7-5-13 ARE MOST OF OUR POLITICIANS PSYCHOPATHS ??

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7-5-13 ARE MOST OF OUR POLITICIANS PSYCHOPATHS ??

Posted by Vincente E. Woodward on Friday, July 5, 2013

I just finished reading
the new book,

Almost a Psychopath

by Ronald Schoutgen, MD
of Harvard Medical School,
and James Silver,
criminal prosecutor
and criminal defense attorney.

The subtitle on the cover
of the book reads:

Do I (or Someone I Know)
have a Problem with Manipulation
and Lack of Empathy?

So much of this book
cannot help but
continuously remind me
of the various persons
who one sees
day in and day out
in the mass media,
including the politicians
and their hacks,
sycophants,
and enablers.

It is a common problem
and I highly recommend this book
for the general reader
who would like to better understand
this subject.

I wanted to share several quotes
out of the book,
which I thought were
particularly interesting,
each for it's own specific reasons.

But, first,
I want to make clear
that when I use the words
sociopath
and
psychopath
in my writings,
that I am not intending
to use them
as diparaging remarks,
or such like.

Rather, I am speaking
as someone with a
medical and psych background
who has worked in both fields.

So, I am using these terms
in their most technical sense,
as used in the
medical and psychological literature
and in peer reviewed journals.

Accordingly my first quote
will be an attempt to,
somewhat loosely,
define the term psychopath
and
psychopathic personality disorder.

"A major advance
in the twentieth-century understanding
of psychopathic behavior
was the work of
American psychiatrist
and psychoanalyst
Hervey Cleckley.

Cleckley worked in
a psychiatric hospital
in Augusta, Georgia,
and in 1941 published his book

The Mask of Sanity;
An Attempt to Clarify
Some Issues
About the So-Called
Psychopathic Personality.

As the title of the book suggests,
Cleckley believed
that the psychopath hides
his or her lack of empathy
and moral constraint
behind a mask of
normal function
and seemingly appropriate behavior.

Cleckley proposed that
there were sixteen specific traits
associated with psychopathy,
including

superficial charm
and good intelligence,

unreliability,

untruthfulness,

lack of remorse and shame,

absence of delusions and anxiety,

an inability to learn from experience
or follow any life plan. ---" p. 31

The next quote concerns
why it seems that men
are far more prone to psychopathy
than are women.

The authors suggest
that this is a matter of
cultural bias
and misperception.

" --- And the types of aggressive behavior
that female psychopaths engage in
may differ somewhat
from the aggressive actions
of males:

females are less likely
than males
to use overt forms of aggression
(punching and kicking)
and more likely
to rely on covert forms of aggression
related to their social groups
(gossiping, ostracism -
which is sometimes called
relational aggression). p. 146

The authors remind us
that psychopaths are attracted
to certain professions

(like business and politics,
for example).

In this context,
they remark that:

The developer of the PCL-R himself,
Robert Hare,
has observed that
in addition to studying
psychopaths in prison,
he should have spent time
at the Stock Exchange
as well. p. 147

A peer reviewed article
was written in which the authors
compared the inmates
in a mental institution
with '"senior business managers"
from the world of business:

" --- In 2005,
two psychologists
at the University of Surrey, England,
published their research
comparing the personality profiles
of high-level British executives
("senior business managers")
with randomly selected
psychiatric patients
and criminal psychiatric patients
at Broadmoor Special Hospital,
a high-security hospital
in the United Kingdom
and home to some of Britain's
most notorious criminals. ---

--- For our purposes,
the most interesting results
of the study
came from the comparison
of the senior business executives
to the offenders at Broadmoor.

The study showed
that three
out of the eleven personality disorders
were more common
in the senior business managers
than in
the criminal psychiatric patients.

These were

histrionic personality disorder

(superficial charm,
insincerity,
manipulation),

narcissistic personality disorder

(grandiosity,
lack of empathy),

and

obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

(perfectionism,
excessive devotion to work,
rigidity,
dictatorial tendencies)

scales. ---

Not surprisingly,
the senior business managers
were less likely
to express physical aggression,
impulsivity,
and antisocial
and paranoid tendencies. ---" pgg. 148-150

I thought that the following
is a rather insightful quote,
worthy of consideration,
as it seems to be a problem
which one will run into
over and over again
as one tries to better understand
what is going on, here.

" --- It is a common human failing
that our capacity for objectivity
can be limited
when it comes to someone
who is benefiting us
or with whom
we are close. p. 150

Some insightful words on bullying,
which seems to have
become the hallmark
of Amerikan foreign policy,
having become institutionalized
in the belief systems
from which exceptionalism,
in all of it's ugly forms,
seems to arise from.

Think about beating up
on little countries that really
have no way to defend themselves,
or to fight back.

And think of those poor persons
at Guantanamo
who are being forced fed
so that tormentors may continue
to torment them.

If that is not bullyish behavior,
then what is?

" --- Like schoolyard bullying,
workplace bullying
is a pattern of behavior
where a person
(or group of persons)
engages in
persisent aggressive behavior
against a subordinate
or co-worker.

The key features of bullying

(as opposed to
isolated instances of bad behavior)

are that
it occurs regularly,
goes on for some time,
escalates over time,
and is based on
a "power disparity"
where the target
lacks the power
or means
to defend against the intimidation.

As with other types of harassment,

its goal is often
to send a message
to the victim
that he or she
does not belong there
and that continuation
in the workplace
is dependent upon
giving in to the demands
and control
of the bully/harasser. ---" p. 151

--- Perhaps these workplace bullies
act differently with their families
or in the neighborhood,
showing compassion
after five
and on the week-ends.

Not so with almost psychopaths
or true psychopaths.

They are unlikely
to change their stripes,
as it were,
when they leave the site or office -
either because they can't
or they see no reason to do so
unless it serves their interests
in an obvious
and immediate way.

No matter how charming
they seem in first encounters,
over time
they will show themselves
to be
cold-hearted
and manipulative,
whether you run into them
at a church social
or the grocery store.

Being an almost psychopath
isn't just a workplace strategy -
it's a way of life.

And a way of misery
for those whose lives
they touch. p. 153

Conclusion:

I will leave it to you,
dear reader,
to decide just how
applicable these thoughts are
to the politicians
and all of their
brotherhood/sisterhood enablers.

To my eye and mind,
it looks as if pychopaths
have risen to the top
in many political offices
and governmental positions,
due to their ruthlessness
and lack of conscience
and ability to lie without blushing.

These people are not just
rude,
ignorant,
and arrogant,
but DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS!

Remember that the next time
you are listening to whatever
latest lie and/or misrepresentation
they are attempting to pawn off on you.

And notice how they never are the ones
who are paying the tab,
either with cash,
or with blood and treasure.

Win-win for them.

Lose-lose for you and me.

That hardly sounds like the stuff
of real and meaningful representative
government.

That is to say,
who would hire
a representative
to act entirely against
their own interests?

NO ONE ??

This system of
"creeping pathology"
seems to be just built
into the nature of things,
as the system exists in
it's present form.

Especially when Social Darwinism
is in vogue as it most certaintly is
at this time.

This can only spell disaster
for all concerned,
as I believe that it currently is doing,
and is about to do,
much more than many of you
are even capable
of suspecting
or imagining.

w/ love
vw

7-5-13
2:45 p.m.
Friday
Ventura, California, USA