remove happiness? Is it because, if you’re happy, you might not be motivated to keep getting fuel? Am I correct in following that trial of thought?
Happiness is distracting and unnecessary.