That’s what narcissism looks like. There’s nothing behind those eyes but a screaming need hear something, anything, that affirms him, and two seconds after he hears it he’ll need more. That’s all it’s ever been.
Source: my wife’s father ticked every box for narcissistic personality disorder. I’d like to hate him for the damage he did, but there’s nothing there to hate. He’s just a bag of skin that covers a hole that will never be filled.
And my wife could pretty much pick what TFG would say before he said it.
“He must know somewhere below the surface he skates on that he has destroyed his image, and like Dorian Gray before him, will be devoured by his own corrosion in due time too. One way or another this will kill him, though he may drag down millions with him. One way or another, he knows he has stepped off a cliff, pronounced himself king of the air, and is in freefall. Another dungheap awaits his landing; the dung is all his; when he plunges into it he will be, at last, a self-made man.”