How to Successfully Divorce a Narcissist

Merriam-Webster's Medical Definition of narcissistic personality disorder is:

“A personality disorder characterized especially by an exaggerated sense of self-importance, persistent need for admiration, lack of empathy for others, excessive pride in achievements, and snobbish, disdainful, or patronizing attitudes.”

If you are married to a narcissist, and want a divorce, buckle your seat belt. A narcissist is completely self-serving and selfish, and utterly lacking in empathy. They will stop at nothing to “win.”  And if you have children, they are incapable of putting the children’s best interest first.  So, how do you get through a divorce unscathed if your spouse is narcissistic? The only way to survive while divorcing a narcissist is to recognize who you are dealing with, roll up your sleeves and learn how to navigate. The following advice will help orient you to the challenge ahead.

Consider the Characteristics of a Narcissist

• Has a need for admiration

• A need to be right,

• A need to be seen as the good guy,

• A need to criticize when you don't meet their need,

• Is charismatic and has a lot of people fooled,

• Lacks the ability to feel remorse,

• Has no conscience,

• Has a tremendous need to control you and the situation,

• Has values that are situational; if you believe infidelity is wrong, so do they, even if they don't, their need to impress you motivates them to hold the same beliefs. 

• Uses a facade of caring and understanding to manipulate,

• Is emotionally unavailable,

• Nothing is ever their fault,

• Hangs onto resentment,

• Has a grandiose sense of self,

• Feels misunderstood,

• Is not interested in resolving problems, it is their way or the highway,

• Is envious of other's success.

When divorcing a narcissist, he completely dismisses any of your needs, or all the years of devotion and mutual companionship that you had built together. Normal people remember the good from the past. It informs a sense of balance and fairness during a divorce (even through a betrayal). You may be getting a divorce, but that doesn't mean that you don't have valuable memories and a life story together. For the narcissist, it is all gone; like it never happened. You will have to understand this if you are to deal effectively with him. The narcissist can undermine you with your friends, with your children and steal your money, all while looking sincere and generating good will among the community.

How To Protect Yourself When Divorcing a Narcissist

A narcissist finds it hard to accept that his influence in your life is over. Whether they file for the divorce or you do, the narcissist will attempt to remain in control of his influence over your life. If you have children with this person they will work over-time at attempting to control how child support is spent, how visitation is handled and every other aspect of the co-parenting relationship.  And they will not put the children’s needs first.

How much emotional abuse, financial and sometimes domestic abuse the narcissist is able to inflict depends on how you respond to him. If you show the narcissist any sympathy, fear, weakness or confusion the narcissist will feed off of it and continue his cycle of abusive behavior.   

Protecting yourself means showing no weakness, not buying into anything the narcissist says, researching as much as you can find about narcissism and having an attorney on your side who is willing to pull out all the stops when it comes to protecting your legal rights. 

Four Tactics For Dealing With a Narcissist During Divorce

1. Examine your role in the ongoing conflict. 

The healthier you are emotionally the more success you will have in dealing with a narcissist. Every time you respond to him, you are giving into the narcissist's attempt to manipulate.

A narcissist is adept at causing confusion. When in an adversarial relationship such as divorce, you begin to question whether the problem is with you or the narcissist. That is exactly where the narcissist wants you; confused and questioning yourself.

People often ask me what they can do to change how someone responds to them. If you are attempting to do something that will make a difference in the way he behaves STOP. You cannot change the behaviors of others, but you can change the way you respond to their behavior.

Your response to a narcissist should be measured. You should be aware that he is trying to push your buttons and wants a negative response from you. The best advice I can give is to realize that the things a narcissist does or says in not about you, it is about them. The narcissist is attempting to make themselves feel better by making you feel shame, fear or guilt and projecting his own negative feelings onto you.

2. Deal with the reality of the situation. 

The world of the narcissist is made up of fantasy, nothing is real, all is an expression of their need to be someone they are not. It is imperative you see the narcissist for who he really is and not for whom you wish he was.

It is an inconvenient but important truth to recognize that regardless of how good you want the narcissist to be, the more you work at bringing goodness out, the more the narcissist will exploit your goodness.

The narcissist wants you to doubt your own value. The best defense during divorce against such a person is to appreciate your own self-worth and refuse to buy into their need to dismiss and belittle you and your needs.

3. Be willing to set firm boundaries. 

The narcissist believes their needs are more important than yours, they believe they are more intelligent than you and find it unacceptable that anyone would disagree with them. For this reason, they lack an understanding of boundaries and respecting the needs of others.

You can't teach or expect the narcissist to ever respect your boundaries.  You can, however, refuse to allow the narcissist to cross your boundaries.  This is done by you controlling what behaviors you will and will not allow.

Don't make the mistake of believing that trying to control the behaviors of the narcissist is the answer to setting boundaries with him. Most believe that protecting themselves and setting boundaries means confronting and being assertive. This does not work with the narcissist. The more you confront and assert your position the more you play into their game.

When setting boundaries with the narcissist you need to refuse to communicate unless it can be done in a manner free of conflict, manipulation, and disrespect. You may need to insist that all communication is via email. You can let it be known that you will not respond to any communication that dismisses or belittles you and your needs.

You can expect the narcissist to push back against the boundaries you set. If you want to stop the cycle of abuse and disrespect you must be firm, stand your ground and refuse to allow him to push your buttons. Remember, you are trying to separate yourself from the narcissist. This is a threat to him so be on guard for efforts on their part to draw you back into the toxicity of the relationship.

4. Surround yourself with an understanding support system. 

During divorce, we all go to family and friends for support and advice. Your situation is unique, though; friends and family will not understand the extent of the abuse you are dealing with when divorcing a narcissist.

It is essential that you hire a divorce attorney who has an understanding of narcissistic personality disorder and how to deal with it during divorce. Also, find a therapist who can help you work through the feelings you will have during the divorce and after. A therapist can help you set boundaries and stick with them.  And a therapist can help you identify your role in the conflict and can help you understand what is and isn't "real." The people you choose to go to for help will play a huge role in how well you navigate divorce from a narcissist.