Narcissism Is Not Who You Are

I learned a very interesting and useful perspective on narcissism recently: narcissism is not who a person is, and is not something people are born with, but is instead a set of tools. Tools like blame-shifting, grandiosity, admiration-seeking, manipulation and entitlement.

This raises an important question, if narcissism is actually a set of tools, then what is the problem that the tools have been developed to cope with?