While the book presents valuable insights, some readers may find the color-coded behavioral model challenging to grasp, especially if they are accustomed to different frameworks. Nonetheless, Erikson's exploration of narcissism's prevalence in contemporary culture, particularly in the age of social media, offers a relevant and timely perspective.

Despite its informative content, "Surrounded by Narcissists" may not resonate with all readers. Some may question the credibility of the information presented, particularly given the author's background. Additionally, critiques of societal trends and cultural influences may elicit mixed reactions, as readers navigate the balance between personal responsibility and external factors.

In essence, "Surrounded by Narcissists" serves as a valuable resource for those seeking to understand and navigate toxic relationships. While it may not provide definitive answers, it sparks meaningful conversations about self-awareness, interpersonal dynamics, and societal norms.

I received a copy of "Surrounded by Narcissists" from the publisher and NetGalley, and I appreciate the opportunity to explore its insights.

With social media and armchair psychologists, there's an overabundance of naming people narcissists. This book provides a breakdown of the clinical definition of narcissism, provides a model, and provides guidance for navigating life with individuals with this personality disorder.

Many thanks to the author, publish, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

Surrounded by Narcissists is a good book to launch your understanding of what a narcissist is and how you, depending on where you land on the DISC profile analysis, would react to a narcissist as well as how to see your own vulnerabilities based again on your profile. One thing though, the author uses color codes (red, yellow, green, blue) when dealing with DISC personalities, and I'm used to the animals (lion, golden retriever, otter, and beaver) so it was a little harder to track, but otherwise very informative to see it broken down and analyzed by each type of personalities. There's also a lot of background information on how our culture has shifted and changed to almost produce more opportunities of narcissism to show up, but almost how we are encouraging this behavior at an alarming rate (think social media and the 'selfies', just as an example). I thought it was very well done and definitely something I would like to go back and read again.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

I took a long time to finish this book, and I’ve struggle to really pinpoint how I felt about it. It was interesting, and much of it seems plausible and had good suggestions and tips for dealing with narcissists, but I’m having difficulty deciphering how credible some of the information is, and I think I personally would have enjoyed it more had it been written by a scientist or medical professional and a bit more formally. It was very straightforward to read.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF @ 34%

Just lost interest. The "colours of people" (red/green/blue/yellow), I can't remember which colour is for which type of person and I just got lost. If it wasn't for the colours thing, I might have hung in there longer.

Surrounded by Narcissists by Thomas Erikson

Surrounded by Narcissists by Thomas Erikson is a Pop psych/self-help book about dealing with Narcissistic people. In the book, Erikson discusses Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), how to deal with Narcissistic people and how social media encourages Narcissistic behavior.

I am writing this review awhile after I read the book. It is hard enough to give a critical review, but since this book is about psychology; I had to process my feelings about it. And my biggest feeling is that while there were some helpful and interesting parts to this book, it is more harmful than anything. But let’s start with the “good”.

I think Erikson’s description of NPD seemed to be correct. But he is not a mental health professional and neither am I, so I don’t know. But, it is in line with what I have read previously and the DSM. He also gives some useful advice on how to deal with narcissistic people in your life.

Where it goes off the rails is the rants about narcissism in social media culture. Which really ends up sounds like the old man complaining about kids having too much fun.

Pop psychology is going to keep beating this dead horse about how social media harms us, even though there really is not enough evidence to support any of it. And truly when he gets into this section of his book, there is nothing evidence based on it.

He says weird things like how protecting yourself from narcissism is realizing you are not special. Then he goes up to say they are a few special people like Kim Kardashian and Bill Gates. He says don’t be an influencer, work hard. Then actually says people like Kim Kardashian worked hard! She is the definition of a jobless influencer.

