Anxiety and Survival

 

 

 Last week’s essay pointed out the negative psychological impact of our society on man as well as man’s wonderful contributions within society. The words of Ralph Waldo Emerson “The first wealth is health” was very much applicable as we are confronted with illusions regarding Covid-19, global warming, authoritarianism and nuclear destruction. This disquisition addresses the relationship of anxiety, separation, union and thinking  pertaining to survival.

The documentary “Equus- Story of the Horse “received my attention. This documentary reminded me of my endurance and ride and tie past. Raider and Gypsy were two of my famous 100 mile equines. I buckled with Raider at the Tevis and with Gypsy at the Swanton Pacific. Those wonderful horses were connected and demonstrated it during separation. If separated, both audio and physical expressions surfaced. In fact, one weekend, Linda and I were in Oregon. I was competing in a Ride and Tie event on Gypsy and Linda was competing with Raider on a Rogue River endurance ride. At one point, we were riding towards each other coming from opposite directions. I was expecting the two horses to physically react to each other, but, to my surprise they didn’t.

Another example of separation anxiety pertains to Linda and her dog Teddy. Linda and Teddy have bonded and it’s not unusual to see Teddy on her lap. Often, Linda may get up from her chair and go into another room with Teddy following her. When Linda leaves the house, Teddy goes to the door and waits for her return. The same thing happens when Linda drives away. Teddy looks for that leaving vehicle. Yes, Teddy, when separated, has barked on many occasions.

Returning to the equine documentary, Karen McComb, a psychologist, has identified 17 equine facial expressions while conducting experiments such as showing different photographs of humans and placing foreign objects in a corral. Related, according to a biologist, equines are herd animals and rely on speed for their survival. However, equines also use their brain by staying together for safety. I would add emotion.

The documentary depicted a trainer introducing a saddle to an unbroken horse. In the “olden days,” a horse was manhandled and made to submit when introduced to a saddle. Now, enlightened trainers introduce the saddle by a series of anxiety reducing measures in order to create safety, focus and calmness with a number of small, discrete, shaping behavioral conditioning steps. Trainers talk about developing trust. However, it’s a really about reducing anxiety of the equine with calmness, baby steps, consistency, and focus within the confines of safety. Trainer knows when he has the horse’s attention and receptivity for receiving a horse blanket, saddle and being mounted. Thus, animals experience emotions. For additional equine viewing, watch Amy of the Heartland TV series.

Humans begin life in the womb and reduce anxiety with positive mother attachment. Father also becomes an attachment identification. Thus, the infant has now developed a sense of self or self-awareness. With occurrence, the infant now begins to sense aloneness, separateness and anxiety  when physically separated from the mother and experiences anxiety that’s expressed loudly and behaviorally.

With the drive to reduce uncomfortableness, results in the need for positive contact. Needs for affiliation, competition, submission, dependence, vulnerability etc. also become activated. With sibling rivalry, the competition need becomes apparent.

When separated, there is anxiety and therefore seeking positives for love, comfort, praise, admiration etc. to reduce separation anxiety with union. That delicate dance is repeated over and over again throughout the life cycle. One has to be united in some way, while seeking special attention and love. Initially, the importance of parents is apparent. Then, the union need becomes generalized to include peers, teachers, teams, groups, clubs, political parties etc. Other examples of” dealing “with separation or union anxiety include intoxicating drugs, alcohol, group sexual activities, Facebook with all the “friends” etc.

Another important and significant example, not to be lost, with the power union was found in a July 11, 2021 article in The New York Times “The Joy We’ve  Been Missing” pertains to the possibility of experiencing positive effervescence coined by Emile Durkheim. Effervescence is a sense of energy and harmony many people feel when they come together in a group around a shared purpose. Over 15,000 vaccinated people participated in the Foo Fighters concert with the reopening of Madison Square Garden in late June and experienced effervescence.

Like animals, humans seek to become part of groups for positive emotional survival. We proceed from mother, father, and the family to the clan, tribe, and nation. Unfortunately, our and the animal’s emotional level, is located in the primitive or mammalian part of our brain with its memory functions, amygdala cingulate, hypothalamus, hippocampus and limbic systems. With evolution, we acquired a cerebral cortex or New Brain with its ego functions. Our brain is the most complex machine in the universe when in the rare case of fully functioning. Realistically, that becomes problematic per Epicurus “Nothing is good or bad, thinking makes it so.” Illusions beware.

Even though we’ve had a history of nationalism- Kings, Queen, Pharaohs, Alexander’s, Caesars, Napoleon’s, and Hitler’s we also acknowledge the following humanistic ideas regarding man. Briefly: 1. Buddha thought of man as having the same structure, the same problems and the same answers without regard to culture and race 2. Isaiah “shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” 3. Antigone sacrificed her life in defense of universal human or natural law against state law 4.Zenon had the vision of a universal commonwealth 5. Prometheus stole fire thus laying the very basis for civilization 6. Kant constructed a moral principle that the state is only a result of human forces, only the work of our thoughts, but man is the force of the source itself and the creator of the thought for all men and outlined the possibility of eternal peace 7. Schiller “The state is only a result of human forces, only work of our thoughts, but man is the force of the source itself, the creator of the thought.” Thus we have the conflict of nationalism versus humanistic ideas regarding man’s place and how man treats man on this planet. Currently, we do not have enough harmony and cooperation placing our planet at risk.

