Understanding Narcissistic Behavior. Protecting Yourself from Emotional Abuse. Okay, so to understand narcissist behavior, please understand that this type of behavior is born out of an injury in childhood. Usually the injury is a lack of nourishment given by the parent to the child, i.e. emotional, physical abandonment, or spoiling the child and not having them work for a for rewards in life. Narcissistic behavior mainly shows up as a lack of empathy. Narcissists play a different game of life that game is power and control versus love and intimacy. The the game that that most people do like to play because it's more nourishing and connected. The best way to protect yourself against signing up for a narcissistic relationship is to do the mind map work and heal from your childhood wounds so that you don't keep repeating old familial patterns. If you are in a narcissistic, abusive relationship, please get out as soon as you can. Setting boundaries only works for so long. They're great at violating them. And so your best course of action is don't sign up in the first place.