He also blames parents for letting their children wear shirts that said spoiled or letting their daughters think they are princesses. Why do I want this harmfulness? Because there are little girls, queer kids and BIPOC need to be told they are special. Because people keep complaining about selfie culture as if the upper class did not have things like “portrait culture”. There have always been “selfies” but now the working classes can do it and feel special too. But, of course, that would rub self-help authors the wrong way. What if people did not feel bad about themselves? Fewer book sales. No, I don’t think Thomas Erikson has bad intentions, but he does not seem to have the expertise for the subject. Therefore, this book appears opportunistic, to cash in on the current obsession with narcissism.

Since I found a few parts of the book helpful but overall did not enjoy it, I gave in a two out of five stars.

I wanted to like this more than I did. It tended to drift from topic to topic and was generally a bit frantic. After years of research and therapy on narcissism, some of the advice seemed off to me. I understand that this book is more of a guide and less of a solution, but it seemed more like a series of essays on the personal experiences of the author. If that had been the claim of the book, I think I might have enjoyed it more.

Surrounded by Narcissists is a book that will help you deal with the narcissists you may have in your life and how to identify if you do have any in your life (and I'm willing to bet most of us do whether it be in our family, friends or coworkers).  A lot of this book made me think about things and figure out where thoughts are coming from and how to combat them.  The parts on social media were a lot to handle too because I think that's where I interact with most of the narcissists in my life - online.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

I definitely should have done more research on this book and author before requesting this. The author's Amazon bio says he is a "motivator, author and public speaker." As he makes clear in the book, he's not a researcher or psychologist so I'm not really sure why I would trust him to teach me how to do all this book promises.

I actually found some things interesting at the beginning but there were some very preachy and condescending parts. I frankly thought it was too long and tried to cover too much. I found myself dreading picking up my Kindle which is a shame because it's where I've been doing most of my physical reading.

When he used Mother Theresa as an example of the pinnacle of virtuousness he lost any credibility he had for me. I also didn't love his obsession with comparing obesity to physiological conditions. For me this book was just meh. 2.5/5 stars (but I always round up).

I was not as interested in this book as I thought I would be. Some of the information was very good, some of it was a bit all over the place. For someone interested in learning more about narcissistic personality disorder, I might not recommend this book.

What a wonderfully timely topic! Thomas Erikson's books always provide fantastic insight on how to deal with difficult people in your network and Surrounded by Narcissists is no exception.

We all make choices in our lives that have led to our current status, be it our relationships, employment, friends, (etc.) and unfortunately this can cause us to have to interact with narcissists. Erikson does an excellent job in this book to help the reader identify and successfully navigate these encounters to minimize the impact on you.

Living in what often feels like a narcissist culture, I found myself reading certain passage questioning my own past behavior, but I loved that Thomas also included a nice quiz at the end of the book for the reader to check themselves and completely understand the difference between normal behavior and that of a narcissist.

If you have not read other books by Thomas Erikson, I recommend those as well. I find myself thinking more and more about the DiSC personalities in my everyday life and am always thankful for tips on how to best interact with those around me.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for providing me an early copy of this book!</i></b>

I just couldn't get through this one for a couple reasons.

1. I've already done quite a bit of reading and research, not to mention therapy, surrounding narcissism and the impacts involved.

2. There was some content included that I felt really could have been misguiding at best, completely incorrect at worst.

3. The content that did align wasn't new to me.

I do think a well-written book on narcissism specifically in the Corp world could be super useful and fascinating. The author does talk more about corp prevalence than most other sources.

I was provided with an ARC of this book by the publisher or author in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I am not compensated for any of my reviews.

"You're such a narcissist!"
It seems like this phrase is thrown around everywhere one goes. But what does narcissism really mean? Are there really more narcissists than ever before? How are we to deal with the narcissists in our lives?

Thomas Erikson attempts to answer these questions in his latest book, "Surrounded by Narcissists." In doing so, he postures individual narcissism as a symptom of a status-obsessed, often antagonistic society. The sociological framework Erikson works with is a rather divergent approach that helps the reader look at the problem of narcissism in new ways. Erikson explores the dark sides of the ubiquitous features of contemporary life, including social media, to illustrate how the modern world provides fuel for cultural narcissism.

