Vlog 153 Healing - YouTube

Vlog 153 Healing - YouTube: Well my PhD was the study of someone whom others viewed as sometimes psychotic. I was alarmed to see the reasons why they held this to be so -- that he didn't conform to the system without criticizing it, for instance. His mother also projected all her crap onto him, quite literally and directly, through a religious ritual. In the end I think there were aspects to him that did become in a way pathological, a bit revengeful, but for the most part his actions and intentions were good and he managed to live a life that was logical in his own terms. In other words, he held to his artistic integrity, which was logically consistent with his aims in life.

Narcissists Push You Then Pull Back so They can Push Harder Later - YouTube

Narcissists Push You Then Pull Back so They can Push Harder Later - YouTube:Alexander Jurjens4 hours ago

Craziness and insanity do not exist. Narcissists (and probably the other cluster B types) are the only people who think that craziness and insanity do exist.
Narcissists are really not sophisticated for schizoids. Schizoids can easily beat them. Schizoids are the only people who can effectively deal with narcissists. That is because schizoids grew up around narcissists and they are finely attuned to abusive behaviour.

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Jennifer Armstrong1 second ago

I can identify with this statement. I am very, very finely tuned to power relationships. I watch them and I notice the very, very obvious manipulations even in normal life, in situations that most people would find natural, or within the normal range. But the manipulation is there, and it is so stark to me and so insulting to my intelligence. In that kind of seemingly normal-on-the-surface situation I have no desire to belong. I find even the thought of trying to belong insulting. In an narcissistic society, this dislike or refusal to participate in inauthenticity is viewed as an expression of narcissism, but it is really schizoidism. I'm happier being on my own unless the situation strikes me as rigorously authentic. I'm also very well equipped to be on my own, and such a state rarely involves any kind of suffering.
Since the narcissists view me as either (initially) normal, or as another kind of narc. (on their second take), they always employ the wrong sorts of tactics against me. I'm very, very, very self-reliant, but they try to employ tactics to make me doubt myself and so that will crave belonging. These do not work. If I doubt myself, I will become less emotionally available until I figure the whole situation out. And certainly, I don't crave belonging, because I am very rich within. My childhood experiences were very rich indeed, and I can fall back on them. Above all, perceiving the narc.'s very obvious attempts at manipulation invokes my strong contempt for them. I'm really not so emotional that I can be taken in, or whipped around by incitements to emotionality. My early training taught me that being emotionally cool was a matter of survival, so I am not at all prone to sacrificing my survival instincts for anybody.

Escape from the quicksand

Liberation fascism? God's judgement isn't pretty - YouTube

Liberation fascism? God's judgement isn't pretty - YouTube:  

Julia Riber Pitt31 seconds agoLINKED COMMENT

I remember reading that in Dialectic of Enlightenment, how a major point made by Adorno and Horkheimer was that the Enlightenment (and modernity as well) believes it has transcended mythology and superstition when in fact has only created mythology and superstitions of its own. Linear conceptions of history and progress assume that what follows from the previous generation will inevitably be better, smarter, more aware, and less prone to one-dimensional ways of thinking, when all the evidence we see today should indicate the reverse. Everything coming from my generation (I'm 27) seems to be nothing but solipsism and demands that others accept their "feels" as truth by way of moralistic emotional blackmail or something else with zero basis. There is little attempt to see beyond the surface level. It makes any kind of intellectual understanding impossible because everything is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction.

It's funny, because in Jewish theology it's very much the opposite: there's a notion of (and I don't know the Hebrew terminology so I apologize) the "degeneration of the generations" whereby the latter generations are said to be far lacking in wisdom and spirituality than the previous, and that everything becomes progressively worse until the messianic era arrives (this could have very well been what Walter Benjamin was channeling in the critique of progress in his Theses on History, which was apparently an influenced on Adorno and Horkheimer's critique of progress in DoE).

And honestly, I'm at the point where elitism (as it is today) appeals to me, even as an anarchist. I would not like to "sink to the level of the masses" through some kind of populist endeavor if that entails swimming in their shit.

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Jennifer Armstrong1 second ago

It's because unless you have some authoritarianism in you, you have no backbone. You might one minute find a certain intellectual discourse or idea appealing, but then someone hurts your feeling, so you find it unappealing. Hollow people follow whatever makes them feel good in the moment. After a time, they lack depth to such an extent that they can't even imagine or conceptualize real danger to themselves. They invite in dangerous people and submit to murder or to rape. They don't imagine this could have been prevented or preventable. People without a trace of authoritarianism become a danger to those around them because you can't rely on them for anything, not even your personal safety.

