Conditioning Month – What Are We “Trained” to Be?

Healing from Narcissistic Relationships

May 2026

Month Overview:  

I once had a guest on a podcast say –“In this narcissistic relationship, terms and conditions apply.” Aint that the truth…

Conditioning is a concept from psychology that relates to a form of learning, in exercise it can refer to training to get stronger, in sociological terms – it can refer to how we are sort of “trained” by the media and society to “be” and “behave” in a certain way – and especially in society, this can change over time.  Finally, we also talk about the concept of conditions in relationship – most pointedly conditional love. 

Narcissistic relationships, especially narcissistic families are a clear-cut example of conditioning -where we are all being conditioned to be what works for the narcissistic person, and in some ways it can happen so under the radar that we aren’t aware it is happening. Undoing conditioning is not easy either! This month, we’ll explore how this conditioning forms, how it continues to show up, how to recognize it, and most importantly—what it looks like to begin deconditioning.