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Identifying the Covert Narcissist’ Signature Move : The Power of Weaponized Disengagement

Waleed Ahmed
Be Open - Writers & Readers Pub
9 min readJan 15, 2025
Image is generated via Leonardo Ai

In my experience, there is a single indicator I consistently see to identify a covert narcissist. Other warning signs will identify narcissists, namely the overt or malignant kind. However, there exists a single aspect that is both so nuanced that allows coverts to evade detection, and concurrently constitutes the defining characteristic of a covert narcissist. This singular characteristic distinguishes coverts from all other varieties of narcissists. It constitutes their signature. This is a key trait of covert narcissistic personality disorder.

It is powering down. Coverts deactivate. They engage in weaponized disengagement. This is a core covert narcissist tactic. They engage in evasion, disengagement, withholding, neglect, silence, feigning inattention, feigning inability to hear, and feigning confusion. These are all examples of covert narcissist manipulation.

They feign a deficiency when discussing matters that are significant and personal to you (e.g., it portrays you as resentful and unable of moving on when you provide perspectives on narcissism, etc.). This insidiously undermines you by distorting your viewpoint; this becomes a sort of disengagement as they decline to elevate themselves to empathize with your position for comprehension, hence ceasing to…

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Be Open - Writers & Readers Pub
Be Open - Writers & Readers Pub

Published in Be Open - Writers & Readers Pub

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Waleed Ahmed
Waleed Ahmed

Written by Waleed Ahmed

I'm Waleed Ahmed, and I'm passionate about content related to software development, 3D design, Arts, books, technology, self-improvement, Poetry and Psychology.

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