Elisa Donovan

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Hey, everyone.

Elisa Donovan here, and this is Killer Thriller.

Okay, so lately on this show, we've been diving into stories that are wild, shocking, and honestly, a little bit too real.

From Gossip by My Husband to I Am Elizabeth Smart to Joe vs. Carol, there is a pattern that keeps showing up again and again, and it's not just crime.

It's control, it's manipulation, it's narcissism, and gaslighting.

And these are the kinds of people who can charm you, confuse you, and completely rewrite your reality, sometimes without you even realizing that it's happening.

So today, we're pulling back the curtain on all of that.

We are joined by Dr. Jamie Zuckerman, a clinical psychologist and expert in narcissistic abuse.

And we're going to break down what we're actually watching in these stories and how it shows up in real life.

Because once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Dr. Jamie, welcome to Killer Thriller.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

So I have been noticing a pattern across all of these stories that we have been talking about recently, whether it's the criminals themselves or these just larger-than-life characters, and there definitely seems to be a thread of narcissism running through a lot of them.

So what does it actually mean to be a narcissist from a clinical perspective?

yeah no that's a great question so as we know from social media it's being thrown all over everywhere and people uh on the one hand it's great people are learning about it on the other hand it's not so great because no one really knows what it is anymore so from a clinical standpoint um a narcissist when we talk about it on a continuum so at the very extreme we have what's called narcissistic personality disorder that is a pervasive personality style that infiltrates all aspects of that person's life

It's characterized by intense grandiosity.