Abigail was a bright and shy little girl who always paid attention to what others expected of her. She listened and watched others intently and this guided her behavior most of the time. As she began to realize that her performance in school was being monitored, she focused and worked hard to do well. The more she did, the more she was praised and this began the cycle of her hard work, need to perform and anxiety.

Monsters is a Netflix biographical crime drama anthology that recently focused on the Menendez murders (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story). This series provided a lens into the psychological impact of familial abuse and provoked conversations about how these traumatic experiences can lead to extreme actions such as parricide.

Are you dreading seeing your family during the holidays? This is a common concern for many people I work with, and something I understand as a human with a complex and lively family of my own.

For these narcissistic parents, the child is groomed to be a trophy, a symbol of the parent's success and specialness, to be admired and envied in the way that the parent would wish for him or herself. The child, in this way, serves as a source of narcissistic supply for the parent.