It's not necessarily obvious, it doesn't always look like abuse. Sometimes it looks a lot like normal and healthy human interaction. Humans are clever and know how to make dominating, manipulative or abusive behavior look innocent, like "concern", "warning", "innocent curiosity", "playfulness", "ignorance", or "assistance".
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Like a cat who gets a charge out of messing with another cat, or another animal, the desire and compulsion to push down on another person (or an animal), to poke, pinch, provoke, instigate, sabotage, and dominate, are common in Narcissists, both figuratively and literally.
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Doing something to CAUSE AN EFFECT is part of the compulsion, like a child spitting or dropping something off the top of a tall building just to see what happens. Or like stepping on bubble wrap to hear and feel the "pop".
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Domination over another living thing (human or animal) is another part of this compulsion. A cat will poke at another animal to see what it does, to make it move, or to make it jump. The cat pokes the other animal, and then WATCHES it. When the animal stops responding to the poke, the cat does it again, because of the charge it's getting out of it. Cats are compelled to do this, and they obviously like the little thrill they get from causing another animal to move.
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HUMANS have the same compulsion process, but growing out of this during youth is the healthy course of maturation. Some human children get a bigger "charge" out of this behavior than others, and some are not guided to mature out of it for whatever circumstantial reasons. Still others are encouraged to do it MORE, as if the compulsion to dominate and provoke others is a good thing, instead of being taught to master their own actions and compulsions.
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Chimpanzees also share this compulsion, as do many other predatory animals, and even some non-predatory animals. Some do it only for play, while others will take it much farther, causing a little harm, a lot of harm, and even death. (Humans belong to the group that takes this compulsion of domination farther, along with cats.)
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This behavior is not rare, but it's not conducive to the survival of the species since Humans who have not matured out of this compulsive behavior will do it just as much to other humans as they do to other animals.
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Like a cat who gets a charge out of messing with another cat, or another animal, the desire and compulsion to push down on another person (or an animal), to poke, pinch, provoke, instigate, sabotage, and dominate, are common in Narcissists, both figuratively and literally.
~
Doing something to CAUSE AN EFFECT is part of the compulsion, like a child spitting or dropping something off the top of a tall building just to see what happens. Or like stepping on bubble wrap to hear and feel the "pop".
~
Domination over another living thing (human or animal) is another part of this compulsion. A cat will poke at another animal to see what it does, to make it move, or to make it jump. The cat pokes the other animal, and then WATCHES it. When the animal stops responding to the poke, the cat does it again, because of the charge it's getting out of it. Cats are compelled to do this, and they obviously like the little thrill they get from causing another animal to move.
~
HUMANS have the same compulsion process, but growing out of this during youth is the healthy course of maturation. Some human children get a bigger "charge" out of this behavior than others, and some are not guided to mature out of it for whatever circumstantial reasons. Still others are encouraged to do it MORE, as if the compulsion to dominate and provoke others is a good thing, instead of being taught to master their own actions and compulsions.
~
Chimpanzees also share this compulsion, as do many other predatory animals, and even some non-predatory animals. Some do it only for play, while others will take it much farther, causing a little harm, a lot of harm, and even death. (Humans belong to the group that takes this compulsion of domination farther, along with cats.)
~
This behavior is not rare, but it's not conducive to the survival of the species since Humans who have not matured out of this compulsive behavior will do it just as much to other humans as they do to other animals.
