Breaking up with any partner is challenging, to say the least. Calling things off with a narcissist is a different ball game entirely. A US divorce lawyer and expert in all things narcissism reveals how to spot the red flags, how to negotiate and, ultimately, how to walk away.
Divorce is hard, but when it involves breaking up with a narcissistic partner, it can be even more traumatic, says Rebecca Zung, an American divorce lawyer turned bestselling author and narcissism expert. For 20 years, Zung has litigated many high-net-worth, complex divorces and regularly found herself negotiating with tricky and demanding individuals. “It used to be that people characterised husbands as ‘controlling’ or wives as ‘crazy’, but increasingly I was hearing the word narcissist being bandied around in the legal world and used in court in front of judges,” she says.
Zung set about researching the condition in depth, interviewing psychiatrists and psychologists, and developing strategies for negotiating with narcissists in her legal practice..