Unrequited narcissism inverts from grandiosity into persecution delusion

Evidence

This delusion easily changes, in fact, into a persecution complex. And this process is found even in normal cases. The narcissist cannot accept that others are not passionately interested in her; if she has the clear proof she is not adored, she immediately supposes she is hated. She attributes all criticism to jealousy or spite. Her failures are the result of dark machinations: and thus they confirm her in the idea of her importance. She easily slips into megalomania or the opposite, persecution delirium: as center of her universe and aware of no other universe except her own, she becomes the absolute center of the world. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1829

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s broader immanence/transcendence framework and to later thinkers on wounded narcissism (like Kohut or Lasch) — the flip from adored to hated when the Other refuses recognition. — connects to: Narcissism attempts the impossible in-itself for-itself synthesis that defines divinity — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1793; The narcissist’s vanity grows more anxious and paranoid with age — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1834
• SEED: The grandiosity-to-persecution flip is a ready psychological mechanism for character work — a person who reads all neutral feedback as jealousy or conspiracy.

Broader Connections

• The narcissist’s vanity grows more anxious and paranoid with age #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1834