Tina Paone, Ph.D., professor of counseling in the Department of Educational Counseling & Leadership, recently published a set of companion books on narcissistic tactics and patterns. The books, “Recognize the Cadence: The Narcissist’s Offensive Playbook” and “The Invincible Defense: Counter to the Narcissist’s Playbook,” use a football-themed framework and were created for anyone who works with, or lives with, the impact of narcissistic abuse including mental health professionals, family-law professionals, educators, advocates, and survivors themselves.
Paone describes “Recognize the Cadence: The Narcissist’s Offensive Playbook,” as an accessible guide to how manipulation, grooming, gaslighting, and control operate so survivors can name what’s happening and trust themselves again, and “The Invincible Defense: Counter to the Narcissist’s Playbook” as a survivor-centered guide to boundaries, emotional safety, and disengagement, without over-explaining, self-abandoning, or staying in the game longer than one should.
“Recognize the Cadence: The Narcissist’s Offensive Playbook” breaks down the narcissistic abusive patterns into 24 repeatable “plays,” or tactics that narcissists use to gain control, distort reality, avoid accountability, and keep individuals reacting instead of living. The companion book, “The Invincible Defense: Counter to the Narcissist’s Playbook” is built for nervous-system safety, clear limits, and decisions that reduce access, especially when an individual is tired, dysregulated, or second-guessing oneself. The book offers 24 defensive counters, each paired directly with one of the 24 offensive plays from the first book.
“Readers learn to recognize the setup, identify the language ‘snaps,’ understand the psychological ‘penalty,’ and name the real impact on mind, body, and sense of self,” Paone states. “You don’t win by playing harder. You win when you slow the game down, hold reality, enforce a boundary, or disengage entirely.”