It is well-documented that humans are motivated to feel good about the self: to self-enhance by seeking and maximising positive self-views, and to self-protect by avoiding and minimising negative self-views. We achieve these goals via a multitude of conscious or unconscious strategies. Some strategies capitalise upon other people, for example seeking positive feedback, secretly believing one is superior to most others, and claiming credit for success but blaming others for failure. There are individual differences in the strategies that people rely on to fulfil self-enhancement and self-protection motives; one highly relevant personality variable is subclinical narcissism. Narcissism is characterised by a surfeit of agency (i.e., motivation to self-enhance, succeed, and dominate) and lack of communion (i.e., motivation to affiliate, belong, and gain intimacy). Although narcissists tend to report high self-esteem, and therefore high subjective wellbeing, their interpersonal relationships often fail. In this talk, I will present two lines of research that explore the consequences of narcissism for interpersonal contexts. First, I examine the structure of self-enhancement and self-protection strategies and identify those that might impact upon others. I investigate the types of strategy that individuals higher (vs. lower) in narcissism report relying on, and whether this varies across cultures. Second, I examine narcissists’ lack of empathy for others and ask whether this interpersonal deficit reflects inability or motivation. Recent experimental and physiological data begin to shed light on this question and point to the motives that might underlie narcissists’ low empathy—and perhaps by extension their interpersonal failures.