I really like this nuanced take on love-bombing.

Too often, I see people talk about narcissistic traits and make logical jumps like "this means you are a narcissist and are abusive". I like that this article highlights that love-bombing alone or certain traits do not make you a narcissist and other motives may be at play.

I think borderlines are a perfect highlight of why we should be wary of labelling things as narcissistic. We display almost all the same exact behaviors as narcissists in many scenarios, but are often over-empathetic and our desire to control another person is more about us being afraid of them leaving us. If borderlines had some magic way to know for certain if someone would leave them or not, they would not need to control the other person in any way, shape, or form. Love-bombing in these cases looks similar, but is very different. It comes from genuine intense love (that borderlines feel at the start of a relationship), but it also comes as a way to start ensuring this other person won't leave them.

All-in-all, great article. Thank you for writing about narcissism with nuance and without hostile language that targets the people rather than the disorder.