Narcissism, not love, used to motivate

I read the Saturday article about Donald Watts with sadness. (“Passion to help others.”)

To have your father (“Slick”) say, “I’d better call your mama and clear something up; you don’t play like my son,” and to have Donald interpret that as support or tough love, or whatever, is a tragedy. Slick obviously meant, “In order for you to be valued or ‘loved’ by me, you had better reflect me well.”

This is narcissism, not love. No wonder Donald is “chronically fatigued” by the never ending and impossible task of trying to please an immature and demanding father. To Donald’s credit, he’s much more of a grownup than Slick can ever hope to be.

Robert Van den Akker

Monroe