World Wars I and II, The Great Depression, and the atomic bomb has just about decimated the concept of humanism. Anxiety, and insecurity draws us toward others for survival and protection. The “others” proceed from family, clan, etc. to nation. We initially experience stranger anxiety at about nine months and that dynamic translates “beware of the stranger. “ The stranger may look different; have different skin color; sound differently; have different religious and spiritual beliefs; have a different economic and political ideology etc. Unfortunately, as groups grow in size, individuals become strangers to each other and not neighbors thus setting the stage for nationalism or authoritarianism.

With authoritarianism, we live emotionally in the Stone Age with our Mammalian brain with the archaic passions of fear, hate, devotion and greed. Thus, we are prey to narcissistic and evil manipulators. These “leaders” are motivated by their narcissistic passions for economic power, possession, and exploitation. Doesn’t seem to matter who gets in their way.  It’s about being number one and number one only. Propaganda, illusions and rationalization mechanisms of love of country, love of flag, democracy, and capitalism become ideologies. Followers become fanatically subservient and serve their idol or master, with blind faith and allegiance; lose their ability to think rationally and become stupid without common sense. They lack the developed capacity for understanding the less obvious causes of phenomena and realities; of grasping contradictions within the same phenomenon and realities; and of making connections between different and not obvious related factors, phenomena and realities. They obediently follow and employ their impaired ego functions of loyalty with illusions and rationalizations. They cannot objectively judge, and with distortion convince themselves of anything and believe untruths, biases, lies etc.; their conformity is powerful; they cling and they are unable to separate because they are dependent and drawn to power. They believe that the powerful are more talented more intelligent etc. making rationalization a protection and justification for following.

Not being aware of the irrational, the fiction and the illusions within emotional functioning results in herding, making it difficult to take one’s head out of the sand and live cooperatively.  Eve’s, bite into the Apple resulted in her ability to see her reality and thus her action was the first act of disobedience. Disobedience has been positively demonstrated throughout the history of man. Is it too late to confront the realities, not the illusions of the pandemic, global warming, democracy and “the bomb?” We must deal with the reality of the lack of cooperation among and between men and diminish the fears and anxieties. Maybe it’s time for disobedience and wake up to the evils of nationalism, illusions and start with the “Big Lie” and Covid- 19 Hoax.” Buddha’s message “Awake from man’s illusions, become aware of realities- sickness, old age and death” is still relevant. Importantly, do not forget that words can be a distortion from reality and according to Thales “A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind.” More to follow.

PS

All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

Eleanor Rigby

I get by with a little help from my friends

With a Little Help from My Friends

 

 

Reference

Beatles, Eleanor Rigby, Revolver, 1966.

Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967.

Fromm Erich, “Beyond the Chains of Illusion-My Encounter with Marx and Freud,” Bloomsbury Academic.

Institute For Natural Resources Institute, Understanding Dementia.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 

 

Some recent events: 1. Two wealthy white men flew 50 miles or so upward and then floated down just like- trickle-down economics. Just kidding, of course. 2.The majority of funding behind Arizona’s election lie recount was from a private foundation, with John Birch roots. 3. Congress is dealing with an infrastructure bill that includes climate change. They are suggesting that billionaires and corporations pay taxes to fund this bill. That sounds radical. 4. One Congresswoman, in a sleeping bag, slept on the steps of the Capitol in an attempt to gather support for legislation restricting people from being thrown out of the residences. 5. Lt. Col. Adam Vindman, former director for European Affairs for the United States, overheard Trump’s attempt to shake down the Ukrainian president. The Lt. Col. was influential in the impeachment trial and then fired for his patriotism. By the way, his twin military brother, was also fired. Buy his book “Here, Right Matters: An American Story”; he is employed by a think tank and is working on a doctorate. 6. In the 1800s, prior to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in Ohio had to show proof of being free; were subjected to white violence in Cincinnati; and whites said the blacks were  not interested in work, if free. Also, whites accused blacks of being violent and antisocial among other mythologies. 7. Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi are breaking records with Covid-19 hospitalizations.18. Afghanistan withdrawal 19. FDA Pfizer approval and booster shot.

The movie “Anne of 1000 Days” portrayed Henry VIII as ruthless, egocentric and exploitive in his pursuit of sex and a son to continue his legacy. According to the movie, Henry said that God listens to him; he was religious; he would kill others; he would risk excommunication from the church with a marriage annulment; he allowed Anne Boleyn to be beheaded, falsely for adultery, in order to pursue Jane Seymour. Anne Boleyn was portrayed as cunning, provocative, manipulative and naïve in thinking what happened to Catherine would not happen to her. However, even though she was called a whore, she wanted her daughter to become a legitimate Queen. Anne died for that devotion. This essay suggests the following hypothesis:  With civilization, technically and scientifically we are blossoming by leaps and bounds but emotionally we’re archaically stuck.

