Posts Tagged ‘narcissism’

Cultural Narcissism

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

Narcissism and sociopathy share traits, including  a lack of empathy. Narcissism allows the person to detach from concern for others and allows them to focus solely on their own desires and needs.  People with these disorders are usually experts at manipulation, denial, and callous disregard for the consequences resulting from their choices and behavior.

Trademarks of Narcissistic Personality Disorder are:

  1. inflated self-importance
  2. deflation of importance of others
  3. lack of empathy for others
  4. a sense of entitlement
  5. interpersonally exploitative*

As a society, we have behaved in similar fashion in our treatment of animals. Every imaginable excuse, justification and denial have already been expressed; they all represent a horrendous injustice. (more…)

Profile of the Anti-Vegan

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Have you ever noticed that people who promote peace always attract hate?  John Lennon, Martin Luther King, Gandhi – all their lives were ended by violence when all they ever promoted was peace.  Anyone, though, that suggests change, even very gentle and positive change, threatens the status quo, and that can be very frightening for many people; it evokes anger in response to fear.  As a non-violent vegan, I have come to expect it.

I am a student of human behavior. When I was younger, I thought being a therapist would be hell itself – who would want to listen to people fight and kvetch all day? But when I was attending university, I took a class about the theory of psychotherapy that was intriguing, and I was hooked. I pursued my studies with an emphasis on political science, English and psychology – all designed to help me learn to change the system, communicate effectively, and understand human behavior. By the time I was in graduate school, I had left my study of earth and geology behind and majored in clinical psychology. It was not an easy course, emotionally. But never boring.

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