I think you might be on to something here.  Thinking in terms of NPD is new to me, but the well, stupidity, is not.  Neither is the chaos, confusion, dysfunction, anxiety, and craziness of dealing with this kind of person and not understanding why things are the way they are.   The person I know is/was a friend, but I can see where there can not be true friendship.  People around her are seen as means to an end, they are used.  Everything comes down to that, and done so cleverly you often can't really see it for what it is until after the fact --- ahhhh, it happened AGAIN.   It still seems cruel for me to think these things, but there is no other answer.  Others saw it long ago, even her own daughter is NC.  She considers herself more intelligent than others, she is motivated to the point of obsession to achieve what she wants, go out ahead of the crowd and takes on things others won't touch, loves publicity and drama.  And then loves to share the drama, which is nearly always negative drama which other people would avoid like the plague, with others via email and in conversation.  I'm NC as of one month, and it is a start.  I am feeling better every day.  Thanks for writing this!