So I'm listening to an episode of The Mental Illness Happy Hour (Mentalpod.com) about a lady that left Christian Science. They like to throw around the phrase "the truth" a lot, read publications constantly and discuss at church, think they're better than others because they know "the truth", deny things that go on, etc. Her mom is a narcissist, and the religion is very narcissistic. It all sounds so familiar.
And then I remember that MY GRANDFATHER WAS IN CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. Dammit, my mom just followed the same general path but with the JWs. It is fascinating to see the patterns. We happened to move into a house next door to JWs, and that's how my mom started studying. The rest is cult history. My mom certainly seems narcissistic. As a kid I never got medical treatment and chalked it up to not having money, but I also knew that nobody cared. It's kind of depressing to look back and see the extreme dysfunction. It's also a source of pride that i got emotionally healthy on my own and live a good life now.