Narcissists SOCIOPATHS & Wolves

Lessons From Little Red Riding Hood

By: O.N.WARD

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Little Red Riding Hood's encounter with a cunning wolf is a metaphor laden with insight and warning that everyone should heed and understand. Why? Because it’s a metaphor for an unwitting relationship with a narcissist, sociopath, or psychopath. Regardless of the label, these veiled exploiters are far more common and dangerous to your emotional, financial, and personal well-being than most of us realize. To understand the danger they pose to you and those you love, come along for this retelling of the classic fairy tale and O.N. Ward’s analysis to learn about the prevalence of these well-camouflaged predators; to determine if you are a particularly desirable target (not because you are weak, but because you have so much to offer); and to be better equipped to make sure that the same fate that befell the author and Little Red Riding Hood is not awaiting you. Everyone should be taught that narcissists and sociopaths abound, are hard to detect, and are very dangerous to your emotional, physical, and financial health. You will be sure they are empathetic, ethical people who care for you and love you. Yet, this is an act to get close enough to erode, exploit, and hurt you. Why? Because exploiting, controlling and dominating you is what fuels narcissists and sociopaths, and their need for this fuel is unending. At first, and even for a long time, your love will blind you to their true character and intent. They have planned this. They are experts. That’s why every man, woman, and child should know about the many wolves in our midst and the subtle “tells” that someone close to you might, in fact, be one of them. Yet, to the contrary, many, like the author, Onna, were coached by their own families to be blind. We were taught to find the good in others, to give others the benefit of the doubt, to excuse away hurtful behavior, to discount our own intuition, or to blame ourselves for “being too sensitive,” or “not being able to take a joke.” This creates a dangerous blind spot. Recognizing and addressing this blind spot is hard enough, yet adding to the challenge is the realization for many of us that it was created by a narcissistic parent who benefited from cultivating this vulnerability. As adults, this set us up for exploitation by another narcissist or sociopath. Onna learned all this the hard way—she unwittingly married a sociopath. She believes her ex-husband, Paul (not his real name), is one, albeit a prosperous and imperceptible one (at least to the outside world). The experience of being deceived and nefariously influenced for more than two decades by this puppeteer was psychologically corrosive, emotionally numbing, and financially redefining. She and others who have had similar experiences often describe it as soul destroying. Her ex-husband’s actions, which included terrifying her, threatening her, gaslighting her, breaking into her home, tapping her phone, toying with her children’s emotional health (one was close to suicidal), and draining her financial resources through never-ending litigation, left her saddled with chronic post-traumatic stress symptoms, making day-to-day existence exhausting and difficult. Through the setbacks, she has worked to understand how narcissists operate, what made her such a desirable target, and what role her upbringing may have played in her vulnerability. She has used this new understanding to rekindle her spirit, rebuild her life, rediscover her voice, and to try to save you from a similar fate. To that end, she wants to tell you a story—the story of Little Red Riding Hood—and she wants you to think about it in a way that you may have never thought about it before. To provide a helpful, easy reference, the book's final chapters include a list of warning signs that a new romantic interest may be a narcissist or sociopath as well as a list of warning signs that your current boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, or spouse might, in fact, be a narcissist or sociopath.

Highly Recommended

I highly recommend this book and the author's other book, Husband, Liars, Sociopath. Thank you to the author.