Erikson also details the different manifestations of narcissism amongst individuals and explains how personality differences impact this phenomenon. He incorporates the DISC model of behavior analysis (a system that assigns an individual a color-red, yellow, green, or blue-based upon personality traits) that he has used in his other books and its relationship to narcissism as the basis of much of his argument. However, without additional background on the DISC model or the inclusion of an assessment for the reader to determine their own "color," Erikson leaves his uninitiated readers behind.

The book is somewhat lacking in practical solutions for dealing with narcissistic individuals in one's own life. The key recommendations are to avoid or cut off ties with the narcissist, and to reduce or eliminate one's use of social media. Advice for specific situations is outside the scope of the book. Still, a work like "Surrounded by Narcissists" is a necessary point of reference for anyone interested in creating a less hostile society.

This book verified a lot of things I knew, as an empath, I attract narcissists. I found the 4 different types of empaths a fascinating take on a subject I know a lot about. I'd say I'm somewhere between a blue and green since they classify us by colors. I'm one of those that thinks "I know what you are, you don't fool me"! This book gives sound advice on how to recognize narcissists and gives great tips on how to handle them. A great guide for anybody who has to live or work with this type of personality.

Powerful and important book about a difficult topic that should be addressed more often. In my opinion, we shouldn’t have to be in front of a narcissist, in order to learn tools to get away as healthy as possible.

Are you tired of the Narcissists in your life and how they drain you? If you are, then you should definitely read this book. This is a wonderful book about how to identify and learn how the narcissists in your world tick. This will help you keep your sanity in the world that narcissists think they own.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book very informative. It was very eye opening and I'm so glad I read it!

Who doesn't have at least one narcissist in their family or group of friends? There seems to be more of them than ever, so I wanted to read this book to find out how to live among and with them without getting trapped by their negative toxicity. This book will explain what a narcissist is and go a step further and help you figure out how to live with them and ways to protect yourself. Unfortunately, there are times that you can't just stop knowing a narcissist and this book will help you survive!!

Fantastic book on narcissism. The author writes in a perfect mix of wit, hint of sarcasm, and serious content. This book covers the span of so much information, but not in an overwhelming way. Very simple. I enjoyed that he didn’t downplay the potential dangers of narcissism while also acknowledging that we all have some narcissistic characteristics but that there is a difference between characteristics and a personality disorder. One of the most interesting things I learned from this was that a full blown narcissist personality disorder can, in fact, not be cured. That was interesting to me. He also talks about the points when this turns to abuse and when you turn and walk (or run) away.
But along with that, he discusses the true nature of narcissism being born and growing in our current culture. How to treat people with these traits. How to avoid these traits in ourselves. How to recognize them as well and how they may interact with different personalities. Very thorough.
I loved that there was also a basic test to answer “am I a narcissist?” (However in this netgalley copy, THERE WAS NO TEST!! It just passed right over it! Ugh!) Although of course he encourages that this must be officially diagnosed by a professional.
As someone who has a narcissist pretty close to me for a long time, I found myself saying, “yep, yep, yep,” so often and really was able to take away some good info on how to handle certain situations. I’d recommend this book.

Writers will often read self-help books to capture the depths of their characters' inner lives and diagnoses. If this is why you're reading this book, and not that you have a pile of narcissists around you, you'll find insights that make the battle feel winnable. Coping strategies stand out, and you'll soon not be able the mercy of these grabbers. Solutions are here. The keys to some of the most confounding attacks and grumblings are here. You may find that your 'character' is hard to understand because you/reader are not anything like them. Sometimes it's a relief to get the message that this is a puzzle you can't solve, so skedaddle. You'll be fine. Your characters will be fine.