The Opportunistic Thinking of Disturbed Characters

I’ve been posting on the problematic thinking patterns common to disturbed characters. Some of the erroneous ways of thinking we’ve explored include egocentric thinking, unreasonable thinking, egomaniacal thinking, and quick and easy thinking:

• “Egocentric Thinking Patterns of Disturbed Characters”
• “The Unreasonable Thinking of Disturbed Characters”
• “No, Really — It’s All About Me: Egomaniacal Thinking”
• “Quick and Easy Thinking”

Individuals with deficient characters also tend to focus on opportunities for self-advancement or personal gain without also thinking about how seizing the chance to get something they want might impact others. This is the nature of opportunistic thinking.

The disordered character spends little time thinking about the rightness or wrongness of something when they spot an opportunity for personal gain or profit. Their main concern is how they can exploit a situation, the weakness or gullibility of another person person, or the timeliness of a situation. Now, taking advantage of ripe opportunities is neither bad nor unhealthy in and of itself. But disturbed characters carry opportunism to the extreme by exploiting others and situations to the detriment of all involved except themselves. So, when a situation presents itself, no matter the potential cost — if they see a chance for personal gain, disordered characters will try to capitalize on the opportunity.

Blatant opportunism with no appreciation for the potential costs is another kind of erroneous thinking that promotes the development of antisocial attitudes. It’s the kind of thinking that reinforces the antisocial perspective that it’s an “every man (or woman) for himself” kind of world out there and only those ready to seize and capitalize on opportunities are fit to prosper.