Four self-described narcissists explain their own manipulation tactics on camera in this 2026 documentary from director Mark Vicente.
What is The Narcissist's Playbook about?
Most documentaries about narcissistic abuse rely on survivor testimony and outside expert analysis, and this one includes both, but its distinguishing choice is different: it puts the manipulators themselves in front of the camera, willing to describe their own methods. Filmed across five countries, the documentary pairs those firsthand accounts with the perspective of people who lived through the relationships, plus clinical framing from psychologists who study the pattern. The result is structured less as a single narrative than as a layered case study, moving between confession, testimony, and analysis so viewers can see the same behavior described from three different vantage points at once. The goal stated in the film's own framing is practical: helping an audience recognize manipulation early enough to protect themselves from it.
About the cast
The documentary features Evan Rachel Wood, Heather Berlin, and Dr. Ramani Durvasula alongside journalist Isla Traquair, a lineup that spans a survivor-advocate, a neuroscientist, and a clinical psychologist known for her work on narcissistic personality patterns.
Context & significance
Interest in narcissistic abuse as a subject has grown well beyond clinical psychology in recent years, moving into mainstream conversation through survivor accounts and expert commentary alike. Shooting across five countries lets the film argue that the behavior it documents is not culturally specific, and pairing self-aware subjects with outside experts gives the documentary a structure that is unusually direct for the genre: the people describing the tactics are, in part, the people who used them.
Watching The Narcissist's Playbook on Ktime
The Narcissist's Playbook is available on K-Time with Persian dub and Persian subtitles, making the documentary's testimony and expert interviews easy to follow for Farsi-speaking audiences. Watching requires nothing beyond a free K-Time account login, no purchase and no trial period attached. K-Time's Farsi-first interface was built for the Iranian diaspora, so a documentary like this sits in the catalogue alongside films and series in a fully localized viewing experience.