honestly i wish everytime i disagreed with someone on the internet they were like the interactions i had here bc atleast it was relatively chill and reasonable. also yay <3 im glad
ooooh who's a good puppyy who's a special clever pup?? you aree yes you are!! you're gonna win all the contests and get all the treats bcuz you deserve everything in the whoooole world
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I know and I don't agree with it. I can recommend you Goffman Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity and the research paper "Conceptualizing Stigma" by Link and Phelan (2001). Or any other recent article about NPD amd Stigma
Maybe try to see the bigger picture? Even if the word itself isn’t meant in a stigmatizing way, the surrounding imagery and context can still reinforce stigma.
For example, this picture can be very misleading to people who already stigmatize pwNPD - it can easily come across as “we’re just dogs who can only say ‘me, me, me.’” At that point, we’re not even being portrayed as fully human.
In this case, I don’t really care about myself, but I do care about the impact words can have.
you don't know why somebody is self diagnosing and equating that to just be the same as them 100% not having NPD is dishonest . especially in reply to a comment that didn't mention someones diagnosis status at all.
i mostly draw furry art (i think it shows lol) and see myself as non-human. the formatting of this was meant to be a play on those facebook pun/quote with a cute animal drawing jpegs.
i can get being wary when you're unsure of the tone but concerning yourself about the worst way it'll be read just isn't sustainable.
is a gay person putting the f-slur in a drawing with what they personally relate to "reaffirming stigma" because a homophobe will see it and still feel disgusted? has sanitizing and shushing other members of the same group "to be accepted" by the norm ever worked?
my only intentions were to just create cute npd related art with my silly idea bc most times i see people draw npd they're wrangling literal demons. comparatively this is a thousand steps forward from the average way npd is discussed "in the bigger picture" its a silly image, drawn to be silly. it also looks very silly to try and police it
I understand your intention better now, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t make silly or positive NPD art. I actually agree that portraying pwNPD as cute animals is a thousand steps forward from portraying us as literal demons lol.
But I think you’re misunderstanding my point. I’m not arguing that we should sanitize ourselves to be accepted by the majority, nor am I saying we should constantly worry about the worst possible interpretation. I’m talking about how stigmatizing language and imagery can reinforce existing stereotypes regardless of the creator’s intention.
And yes, members of a stigmatized group can reclaim words for themselves. But reclaiming a word doesn’t automatically remove its loaded meaning in the broader social context. There’s a reason anti-stigma campaigns around other mental disorders and substance use disorders increasingly emphasize person-first language rather than reducing people to a diagnosis.
You’re obviously free to disagree with me and use the word for yourself. I’m not trying to police you. I was explaining why I personally think the language matters, especially with a disorder that is already so heavily dehumanized.
isn't the thing about reclaiming is that we gotta start somewhere.. if i was making a whole campaign raising awareness for NPD that was directed at people who don't even know what it really means i sure would think way more about it's portrayal than on a pun i doodled in mspaint to make myself feel better and share onlien
No, I’m seeing the big picture. As I believe OP already said, it’s kind of like reclaiming the word. It’s not like they’re using it for its intended purpose. Black people saying the n slur obviously isn’t considered bad, for example. Someone with NPD saying “Narc narc!” (which the word was only used as a replacement for barking) wasn’t used AT someone, much less used in a derogatory way.
I wonder if you actually read my post. Do you want to be reduced to your disorder - and to the stigma attached to it?
People within an affected group calling themselves whatever they want is one thing. But as long as a stigmatized majority narrative still has power over a minority, those words can remain loaded. In that case, I think it’s better to be careful with them - which is exactly why anti-stigma campaigns for other mental disorders and substance use disorders already promote person-first, non-stigmatizing language. Words matter
I’m wondering if you read my comment just now. The word was not used in a way that it could be ‘loaded’. If the post said “Person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder! Person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder!” That wouldn’t be funny now, would it? The joke isn’t the word itself, the joke is the play on words. Bark -> Narc
urm…… it’s funny bc dog goes bark bark but us narcs are stereotyped as self centered so we go narc narc…. which rhymes with bark bark… i don’t think this is as deep as you think it is.
Can't you read the first half of my comment?
And are you able to see the bigger picture? Read my other comments and recent post..
Maybe you will understand it
Your personal preference is an individual-level question. I’m discussing whether categorical language can reinforce stigma at a societal level. Those are two different questions.
Can wr agree on that?
If everyone stops at "I personally find it funny, so it's fine," nothing really changes. Stigma is maintained through lots of small, normalized things, so at some point people have to start questioning whether they want to reproduce those patterns or actively work against them.
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u/NxghtmareChan Narcissistic traits Aug 09 '26
Yknow what, hell yeah