The Quiet Power of Enablers

August 14, 2025

Narcissists rarely operate in isolation. Their entitlement and abuse often thrive in the fertile ground provided by enablers — those who look the other way, excuse the behavior, or advise others to “just let it go in one ear and out the other.”

Some call this a skill — a way to keep the peace. But I see it as fuel for the fire. When someone knows their words or actions are harmful and yet meets no resistance, why would they stop? Every shrug, every sidestep, every “that’s just how they are” becomes permission to continue.

Enablers aren’t always malicious. Often, they’re afraid — afraid of retaliation, of conflict, of becoming the next target. But fear doesn’t erase responsibility. When you recognize abuse and do nothing, you are, in some way, part of the machinery that keeps it running.

And so the cycle continues — because silence is not neutral. It’s a signal. And to a narcissist, it says: keep going

0 Comments

Some Things Deserve Your Absence

Some Things Deserve Your Absence

Freedom is not, as I once thought, the ability to go anywhere. It is the hard-won permission to stop going somewhere. Cory Allen’s line stopped me cold: some...

Book Smart Isn’t Self Aware

Book Smart Isn’t Self Aware

There’s a particular kind of person who can cite six research papers on emotional intelligence in a single conversation. They know the frameworks. They know...

When Survival Becomes the Ceiling

When Survival Becomes the Ceiling

Most loss has a name. A door that closed. A relationship that ended. A moment you can point to and say: that’s where things changed. This kind of loss...