WHAT IS COVERT MALIGNANT NARCISSISM? It certainly is a mouthful! It describes the nature of a personality trait and its expression. For a clear and more precise understanding of covert malignant narcissism, let’s break down all three components of the term.
- What does narcissism mean?
- What does covert narcissism mean?
- What is malignant narcissism?
- Final thoughts
What does narcissism mean?
The word narcissism means self-idealization. It is trait that is common to all human beings that it exists on a continuum. Excessive narcissism can lead to dysfunction. In rare cases, it can manifest as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD).
Per the Mayo Clinic, some of the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder are:
- A grandiose sense of self-importance
- Marked sense of entitlement
- Expectation of unearned privilege
- Embellishment of achievements and skills
- Preoccupation with fantasies about power and success
- A sense of superiority and a need to associate with others like them
- Exploitativeness
- Lack of empathy
- Envy
- Arrogance
- Domination of conversations
- Expectation of special treatment
- Demanding the best of everything
Someone who is highly narcissistic but does not meet the criteria for narcissistic personality disorder will have less than four of these traits.
What does covert narcissism mean?
There are two subgroups of extreme narcissism:
What differentiates the two is how grandiosity is expressed. In the case of overt narcissism, the grandiosity is on flagrant display, whereas with covert narcissism, the grandiosity is present but introverted.
For this reason, covert narcissism is also known as introverted or vulnerable narcissism.
What is malignant narcissism?
According the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word malignant means:
- Tending to produce death or deterioration especially: tending to infiltrate, metastasize, and terminate fatally a malignant tumor
- Evil in nature, influence, or effect :
- Injurious: a powerful and malignant influence
- Passionately and relentlessly malevolent : aggressively malicious the malignant tongues of gossipers.
In the context of human behavior, malignant narcissism is a term used to describe a strain of self-idealization so aggressive that it seeks to destroy any real or perceived threaten its self-concept.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, the term covert malignant narcissist might be used to describe a highly aggressive individual whose grandiosity expresses as introverted or vulnerable.
Confidential support is available 24/7/365 to anyone experiencing abuse.
In the USA call 1-800-799-7233 or log on to thehotline.org.
In the UK call 0808 2000 247 or log on to nationaldahelpline.org.uk.
NAR’s Journalistic Standards and Practices
About NAR • Report Typo or Error
Manya Wakefield is a narcissistic abuse recovery coach, coercive trauma specialist, and the developer of the Coercive Trauma Recovery Method™ and TENEL™ (Traumatic Exposure to Narcissism in Early Life) — proprietary recovery frameworks built from seven years of direct professional work with survivors of coercive control, narcissistic abuse, and Adult Children of Narcissists. Both frameworks have been reviewed by Dr. Michael Kinsey, PhD, clinical psychologist, New School for Social Research. She is the founder of Narcissistic Abuse Rehab, a global social impact platform launched in 2019 to support survivors through evidence-based recovery frameworks. Manya is the author of Are You In An Emotionally Abusive Relationship (2019), a resource used in domestic violence recovery groups worldwide. Her original research contributions include the Global Coercive Control Legislation Index (2020) — the first systematic index of its kind on the web — and the Global Femicide Legislation Index (2026), comprehensive legal references used by advocates, legal professionals, and policymakers internationally, cited in peer-reviewed publications including the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, Palgrave Macmillan, and the University of Agder. Her expertise has been featured in Newsweek, Elle, Cosmopolitan, HuffPost, Parade, and YourTango. She hosts the Narcissistic Abuse Rehab Podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. All content on this site reflects Manya's direct professional experience working with survivors of narcissistic abuse and coercive control, her published research, and her ongoing advocacy work.
