Narcissism and empathy

One of the biggest keys to finding and managing happiness is to locate the toxic relationships in your life and manage them. Such relationships appear all around you and, like a frog in a saucepan on a slow-heating stove, you don't recognise them till it's often too late. Most importantly, during the formative years, when your key relationships are just taking shape, you don't even have the skills to define and mould such relationships to your advantage. A parent, a sibling, a 'best friend', a teacher, a football coach and, later, a boss or a spouse, even a child, can often turn into a toxic relationship if you don't know how to locate and manage such a relationship. There are four basic types of toxic people: The wet blankets: These are the 'glass is half empty' types, who can see the negative side to anything under the sun, even the sun itself. Make sure they are not around when you are making a business plan or planning a holiday for example. The Delhiwallah: He is a 'better than' at almost anything you name. And he knows Narendra Modi. Perversely, such people are actually insecure and suffer from low confidence and hence their attitude is merely a reaction to their inherent sense of inferiority. The passive ones: They have no voice, no opinions and they can't control what happens to them. Their oppression comes from their dependence on you, the inability to be independent. They depend on emotional blackmail and an appeal to your human qualities. The control freaks: These people are angry, oppressive and bossy. There are different patterns to your relationship with any or all o

This article was originally published on December 29, 2017.