Sunday, July 23, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence

In conclusion, it’s difficult to fully understand or even predict violent behavior of an individual with this personality, character trait. There are no simple answers. We can never fully understand unless we have insight into one’s genetic constitutional dispositions, traumatic brain injury [TBI], chronic traumatic encephalopathy [CTE] and health history, idiosyncrasies of family life, social, economic class status, religious, philosophical and moral traditions, urban, rural background within the spirit and philosophy of the culture, etc. Without fully integrating information from a broad spectrum, we have little understanding why certain traits become so persistent and deep-seated in that individual. Yes, it’s a difficult problem to figure out, but it can be done. The divisive numbing news cycle, after the fact, provide little in the understanding of the daily visual horrors. Name, age, ethnic background, marital status, employment, input from neighbors are merely statistics that do not tell the real story. The so-called experts, paraded on television, fill up airtime with banal words, speculating, lying, while making numerous assumptions. Everyone seems proficient at raising questions while employing fear. Further, throwing money at education, travel restrictions, more police and additional Internet surveillance are superficial and impotent measures at best. Our countries political system is toxic. Mention Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal and negative emotions surface. Our economic wealth disparity continues to grow between the haves and have-nots. This generates negative emotion like anger. To experience sadistic trash, hate, lying, and fake information, visit social media. Cable news provides loud dribble, lack of depth, and repeats the same tune over and over. It’s almost like brainwashing. We do not hear much from our religious leaders regarding humanistic change. Instead, we are exposed to the religious zealots promoting irrationality, fear, lies and hate. At the moment, I’m not optimistic about the enormous sadistic, hateful life thwarting epidemic going on in our society. It seems like it’s increasing without enough diversions. However, I am not going out and buying a gun because that is irrational and it is not a solution.

Saturday, July 22, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence Part 5

These exploitive sadistic killers can be described as having some of the following character traits. Character can be defined as a developed energy force .It’s the result of the unconscious conflict between “desire” and impulse and the forces or barriers {within the environment} interfering in getting what we want. These interacting forces include but are not limited to a life thwarting society, a hateful culture, socioeconomic poverty, authoritarian political, punitive governmental law and order, irrational , prejudicial educational teachings, discriminating economic institutions, and stressful anxiety threatening social upbringings as well. People are bombarded with economic and social inequalities, prejudice, and alienation models that depict the dehumanization of man on many fronts. There are many restrictions and controls that impinge upon us. We know, for example that the baby’s brain does not develop optimally without proper nourishment, warmth, touch, safety and freedom of movement. In other words, from the beginning, our lives can be readily compromised. A true malignant {there are degrees} sadistic character experiences some form of psychic pleasure in the killing, maiming, humiliating and torturing process. The impulse to inflict excruciating pain and destruction on another provides a sense of omnipotence, absolute control and power irrespective of whether or not it is achieved in hand-to-hand combat or on a helpless, unarmed opponent. There are no moral questions regarding morality, only the impulse and the irrationality of the act. The malignant’s internal conflicts, disappointments, emptiness, underlining impotence, are symbolically acted out in violence. One decapitates a head a as if it were a venomous snake. This individual type is actually fearful and has difficulty standing alone, weaponless on his two feet. Hate and human destructiveness over others are risked over one’s self-interest or self-preservation. The expression live by the sword, die by the sword fits here. Dying and/or self-destruction is more than likely the end result. If this path is followed, can the need, or drive for killing ever be satisfied? The passion or motivating force for destroying life is greater than the passion for living a humanistic way of life .Sad, but true. To Be Continued

