Psychology says the cruelest thing about being raised by a narcissistic but charming parent isn’t anything they did at home — it’s the structural impossibility of being believed by anyone outside the house, and a child who learns early that the world will never see what they see grows into an adult who has stopped trying to be understood by people who weren’t there
She is nine years old, standing at her teacher’s desk after school, trying to explain why she didn’t want to go home. The teacher listens with the soft, patient face teachers use when they think a child is being dramatic. Then the teacher says, kindly, that she met the girl’s mot…