Let us go exploring everything

The moderner's exaggerated confession about authoritarianism - YouTube

The moderner's exaggerated confession about authoritarianism - YouTube:

Grace Colleen7 minutes ago

I see your point in the benefit of survival reactions under certain conditions. Mine worked against me in that when an event should have been sufficient evidence to put up a boundary, emotional or physical, the freeze response to the trauma did not allow the appropriate act of self protection to take over. I allowed many abusive situations in my life, and now that I see that pattern, I have changed it by regaining my lost sense of self...lots of work over many years. I believe that this type of defense for me was due to being raised in an authoritarian ethnic family where the men had all the power, and the women had to support that structure or face punishment. I also was sent to private school, Catholic Vatican I rules. Carnal punishment was the norm, and the nuns liked it best if they could beat small children in front of the entire class. The effect was shame for one being punished, and fear for the observers. Horrible people, just plain horrible, and my parents paid for that. I also was deemed as more fortunate than the others as my father was a well to do business owner.

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Jennifer Armstrong59 seconds ago

Well I have also had the problem of not being attuned to emotional nuance in modernity. For instance, I have tended not to react though sophisticated counteractions of hostile overtures. This skill has taken me a long time to learn. Hostility, to me, was someone having a bad day, with the expectation that the storm would pass. Often it doesn't. I've underreacted, and then people start moving around the goal posts at work or in other situations, to provoke a reaction from me. At that time, I go from peace to war, and the war never ends. I haven't coped well in the middle zones of emotionality at all. I've also experienced a lot of physical punishment, too, in my childhood. I take breaches against my security very seriously.

The moderner's exaggerated confession about authoritarianism - YouTube

The moderner's exaggerated confession about authoritarianism - YouTube: Grace Colleen8 hours ago (edited)

Watch out for it...it will happen! Perfect. Is the detachment considered part of the trauma response of flight? My own defense was to freeze, to deny that the event/abuse happened. At one point, I heard myself say, 'that didn't happen', that inner voice had gotten loud enough to hear. Once heard, then I could attend to why I used freeze as a response to trauma.

  

 

Jennifer Armstrong58 seconds ago

We should look at it in this way, that many reflexive reactions can be either very adaptive, or very obstructive to adaptation depending on the context. As I happens I am extremely adapted to survive in an authoritarian situation. The detachment and reflexive hiding of one's emotions (even from oneself if need be) facilitates survival under these conditions. In modernity, I find that I am maladaptive, because this level of survival reaction gets activiated when my emotional survival would already be assured by the tepid, contemporary conditions. Still, I have survival reactions, which would suit me better to a time of extremes or a time of war.

'via Blog this'

Weird twists of fate (part one and two)

Part 2: coming to terms with grief, after a war

How & why I harboured such deadly rage (identity politics)

Strolling through the supermarket of life

"Toxic masculinity", personality & gender

To the headline: "Islamophobia kills" - YouTube

To the headline: "Islamophobia kills" - YouTube:



'via Blog this'

Jade Haj 12 minutes ago

Do you believe in Toxic Masculinity, and that it is the mechanism of these young men attacking? Could you perhaps say something about the dynamics of archaic masculinity in the west, and why perhaps it is not holding or promising anything fruitful. Do you believe in Eros, as a personality component, and do you think modern masculinity has castrated that part of themselves?

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To the headline: "Islamophobia kills"

Jennifer Armstrong 2 seconds ago

Good questions. I think that humans are only toxic when they have components of themselves that they deny, or that they feel forced to deny. Masculinity, in itself, is the name of an alienated component of all human beings. Just as the name, femininity, necessarily describes something pathological, as it is not part of the integrated and undifferentiated whole.

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To the headline: "Islamophobia kills" - YouTube

To the headline: "Islamophobia kills" - YouTube:



'via Blog this'

Me Too 1 hour ago

I'm sorry, Dr. Armstrong. I've been encountering several stories of unappreciated talent on YT today. Based on all of the thought provoking videos you publish on this forum, I'm sure your book is very interesting. Please know that I feel like I'm assisting graduate level lectures when I view your videos. You're a mental giant, and I'm a simpleton compared to you, but I can relate to and learn so much from you. :)

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To the headline: "Islamophobia kills"

Jennifer Armstrong 7 minutes ago

I really appreciate it. Actually some people have acknowledged my efforts lately, at least a little. And it does make a huge difference, after two decades of being belittled, or ignored. It really does. thank you very much.

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Me Too 2 minutes ago

+Jennifer Armstrong You're very welcome. I'm glad some long overdue recognition is finally coming your way.

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Jennifer Armstrong 2 seconds ago

Well it is just from one or two commentators. What would be good if is people took the issue of colonialism and other issues I raise seriously. They already seem to feel that they do so, but labeling colonialism as a completely negative, unquestionable evil, whilst raising Islam to a level of being or seeming untouchable and inscrutible is not taking these matters seriously.

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