"Part of the bestselling Surrounded by Idiots series this book takes an in-depth view of narcissists and most importantly how our current lifestyle is creating an ever-increasing narcissistic culture. I found this book fascinating. It was well-researched and gave the reader lots to think about. I think I can safely say that I am not a Narcissist and that I do not have a narcissist in my life, but if I did I would now know how to identify them and how to deal with that person reasonably. The book provides excellent how-to steps for many situations that you may find yourself in when dealing with a narcissistic person.

The part that I found the most interesting was the discussion of the current culture and how we are trending even more narcissistic as a country and even the world. I feel as if all aspects of Narcissism were discussed in the book and I know much more than I knew before. It has information ranging on personal relationships, business, parenting, and even just culture. I would recommend this to people who enjoy learning about psychology and different personality types. "

Help me, help you.


How many times do we hear this?


This nonfiction work by Dr. Trzeciak and Dr. Mazzarelli focuses on how helping others can provide intrinsic benefits to our own health and wellness.


This book is broken into sections using personal stories and scientific data to illustrate their “Live to Give” philosophy that transcends all ages, social classes and personality types.


While the content is fairly scientific in nature, it is also highly readable because it’s such a simple philosophy to adopt into your own life and embrace as part of your daily habits. Add to that, the scientific evidence that helping others also keeps you healthier, a little kindness really does go a long way.

Helpful information, presented in an easy-to-understand way with lots of useful examples. I appreciated how Erikson tailors scenarios to different reader personalities (distinguished by four colors) so you can gain a better understanding of what this information means for you.

I do wish that there were strategies on how to turn the tide at a more organizational or community level, since this seems to be a growing problem.

I thought this book was a great listen! Thomas Erikson has done a nice job of thoroughly educating readers about narcissism, and what that looks like. This book is fascinating for people who are interested in understanding why people are the way that they are.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Erikson for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback and review.

As someone who has recently realized she is dealing with a narcist I was very interested in this book. I thought it might help me deal with them. Unfortunately this book was different than I thought. I still found it very interesting and insightful but for a different type of narcist. This would be a great read for anyone who enjoys reading about mental health.

I enjoy learning about the personality traits of others and so, I was intrigued by this audiobook. I have some narcissistic relatives that can make life difficult at times and after listening to this audiobook, I now have better ways to cope with them. I found myself jotting down a lot of notes and therefore, will pick up the hard copy so that I can have my notes attached to the correct pages/chapters for future reference.

Fantastic audiobook on narcissism. The author writes in a perfect mix of wit, hint of sarcasm, and serious content. And the narrator is fabulous. Kept me interested with perfect inflection and enthusiasm throughout. Content-wise, 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?” 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.

I'm not sure I'd use this book in the educational setting, but for layman reading it was good. There needed to be some more scientific data to support many of the statements.

#surrroundedByNarcissists by @thomaseriksonwriter is what I listened to last week on audio via @netgalley and thanks for the approval from @macmillan.audio ! #narcissism is not a joke. Although it's true that many of us can be self-centered/self-obsessed even, at times, be assured, this alone does NOT make you a narcissist! Don't let anyone #gaslight you into thinking you are just because you practice #selfcare or need to express how you feel. True clinical narcissists do not care at ALL about others and much like #psychopaths will stop at nothing to get what they want at any and all costs without a care if it affects others. Feel better? Give this book a read. Not only will it prove you that you aren't a narcissist (even though you MAY be a bit obsessed over your -ehemmm- bookstagram) but it will also help you spot them in your own life, and give excellent advice on how to respond and extricate yourself from their clutches. An excellent read just like his #SurroundedByPsychopaths that I read a few years ago. I really also need to read his #SurroundedbyIdiots because, well, it isnt quite nice to CALL someone an idiot, so what exactly is that all about!? I'm not sure but curious. Give all of his books a read or listen and learn how to spot the idiot, psychopath or narcissist in your life! I bet you've run into one or two, if you havent, lucky you, this book will help you to suss out the warning signs and red flags!
A 5 star audiobook for performance and content.

a narcissist makes everything about themselves. they project themselves and their own questionable motivations onto people around them. they seek attention and power. they attack when criticized and are often hypocritical because their consistent ideology is self-advancement. if you have a narcissist near you, you shouldn’t take them personally, and you should get away / leave if possible.

What an informative and entertaining book about narcissism! I learned a lot about this topic and glad that this non-fiction book was presented in an easy to understand way! It was not too sciency and the narrator was great! It explains what narcissism is, narcissistic traits which is different from narcissistic personality disorder, the difference between a narcissist and a psychopath, how to handle a narcissist and so much more!

