Simply put, Narcissism is the "Abuse of Power."
At the LA Book Expo in 2008 where I found my publisher, none of the publishers I tried to talk to were at all interested in publishing a book on narcissism. Most of them suffered from it themselves! No joke!
You should have seen the look of disgust I got from some publishers when presenting my book to them. One guy handed it back to me and said, "Psssh, this is the reason my sister-in-law gave for divorcing my brother" and handed it back to me with a look that could kill.
Interestingly enough, it wasn't until I met some very progressive LDS publishers that anyone wanted to listen to my story. These wonderful men (my current publishers:) are interested in building awareness on narcissism because they see it as a problem in their church, community, families and workplace. They see women in their own lives struggling as a result of being subjected to narcissistic abuse.
These men are true leaders as they are courageous enough to acknowledge this phenomenon and build awareness in their community. In their religion, they commonly refer to narcissism as "Unrighteous Dominion." If you refer to the Blog Post on "What the Bible says about Narcissism" you will find the definition of narcissism according to the scriptures.
My point to this long story is that it's a shame how some religious leaders abuse their power. There is a high correlation between narcissism and religious leaders and it's quite sad. It gives all the good leaders a bad name.
Attached is a link to an article I found interesting on the subject. As the author states:
"The church as an institution needs to confess a pattern of genteel toleration of leaders who are motivated more by their own ego needs and less by the call to serve."
I couldn't agree more.
Abuse of power
Unrighteous Dominion
TraumaMama