Narcissists feel a rush when they are able to manipulate and deceive other people, which reinforced the narcissist’s perceived sense of superiority and power. Narcissists are addicted to this rush, and they can’t help but showing this facial expression called duping delight when they feel like they are successful at conning someone. Duping delight is the uncontrollable outer expression of hidden pleasure derived from the perception of being able to elude responsibilities with lies and manipulation.

I saw duping delight in the form of a quick smirk flashed across the face of the narcissist (the N) that I dealt with. Duping delight is a subtle, suppressed smile or smirk that is presented at inappropriate moments. In my case, the N, my ex-husband, was leaving me for another woman when he demonstrated his duping delight. He fabricated a long winded story and tried to keep his affair hidden. When I was bawling my eyes out, he walked out with this smirk, a smirk of victory, a smirk of triumph over my despair. Only after a considerable amount of time has passed by before I could figure out that I was up close and personal with duping delight. After doing some more research about duping delight, it all made sense to me. His duping delight was an uncontrollable reaction from him being satisfied with being able to get away with the lies that he told. He thought I believed everything he said, and he thought he would get away with it. Hence, the sadistic smirk.

When I saw his smirk, I felt like he had deliberately thrown me into the abyss of anguish and then stood there and laughed at me for being so naive and stupid to believe in him for years. That was what happened when his lack of emotional empathy shone through. And he, like most others with pathological personality disorders, won’t change. They will keep duping, conning, manipulating others for their own needs.