Absolutely TNM. Everything goes back to their childhood. They were deemed by their parents to be a problem, unlovable, difficult (perhaps they were difficult) but to selfish and impatient parents they learn that they are a bad person (the real them). They are always seeking approval from their parents (didn't we all) but rarely getting it. So to cope with this they may mimic others that their parents admire and create a whole new persona. Their parents know the real person and find them unlovable, but to the stranger they ARE the persona they have created (the false self).

The narc knows who the real self is and expends a great deal of energy to maintain the false self or mask. Sometime a trigger will force the mask to fall and the real person emerges, but it is usually at the level of an immature child. Screaming, tantrums, etc. This is what we eventually see and we cannot fix them. They have developed these coping strategies in childhood and have been using them for years. Once the real self is discovered, the love interest is discarded for a fresh one and the cycle repeats.

Treating people like objects and being pathology which leave them to be a Psychopath.

Idealized: False Self
Devalued: Real Self
Discard: End of the relationship

Repeat