More thoughts on the self-absorbed.

[randomness]

Self-absorbed people have a tendency to launch into conversation about themselves assuming you already know key points about themselves that they have never told you. This more often happens when they're seeing you again after some absence. It never occurs to them that you wouldn't know, because it's so important and obvious to them. This can make conversations with them confusing.

Sometimes, they get offended at you for not knowing things they haven't told you, because your not knowing them means you clearly didn't care enough to pay attention to things they didn't tell you. But this is a somewhat more extreme case.

(Thanks to cmeckhardt for helpful changes in wording.)

Comments

[stolen-tea.livejournal.com]

Not to justify, because I know some people who are *Just Like That*, but isn't lack of awareness of the boundary between self and other a common feature of autism? That is, there are a lot of child studies showing that young children and the autistic tend to assume that other people know everything that they themselves know. Which sort makes me wonder whether that sort of behavior can be produced by some sort of emotional regression, and if it's possible to lose social acuity and fall backwards into early childhood.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Is it possible? Maybe. But I think you're talking about a very different sort of person.

If we were talking privately, I would give you examples to illustrate. But not here.