Stop Calling It “Difficult”
How the “difficult person” label hides callousness and excuses narcissistic harm.
Sometimes, when people don’t want to call a thing a thing, particularly when it comes to narcissism, you’ll hear them talk about a person being “difficult.” The “difficult person” moniker has long been used to describe a set of behaviors that, for one reason or another, the person using the term chooses as a politically correct stand-in for more evocative or descriptive words that could get them in trouble.
Don’t get me wrong, some people can be “difficult” to work with, get along with, be friends with, or live with, and those instances of difficulty may be situational or context specific. Some artists may become particular about executing a particular vision. An intensive care nurse supervisor may be exacting about their standards of care for patients in their ward. Or a basketball coach may have high standards for their team. However, “difficult” should never be the baseline of operation in all areas of life, and it should certainly never take precedence, at the end of the day, over considering other people as human beings.
