I agree that the lack of character/narcissism is epidemic today because of so many social factors but what caused it in the victorian era, in jack the ripper?

Every single radical group causing misery and grief in the world today does so in the name of dedication and subservience to a higher cause. Yet, the truth of the matter is that the will to dominate is their real motivation. Some are “in denial” of this, while most simply lie and cloak their true intentions because of their commitment to power.

The new age will come when we abandon our worn-out metaphors and honestly reckon with ourselves, our heritage, and what we hope will be our future.

I am a psychology student, but have always believed that it was flawed in many ways, and if used as a generalization on all people, can be counterproductive and even dangerous. It can even be used to help manipulative people, become even more manipulative…especially against those who have accepted the idea that we are all alike underneath it all.

I tend to think, that what people choose to believe, and adopt as their values and morals tend to reflect in our society today, the prevailing attitude that instant gratification is the key to being happy. But it is counter-productive and can become an addiction in and of itself. Instead of living in the moment, we are living for the next moment, in the past, or in the future. Constantly exposing the self to things that distract the self from being in the here and now. This need for instant gratification, has lent itself to defining the values and morals that we adopt…and from these values and morals, come our justifications for our behavior.

It seems in this paradigm of thought, integrity is a word…not an experience. It is destructive to the self- and to others. In a state of mind that seeks disocciation, one is not whole, and is not integrated…as a person. To live in the moment is to be whole, integrated and focused. To feel in the here and now in this moment, is where true creative energy comes in. This energy is like a life force. We can find it with in our selves. If we do not and cannot find it, from with in ourselves…we take it from others…manipulation, guilt, shame, abuse, war. Conflict stems from one taking power from another. We can share our power, but it should never be taken by deceit, coercion, betrayal, mind games…and the like. People who manipulate, essentially, are taking power away from you.

Finding other ways to get the goodies is often possible I find.

thank you for a thought provoking introduction!

Some of my thoughts are these:

1 The examples you give of strange maladies from the past may be alive and well today in different cultures. It is a commonly noted fact (in literature on multi/trans cultural counselling) that people from some cultures typically experience what “we” might call ‘psychological’ distress more as physical distress, and in any doctors waiting room you will find any amount of people with conditions directly related to depression and anxiety but who do not make the connection.

2 Freud’s was the dominant form of thinking and understanding of the day, and today’s dominant form may be something like character disturbance, but the reality described always escapes the categories

3 I don’t know very much about character pathology. But from how these ideas get filtered down into popular culture and how I pick them up, I get a little concerned that the theory leads to the demonisation of people – a goodies and baddies scenario, and that doesn’t strike me as healthy either for the goodies or the baddies.
While there are definitely patterns of behaviour, such as abuse, I don’t see how it is helpful just to label people so that others can avoid them! You do indeed need to avoid some people, but not because you have read up on how awful they are, but because you have gained self respect yourself.
I have had plenty of people coming to me as a therapist who were manipulative and they each had their own individual reasons for being so. I don’t think many of them were born that way.

I am sure the definitions can be very helpful too, in the right context, I suppose I am just a little wary of this becoming the dominant way of thinking about “other people”.

Looking forward to the series. I’m not sure what a character disturbance is.

Is it related to depression. There seems to be a lot of it about – the amount of prescribed drugs for it is quite mind boggling.

Thanks again.