An Unloving Parenthood: Understanding Narcissistic Parenting through Japanese Pop Culture

This research discusses narcissistic parenting represented in the comic Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. Narcissistic parenting is a parenting style affected by a parent’s narcissism. This parenting style doesn’t offer enough space for a child to be themselves. A parent’s narcissism causes the parent to inflict physical and emotional abuse against children. 

This research is a descriptive qualitative research based on the concept of narcissistic parenting written in The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman and Robert M. Pressman. This research discusses the effect of narcissistic parenting found in children through the relationship between characters in the text. 

This research found out that children who survive narcissistic parenting might develop internal problems such as lack of emotional stability, lack of confidence and self-esteem, fragile sense of identity, inappropriate desire to be the center of attention, lack of empathy, grandiosity, and tendency to justify one’s wrongdoing and commit blame-shifting.