Reblog: Narcissists, Phones and Your Right to Privacy
First, please note that I don’t endorse *everything* on the site I’m reblogging. I agree with a lot of it, but occasionally there are things that bother me. Still, I came across the following post which validated me after dealing with the ex-friend Richard‘s wife. For example, from Narcissists, Phones and Your Right to Privacy, by Dr. Tara J. Palmatier, PsyD:
If your abusive narcissistic, borderline, histrionic, paranoiac, psychopath spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend has demanded your passcodes and logins, that’s not normal. It’s controlling and tyrannical. If you’re in an abusive relationship, you don’t have to be “hiding anything” for them to have a rage episode or make wild accusations about infidelity or anything else they can manufacture out of thin air.
Your sister could text you to invite you for coffee and the borderline or narcissist control freak-abandonment fear switch is activated:
Why does your sister want to have coffee with you?! Why wasn’t I invited?! Why can’t I be there?! What are you hiding from me? If there’s nothing to hide, why wasn’t I invited? Your sister is being disrespectful to me! She should’ve asked me if I could go at that time before she asked you! You love your sister more than me! Is there something going on with you two?!
Wow. This sounds SO familiar, the rage episodes just because I wanted to go out for coffee with Richard, the insistence that if I didn’t follow these unspoken and unknown “rules” I wasn’t “respecting” her. Then there’s:
If you’ve surrendered your phone to your partner, please consider doing your friends, family and colleagues a courtesy and let them know your partner reads all incoming and outgoing messages. You may not care about your right to privacy, but some or all of your friends and family probably do. Also, they may want to bypass written communication with you altogether because, as previously, noted, there doesn’t have to be anything to hide. An abusive asshole can turn nothing into something with the misfire of a synapse.
Last sentence: And yes, yes she did just that after snooping, leading to the end of this “friendship.”
When I found out that not only did Richard have to “clear” all his friendships with his wife, and going out with them for something as simple and innocent as coffee, but that his wife also had a habit of checking his phone records and e-mails–I was appalled. I would tell Richard things about my past experiences or about things I currently dealt with (such as fears or philosophical questions) which were not meant for his wife to see. Nothing “affair-y,” but things I only wanted my trusted best friend to see–and I did not trust his mean wife with these things.
It all struck me as being very abusive and controlling, but she kept insisting that these things were all her due, that it was showing her “respect.” Over the years, I’ve perked up whenever friends on Facebook or some TV show or Internet article goes into the issue of friendships and a spouse’s right to privacy. And over and over again, the same thing is said: Don’t try to control each other’s friendships! Respect each other’s privacy! Run from anyone who tries to control you!
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