The term Narcissism originates from a youth called Narcissus in Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection in a river and drowned. Narcissism is defined, by the Australian Oxford Dictionary, as abnormal self-love or self-admiration. The key term here is 'abnormal'.

I believe that almost everyone is self-loving and has a certain level of self-esteem, but Narcissists are too overly confident about themselves and cause people around them to feel offended by their arrogance and selfishness. Narcissism is not only a type of personality, but also a set of traits that psychologists study. It can be divided into three major forms, including two types of personalities, Grandiose Narcissism and Vulnerable Narcissism, and a more extreme form of Narcissism, Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). In this report, I will be analyzing behaviors of a Vulnerable Narcissist. 

The Vulnerable Narcissist I will be analyzing is no other than myself, since I was told one day that my behaviors fit perfectly into the 'Vulnerable Narcissism' category: I am quiet and reserved most of the time; I have a strong sense of entitlement and value my rankings in competitions; I feel threatened and slighted when people overtake me in areas I am good at. I was definitely extremely shocked when I realized that I am a Narcissist, I had never come across this and thought these behaviors are normal. After that, memories of events that happened in the past kept coming back to me. I thought to myself, was I being too selfish and arrogant? Did I overestimate myself? 

I will use a personal example to further explain how a vulnerable narcissist behaves. I am always not a very sporty person, and would pretend that I don't care about how many goals our team gets and just play it cool because I don't like the feeling of losing after trying my best. However, I am secretly very competitive and would find some ways to beat my opponent who is better than me at sports . I would often find some of my stronger areas such as Mathematics and Art and compare with them in these areas, convincing myself that I am better than them, in order to feel a sense of victory and comfort.

Let us look at another example. There is someone I know who is better than me in every category, I always feel threatened and defeated by that person. Instead of challenging her or talking bad about her behind her back, which are behaviors of grandiose narcissism, I would keep my jealousy or even hatred to myself, and become more reserved and purposely avoid competing with that person to make myself feel better.

In summary, narcissists tend to not accept the fact that some people are better than them and try to convince themselves that they are always the most beautiful, intelligent and important people that others should admire and praise. Different from the grandiose narcissists who are extroverts and attention seekers, vulnerable narcissists are often quiet and keep their thoughts and feelings to themselves.