Friday, July 21, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence Part 4

Aggression can be protective. It can be accidental like when the firing of a gun accidentally hurts or kills another. Sports has many examples of playful aggression or aggressiveness. Normally, the aim of playful aggression, in sports, is the exercise or mastery of the skill. It’s more often than not, not aimed at destruction nor motivated by hate. Athletes, as a rule, have a mutuality of respect for the other. Thank goodness for that because the game of football would be very different if played by slaves during Roman times. Self-assertiveness, can be expressed verbally. Using self-assertiveness as a means of communication, the individual can express his desires in a clear and non- ambiguous manner. Yes, non-hateful, positive aggressive communication has its place, especially within our competitive social economic capitalistic system. Often, however, we fail to witness appropriate self-assertive communication. Partly because of the senders inability or inexperience and the fact that an underlying emotion was present. When negative emotion is involved, communication becomes a trigger for oral aggression. Once it starts, it is difficult to stop that aggressive behavior. Let’s turn to another form of aggression. Survival of fittest may mean many things, and it may be in play here. On a side note, the primitive hunters in Prehistoric times, did not have a dental makeup associated with being carnivores or meat eaters. Anthropologists with tools of excavation and other means postulated that our ancestor’s diets were made up of 75 to 80% vegetarian [seeds, fruits, etc.]. Gathering food was easier back then and safer than hunting for it. Once we developed tools that changed. Aggression can be considered defensive as in fighting for freedom. Spartacus comes to mind. Roman slaves became gladiators as a form of entertainment, degradation and modeled their insignificance of being human. They were property. This Roman model demonstrated the overwhelming control and power of the sadistic behavior of the Roman master over the slave gladiator. Motivated in part for revenge and freedom, Spartacus and his fellow gladiators killed their captives and went on to war against the Roman legions. In essence, fighting for freedom resulted in more deaths, hate and sadistic vengeance against fellow man. To Be Continued

Thursday, July 20, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence Part 3

Albert Bandera, a behaviorist, demonstrated the significance of modeling and/or imitation in explaining aggressive responses. For example, preschool children, in experimentation, were exposed to real life, fantasy movies or television models exhibiting aggressive behavior. Two groups of non-frustrated, nonaggressive preschool children, then observed a live adult model acting aggressively toward dolls in the experimental room. 90% of the children, in the experimental group, imitated the aggressive responses of the model, while none in the control group displayed such behavior. Remember, that an aggressive model’s behavior can and does generalize to other settings, situations and interactions. Just think of all the models of violence that are displayed over and over again in our movies, TV and video games. Not only are we learning about violent behavior and death, we are also viewing the disrespect between human beings. It’s okay to kill the” bad” guy, irrespective of the reason. Bad guys are dressed in black. Are there any of us who have not witnessed either a verbal and/or physical aggressive interaction between adults or parents? Are there any of us who have not witnessed an individual being yelled at or physically hit? Are there any parents who have not yelled, spanked, shook, or pinched their infant or child? We have witnessed over and over again plenty of models that have exhibited inappropriate aggressive behavior. Why do people demonstrate so much aggression and why is there an absence of love thy neighbor? Very early in the life of an infant, about six months, it has been was shown that parts of the baby’s brain [amygdala, hypothalamus] becomes activated in the presence of a stranger. It’s as if there’s an activating as well as a deactivating or inhibiting switch mechanism. When activated, the newborn cries. Crying is the infant’s self-protection or self-preservation mode of response. Obviously, it’s one mechanism available at that early age. Is crying an aggressive response? It can be more easily argued that excessive biting behavior in the infant is aggressive. Just ask a nursing mother. This biting behavior, in this developmental phase, is called h oral sadistic. Looking at animal behavior, as with a deer, the animal could fight, flight or freeze. Just today, I encountered a deer and her two offspring’s. The mother obviously was not going to fight. The three of them froze which is generally the behavioral response I find when I’m running on the trail. To Be Continued

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence Part 2

Although not a neo –Freudian, Henry A Murray postulated a number of human needs within his theoretical framework. Included in Murray’s list of needs were aggression and abasement. He defined aggression: to fight; to revenge an injury; to attack or kill another; to punish another etc.. Another related need was called abasement: to accept injury; mutilate the self; seek and enjoy pain, and punishment; to incorporate aggression directed towards self. Murray believed that needs were hypothetical .Further, a need was related to an underlying physiological process in the brain; and the expression of a particular emotion or affect. Moreover, various circumstances bring about or initiate this hypothetical construct. Thus, with Murray, we know that needs are related to goals that are affected by various conditions within the environment. To account for aggression as being exclusively molded by the influence of the environment, behaviorism took the mantle. In this view, man was supposed to have been born good and rational; but only under bad institutions and bad education, that he developed evil strivings. The notion of unconscious, ego, mind, will, and character etc. were extraneous and not needed to account or explain man’s behavior. A giant within this school of thought, BF Skinner postulated R-S [with R being the response and S being the reinforcing stimulus]. With his experiments, he demonstrated that with the proper use of a positive reinforcement [Pleasure] ratio, animal and human behavior could be significantly altered. If an apparent reward didn’t influence or modify behavior, then it was not seen as a reinforcement. When a reinforcement worked, it changed behavior. This school of thought believed that reward was superior and more effective than punishment .Punishment didn’t change the response, it only inhibited the response when the punisher was present. The negative behavior would surface when the punisher was absent, or out of sight. My Border collie is a good example of the efficiency of positive reinforcement. This young dog responds by licking my face, laying at my feet and wagging her tail when verbally praised. Verbal praise works terrifically in modifying and reinforcing the behavior that I want. She has never been slapped or hit. In my opinion, she’s a sweet and loving dog. To Be Continued

