'The danger of environments that are structured around sacred roles is this: communities need someone to fulfil their keystone roles, and narcissistic individuals eagerly search for opportunities to occupy them. We look for charismatic leaders who promise us a grand future. But, once found, we often discover these leaders were looking for us before we were looking for them. We willingly provide them with the power they desire because they provide us with something we want in return. And over time, narcissistic leaders slowly turn their organizations into monuments to themselves. The role becomes their identity, and success means proving through performance their right to occupy the role. Exposure, then, isn't just a threat to the role; it's a threat to who these leaders are. And for systems structured around keystone personalities, exposure threatens the entire system. So together, a narcissistic leader and a system that fuels and enables narcissism cooperate to maintain the performance to keep the structure intact. The show must go on.'
Wade Mullen, Something's not right: Decoding the hidden tactics of abuse and freeing yourself from its power, p.27.
