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>"Sidekicks" or blindly loyal pawns. This inner most trusted group are co-dependently engaged with the narcissist, and are overly-loyal, compliant, passive, and unaware they are no longer operating from conscious free-will in areas of concern to the narcissist. They put up with whatever treatment is meted out and will collusively abuse with the narcissist out of acts of demonstrated "loyalty". They are under some form of emotional and/or mind control by the narcissist. They act for the narcissist when summoned and are often used in organisational politics, rumour and disinformation campaigns, and in both groups and organisations to carry out acts on behalf of the narcissist that could see them come under legal or ethical sanction.
Linda Martinez-Lewi(2008) identifies the key warning signs that indicate the narcissistic spiritual/self development leader is manipulating and milking their flock of followers and "sidekicks", making themself more powerful and affluent as the real agenda. She notes(with slight modifications to words to align to those used elsewhere in this article):
>Followers or "sidekicks" who question the spiritual/self development leader, or who evolve into independence, are considered dangerous rivals who must be excommunicated from the group. Character assassination and denigration of the rival or denounced person is commonplace.
>The narcissistic guru or leader often behaves very differently in their personal life than amongst devotees. They are often extremely self indulgent, materialistic, greedy, and in some cases uses drugs, sex or alcohol to excess. They might engage in sexual, emotional, financial or spiritual exploitation with compliant devotees who are co-dependent and emotionally dependent, vulnerable, and psychologically fused with the leader.
>Narcissists simply setup such an organisation and place themselves at the top. Ransky(1998) and Lasch(1979) … the narcissist filters out prospective members who are just possible revenue sources but otherwise independent, versus those who are vulnerable.
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>In spiritual and self development groups, narcissists cultivate an "inner circle" of "sidekicks" who work for free, give up time and autonomy to serve their master, and who willingly "inform" on other members, who they have been conditioned to believe represent a threat, are disloyal, or have been told by the narcissist are mentally or emotionally unwell(Ransky:1998).
>Betrayal is sweet for a narcissist as they in their paranoid reality they always complain of being betrayed, and it's part of their victim mask they use to elicit sympathy and loyalty from followers, victims and "sidekicks"(Ransky:1998). The followers as a group will often be secretly primed with negative information before the ambush occurs against the targeted victim or now disloyal follower or "sidekick".
>They (sidekicks) are "worker bees" who enforce loyalty, sell the products and services of the leader and their modality or movement, and who act as informers to the leader when dissension shows up. The narcissistic leader "milks" the community for their time, ideas, labour, money, and promotion of the leader and their products and services.
>A classic trait of a narcissist is to gather around them a entourage of "sidekicks" who cater to their every whim, and perform all the drudgery tasks, without question, and for no return (Ransky:1998).