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

The Epidemic of Violence Part 1

The Psychiatric Glossary defined aggression as: a forceful physical, verbal, or symbolic action. May be appropriate and self-protective, including healthful self-assertiveness or inappropriate. Also, may be directed outward toward the environment as in explosive personality, or inward toward the self as in depression. A few noteworthy and different theoretical frameworks on aggression, follow, with a very brief and simplified view. Konrad Lorenz, although an expert in the field of animal behavior, especially that of fishes and birds, wrote a bestseller titled “On Aggression”, depicting the instinctive nature of aggression in man. Succinctly, he thought that aggression was like a bomb or pump primed and ready to explode at any time. Sigmund Freud employed, within a biological framework, his view of aggression. After the First World War, he revised his theory and postulated a “death impulse” which was directed toward self and others, and referred to it as a drive. Sadism and masochism are two such constructs. He also postulated the impulsive, irrational and amoral nature of man that operated, within the unconscious. Freud made it clear that man was not always aware of his motivations. In his theory, he believed society, its institutions and man’s caretakers thwarted man’s pleasure principle needs. Within this model, man’s character was developed and was heavily influenced by early development. Many others added and expanded input into this comprehensive theory. Karen Horney, a Neo-Freudian, influenced by the social sciences described an aggressive character business type as follows: “the person tends to demand power and prestige and personal infallibility as its major mode of coping with a hostile world. There is exaggerated, independence, ruthlessness, cynical realism expressed in a dog eat dog philosophy of life. People are considered as exploitable possessions. If sexual prowess has become important to him, the man, the man’s proves his success by conquering women. Often he wants money or social prestige in his choice of wife and is indifferent consciously to love and her personal merits. Ruthless in business himself, he distrusts his business associates. The Aggressive character type typically assumes that he will be imposed upon unless he watches out for his interests. Outsmarting others is the principal he uses for his own conduct and in his own interpretation of the behavior of others. He may often appear loving, loyal and honest replete with Cardinal virtues. Yet his family and other associates are likely to suffer from the neurotic defensiveness of his life pattern.” To Be Continued

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Samson and Hercules Part 6

Minimizing the stress and cortisol [a hormone that helps regulate stress within the body] levels is the fourth component of a Samson Hercules prototype. An individual’s stress level may have to do with one’s irrational thinking pattern, or conflicts at work or at home. Anxiety, headaches, stomach aches, allergies, ulcers are a few indicators of things not right. A few examples for coping might be: Take a short nap, become more spiritual, change thinking, meditation, etc. are just a few strategies. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, a number of years ago, told my friend Gino how he eliminated his headaches with the sentence “She left.” In summary, if one has self-trust, then it’s never too late to begin a transformation and pursue a different journey. Often, it may take a personal trauma or traumatizing episode to propel or provide the much-needed impetus for change. The ego has much resilience time in and timeout. We see many examples of such. Just like in the Rocky series. Rocky Balboa time and time again after taking a beating, recovered and overcame the odds. Real life may not be as dramatic as Rocky Balboa, just the same. The strength of a man’s character is measured through his accomplishments. Just take a look at his mental toughness to complete the picture. Man has many psychological needs, ranging from physiological, and safety to a hierarchy of more powerful and paramount. They are necessary for survival in our modern times. Man’s goal accomplishments are valid behavioral indicators of his strivings and give a glimpse into his need structure. Man’s drive to complete his goals, which are very complex, interactive and further show strength of character. Man’s thinking can aid him or distract him and can fulfill or sabotage his goal seeking behavior. His biases, prejudices, failures and prehistoric thinking often get in his way and provide detours for goal accomplishment. The myth of Sisyphus comes to mind-pushing that boulder up the mountain, over and over without being able to push it over the top. Man is an irrational thinking component animal and that is coupled with his need of abasement {to surrender}. Both can stymie him [learned failure] in his ability to have a more productive, satisfying, gratifying existence within his life space. In essence, if physical and mental health are not true to a way of life, behavior and choices will be out of harmony, and resonance with Inertia and illusions predominating. There are no do overs. We are what we eat and we are what we do. PS I told Tony that Samson brought down the temple upon himself and that Hercules became insane. He replied, “Well, no one’s perfect.”