#it was an interesting thing to parse why i didn't think she was a narcissist though

[whiskeyswifty]

Do you think Taylor might be a narcissist?

in like the diagnosis sense, i've got no way to say anything of merit cuz i'm not a psychiatrist lol.

but if you want my opinion, as a layman, i don't think she's a narcissist, clinically or behaviorally tbh. i think she cares very deeply about other people's health and happiness and wellbeing and in fact puts herself in uncomfortable situations quite often to meet what she estimates are other people's needs. less so than in the past, but still does some of that today. i do think that she lives and operates in a very limited bubble these days though, and her world is very small. her human experience is very controlled and often not realistic. she no longer experiences basic human interactions on a daily basis that keep the rest of us a cog in the vast network of humanity. things like walking into a coffee shop and buying a coffee (assistants do that). calling a lyft (she has several cars on call, and planes, and whatever else she needs). making a restaurant reservation (assistants do that to and anywhere will build a table out of driftwood for her if none are available). dressing appropriately for the weather (she spends so little time outside beyond what she wants to, it's not a real concern anymore). all those kinds of basic steps or considerations in a regular person's day, and thousands of others, that force you to interact with others and the world, she doesn't do anymore. at least not more than once a year at most, as a little treat where she cosplays as normal in a small town abroad somewhere, i can imagine, or i hope for her.

that is different from narcism though, as that's a product of her fame and self preservation attempts given things she's gone through in the past, not because she thinks she's the center of the universe. i see what you might be getting at though and how some of the things she's said as of late sound like she's not thinking of anyone but herself or thinks she's the only person something has ever happened to. Again, to me that's not from a place of narcism but just because her status as a superstar has isolated her from much of the world, and I think she likely doesn't engage with much of the world digitally either. she alludes to that in songs and in passing, but mainly because she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to. And it seems like she doesn't want to but that's the extent of that, not because she thinks she's more important than whatever else is going on. many people would choose to live in ignorant bliss if we could, i'm sure. many other wealthy and isolated people do in fact. unfortunately that does lead to a mindset and a worldview, when encountering personal strife, that is quite narrow. she may feel like the only person something is happening to, the only person experiencing pain and struggle, or at least disproportionately to everyone else, because she can't see what everyone else is going through. empathy for others requires understanding where they're coming from, even if they're coming at you aggressively. and you can't understand where someone is coming from if you isolate yourself like that. to her, antagonists are merely masked intruders banging at her door. that's where a lot of the occasional defensive and self victimizing and unprovoked aggression comes from, i'd venture to believe. instead of recognizing the complicated intersection of something in the world and speaking her piece about her place in it, her immediate response is often to simply cast someone as the villain in an attempt to shut down anything she perceives as an attack. It's even harder to become self aware in that situation and confront your narrow and skewed perception of the world. Not without some deus ex machina event that jolts you back into reality or people around you that care and want to patiently and gently bring you back into the real world.

It's lonely at the top, they say. and when you're above everyone else at any given time, when everyone else looks so small and so far away, it's easy to look down no longer see the faces of your fellow man. especially when your typical interaction with the world these days is staring out into a sea of faceless, nameless, noise. However, she will never be normal again, so i don't expect her to return to earth, two feet on the ground, ever. and her memory of a normal life fades further and further from memory with each passing day. To me, it's less narcism and more that she's perhaps an unknowing victim of her circumstances, and for that i don't take anything she says maliciously. just a bit misguided at the very worst but that's just who she will always be.