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A review by watson_my_shelf
Surrounded by Narcissists: How to Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People by Thomas Erikson
medium-paced
2.25
Thank you to St. Martin's Essentials for a gift advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As someone who is close with multiple people I'd classify as narcissists, I was so excited for this book. I had never read anything by Erikson before but was very interested based on the synopsis. I was very disappointed by this book, though. It started out with a great explanation of what makes a narcissists and outlines narcissistic personality disorder. However, I quickly noticed there were no sources for the information and everything is told to the reader very matter of factly. I looked to the references section, and there wasn't even a source cited until Chapter 7, and only 15 citations for the entire book. And the most important part - discussions on narcissistic personality disorder do not even reference the DSM!
This book is very preachy (not in the usual self help way) and Erikson writes as if he is THE expert on the topic. I expected after the first couple of chapters for him to be like "hah! these chapters were a joke! they were written from the POV of a narcissist" But unfortunately, those chapters were meant to be taken as fact.
There are some nuggets of advice on noticing when gaslighting is happening, and for dealing with narcissists. But do not recommend this as an unbiased, reliable source on learning about narcissists and living with them.
As someone who is close with multiple people I'd classify as narcissists, I was so excited for this book. I had never read anything by Erikson before but was very interested based on the synopsis. I was very disappointed by this book, though. It started out with a great explanation of what makes a narcissists and outlines narcissistic personality disorder. However, I quickly noticed there were no sources for the information and everything is told to the reader very matter of factly. I looked to the references section, and there wasn't even a source cited until Chapter 7, and only 15 citations for the entire book. And the most important part - discussions on narcissistic personality disorder do not even reference the DSM!
This book is very preachy (not in the usual self help way) and Erikson writes as if he is THE expert on the topic. I expected after the first couple of chapters for him to be like "hah! these chapters were a joke! they were written from the POV of a narcissist" But unfortunately, those chapters were meant to be taken as fact.
There are some nuggets of advice on noticing when gaslighting is happening, and for dealing with narcissists. But do not recommend this as an unbiased, reliable source on learning about narcissists and living with them.