Playing Favorites Gives a Narcissistic Co-Parent Control (Pyschology Today)
By idealizing and devaluing the kids, the narcissist holds emotional control.
Key Points
A narcissistic co-parent plays the victim and invites the kids to take care of him or her.
Using triangulation, a form of favoritism, the narcissistic co-parent manipulates the children and obtains emotional control of them.
The narcissist idealizes and rewards the child who offers them total loyalty and turns their back on the opposite parent.