I do feel reading about the four-colour behavioral model in the author's previous book Surrounded by Idiots may help to understand certain area in this book much more.

Overall, this was a good book to go to if you want to learn about narcissism. I thoroughly enjoyed it and planning on reading the author's backlisted books starting with Surrounded by Psychopaths.


Pub. Date: June 21st, 2022

***Thank you MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for this gifted listening copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

Since this is not written by a trained mental health professional, it's hard for me to recommend this book to anyone. If you decide to read it, it's a good primer to the topic, but you definitely should read more from those who work in the field of psychology and directly with people who have NPD.

The 2nd third of the book about collective narcissism was not very helpful in dealing with interpersonal relationships, and honestly, read very much just like the author letting off steam about how they don't care for social media, like one of those viral Facebook posts that sounds profound, but really is just griping about how kids these days are ruining society. I think there is validity in exploring the traits of narcissism within the culture, but this approach felt very judgmental, rather than a critical analysis.

In the last third it focuses on parenting and again, these are all the authors opinions who is not a trained professional on parenting. While there is certainly room to critique parents, the author makes a lot of generalizations that group those who follow a more conscious parenting approach, in with a small percentage of parents who may be making choices that don’t enforce boundaries. By not defining the difference between any parenting modalities or citing anything other than anecdotal research, he ends up implying that anything less than an authoritarian style could result in raising a narcissist., despite the mountain of research that shows the benefits of a more emotional intelligence parenting approach. The author makes no distinction, which makes me think they either aren’t familiar with different parenting techniques and the research behind them or doesn’t think they are valid. Regardless, this book is presented as an expert view point but the author has no credentials in the field of family psychology.

I am reading this from an American perspective while the author is Swedish, so that definitely influences our differing opinions on how this topic is discussed, but at the end of the day this was written by someone outside of the mental health field. The author is a motivational coach and public speaker who has found a niche they can write about and market in a very appealing way.

So to really drive home my main feeling: I caution anyone picking this up. Do not take this as the be all and end all of NPD and I encourage you to read one of the many books on this topic authored by someone with a degree in counseling and treating mental health issues.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this novel. I am rating this book based the stars due to lack of time to leave a full review. #NetGalley #SurroundedbyNarcissists

I was hesitant when the author quoted WIKIPEDIA as a source in the first few pages, but kept reading… gah. This is a pass. The author isn’t an authority or expert on the subject matter. He’s simply repurposing ideas from other books on narcissists.

3.5 rounded up
Some new ideas and easy to follow. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook

I took listening to this book with a grain of salt. The author really has no credentials to talk about this topic (or many of the other topics in his books), but he does do his research and talk to people that DO have the credentials to speak about this topic.

Personally I feel this could have have been done in better way. It’s okay, there’s basic information on narcissism and I was mostly interested to see if he went the clinical route with this. While some of this book is spent in the clinical route, it also spends a lot of time in the slang term of the narcissist - like when someone says they’re “depressed”, they may or may not mean clinically diagnosed, they could just mean very sad - and I really would have preferred to spend more time with the clinical definition and less with the general public interpretation as I feel this really downplays the severities of mental illness.

I do see the value in this book though. There are many people that don’t have clinical experience with psychological terms and this book is a great place to start. There are enough official definitions that I do feel this book has accuracy. The author takes us through situations where we may run into someone with narcissistic tendencies and how to recognize them. It’s interesting.

I also feel it important to remember that different countries feel differently about topics surrounding mental health. This author is based in Sweden and I am reading this from the perspective of the United States.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audio arc!

I enjoyed this audiobook very much. Great information on Narcissism and how it compares to other personality disorders. I have read several books on this topic and really enjoyed this particular one and would recommend it to anyone trying to better understand a with narcissist.

Many thanks to Netgally and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

Do you have that person in your life who believes the whole world revolves around them? Have you ever wondered what exactly is a narcissist? This is the book for you! The author goes somewhat in depth about how narcissists act and how to distinguish them from other personality disorders. Using the color personality traits, the author also gives examples of how you might react to a narcissist, how they might be able to manipulate you and how you can respond if you are surrounded by narcissists. I listened to the audiobook version of this book and enjoyed the narrator's voice and timber. I did need to use the internet to take a color personality test since I didn’t have the printed book to evaluate myself but that was fun and I enjoyed it. I highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ecopy of the audiobook.