Dark Triad

« Back to Glossary Index

Dark Triad or Dark Tetrad personality types are the most sinister form of human being. People who display the personality traits of a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, and show a high level of Machiavellian behaviors are considered to be the most socially harmful by nature.

To learn more about Dark Triad personalities, check out the right-hand sidebar search link feature or search for #DarkTriad on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag.

As an emergent self-help psychology term, the phrase allows victims to quickly sum up behavior patterns common to people prone to behave in fiercely competitive ways in all social circumstances, typically tending to presume everyone else is just like them or “out to get them”.

Dark Triads tend to form intense Narcissistic Rivalries with people who they consider smarter, more charismatic, well-liked, loving, kind-hearted, and quite oftentimes soft-spoken by nature.

Their rival need not do anything directly or even indirectly to promote the rivalry, including even know about or understand why they have been picked on or made into a Dark Triad’s preferred scapegoat abuse target. When placed in a position of power, all Dark Triads do things like manufacture chaos, strive to create intense triangulations between their self-perceived targets, allies, and rivals, and to do whatever is necessary to cause social, physical, financial, emotional, or spiritual harm to their Narcissistic Abuse targets.

Adult children of Dark Triads or Dark Tetrads tend to develop extreme forms of Stockholm Syndrome (becoming enabling People Pleasers), to behave like Conformists (willingly acting like Flying Monkeys on behalf of their abusive parent(s) in order to avoid or ameliorate punishment, to become highly emotionally volatile and psychologically unstable copycats, or to run.

Children who run away from homes, foster homes, or state-run facilities where authority figures have been extremely abusive tend to have lifelong difficulties integrating into society.

Children of career criminals who behave in narcissistic and sociopathic or psychopathic ways tend to have the same problem, specifically with authority figures.

Since Dark Triads role model little to no regard whatsoever for the law, basic human rights of others, and they are known for always working an angle, lying outright, hiding things, writing revisionist history, victim shaming, blame-shifting, and distorting or denying obvious truths, children who are raised by Dark Triads are at incredibly high risk of developing stress illnesses, PTSD, C-PTSD, and have a tendency to be seen as quite naive or gullible despite being street smart.

Not able to trust their own instincts after being told for years by Dark Triad parents what is and what is not real — and having whatever they are told be a distortion or completely manufactured and errant projection of their toxic parent or toxic parents distorted thinking, adult children are easily led to believe that other love-bombing, hoovering, or controlling personality types are actually showing them love by repeating patterns of abuse they are or were raised to believe are signs of affection or “how the real world works”.

Learning to spot the warning signs of a child or love interest who is being actively abused is the best way to root out a Dark Triad who hides in the shadows to do their most devious and dastardly of situational abuse work.

« Back to Glossary Index

Plato's Stunt Double

DISCLOSURE: The author of this post is in no way offering professional advice or psychiatric counseling services. Please contact your local authorities IMMEDIATELY if you feel you are in danger. If you suspect your partner, a loved one, co-worker, or family member has a Cluster B personality disorder, contact your local victim's advocate or domestic violence shelter for more information about how to protect your rights legally and to discuss the potential benefits or dangers of electing to go "no contact" with your abuser(s). Due to the nature of this website's content, we prefer to keep our writer's names ANONYMOUS. Please contact flyingmonkeysdenied@gmail.com directly to discuss content posted on this website, make special requests, or share your confidential story about Narcissistic Abuse with our staff writers. All correspondence will be kept strictly confidential.

Other Narcissistic Abuse recovery articles related to your search inquiry: