Development of Feminine and Masculine Aspects in Women Who Grew up with Narcissistic Fathers

Abstract

The impact of narcissistic parenting on children has received relatively little attention in the literature. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis study was to explore the effect that growing up with a narcissistic father has on the psychology of a daughter. Specifically, the author examined how such upbringing affected the daughter’s feminine psychological aspects, such as listening and relating to herself and others, and her masculine psychological aspects, such as being driven to achieve goals. The participants in this study were eight women who self-identified as daughters of narcissistic fathers. Participants shared their lived experiences in semi-structured interviews. The data suggested that narcissistic fathers, whose own feminine psychological aspects were undeveloped, could not mirror these aspects to their daughters, which resulted in narcissistic wounding of the feminine aspects in the daughters. In contrast, the fathers could mirror the masculine aspects for their daughters. As a result, the participants did not suffer a typical narcissistic wound of the entire self. Still, they suffered a narcissistic injury of the feminine aspects and unhealthy over-development of the masculine aspects. This study shows how narcissistic wounding can change while traveling from generation to generation.