Over 1 million years ago, the Hunter-gatherers roamed the earth and roughly 200,000 years ago the species of Homo sapiens evolved. Over the centuries, the new brain or the cortex [with functions of higher cognition, abstract thought, use of tools, formation and comprehension of language, social behavior, creativity, problem-solving] evolved separating us  from the world of animals and  nature.

It was believed that these Hunter-gatherers were mobile, gathered nuts, berries, hunted etc. They were not confined to one place. The earth and nature was their home. They developed hooks, nets, harpoons and other tools. They didn’t have to attack, hoard, or defend against others. The food source was for them. If they captured, they had to feed, control and dominate. Yuk. Procuring food, actually left them much time to engage in sex, play, exploring, creating, and doing what they wanted .They could just watch the clouds go by. They didn’t have to worry about defending, dominating, exploiting, manipulating, taking advantage, seeking power, possessing, procuring or being greedy. Yes, man could die from infection. But their physiological and psychological needs were well met.

About 8 to 10,000 B.C.E., man changed his history with the creation of pottery containers, and the development of agriculture with domestication. The transition from Hunter-gatherer to dweller became dominant. With that process, followed religion, rulers, rules, regulations, commandments and consequences. People were now controlled and could no longer do exactly what they wanted to satisfy needs, when they wanted. They had to delay gratification and with delay resulted in frustration, aggression and repression. With repression, the desire remains in the unconscious and may or may not surface. If surfaced, desire becomes distorted and not easily acknowledged. Additional rationalizations and illusions become necessary.

The 10 Commandments are references to man’s inhumane behavior. Without possession, individuals at times, become hungry, envious, desire and want what they don’t have- lying, adultery, coveting, stealing, and killing. The commandments were attempts to control man’s passions. Later, in Babylon, the Code of Hammurabi identified more laws that covered a wide array of areas such as criminal, family, property and commercial for dominance and control. The Code was based on an eye for an eye, but did not place everybody equal before the law. With law, there are rules and consequences.

With “civilization” came additional rules, regulations and consequences of behavior dictated by those that acquired power. In essence, external control affected man’s ability to gratify drives and passions. Man had to repress his undesirable, according to the religious mores, man’s desire to kill, steal, lie and have sex with whomever. Additional psychological needs became paramount during the transition from being a Hunter- gather to a worker in a particular society. Possession, acquiring, achieving, autonomy, dominance, defendance, deference, order, autonomy and other needs became prominent examples.

With these additional needs, the industrial complex, facilitated a devotion to the money Idol God, consumption and possessions. Socioeconomic classifications followed. The lower or working class, middle class and upper class became the three main classifications in an industrial society. Thus, frustration of need gratification, development of socioeconomic class with the alienation for many in the industrial, military, and political structure became the norm. These components established and helped mold man’s character and impact his identity -the ability of man to love or not love self and others.

Alienation is also expressed by the “desire idol “money, we also have drives for consumption and possession. This means that the primary goal is to make and accumulate money, pure and simple. Being born in the right family; residing in a certain ZIP Code; attending the prestigious University; joining the high status club; pursuing the high paying major and degree; procuring the perfect job in order to climb the corporate ladder becomes the path. The ladder goes where? With this intense and desire of focus, the psychic energy expended becomes engulfing. Unfortunately, energy for relationships becomes unavailable. Therefore, relationships along the way become transactional, superficial and are based on quid pro quo. If I do this for you, what will you do for me? It’s difficult to care and be concerned about others when egoism, greed and acquiring possessions raise their ugly head. Material success becomes the gold standard. Self-esteem and worth become dependent on the superficiality of acquiring things that are actually disposable, replaceable and dead. One’s sense of identity becomes diffused, inauthentic, crippled or alienated in the pursuit.

Another example of alienation pertains to manual or office bureaucratic workers. Often, work becomes routine and not stimulating nor satisfying. When performing the same or similar tasks repeatedly, satiation occurs. With satiation, imagination in one’s mind takes over. The individual begins to dream about other things and other situations as opposed to focusing, with great intensity, on the task at hand. With satiation, we also find leaving the field physically as in breaks, absenteeism or even disability. Another way to psychologically leave the field is associated with pornography, sex, alcohol, drugs or antisocial media. In other words, psychological satiation requires a diversion or escape from that reality. Being alienated in the workplace, is a terrible foundation as it interferes with man’s ability to grow, and develop a satisfactory sense of self and identity. With alienation, one has both an impaired self and troubled interpersonal relationships. This means more helplessness, insecurity, inferiority and aloneness.

 It must be obvious that with the development of civilization, man has created and accomplished the unimaginable. With philosophy, music, art, and the natural and social sciences, man understands more about nature, the universe and himself. The industrial and atomic development has created much along with technical achievements resulting in making life easier, enjoyable and meaningful.

However, with the occurrence of sublimation (psychic energy directed away from irrational drives), we have exceedingly more intellectual achievements but also increased emotional anxiety, depression, substance abuse, suicide, obesity, cancer, cardiac and respiratory illness. Other emotional negatives: 1. We have too many alienated working class; difficulty returning to work in low-paying employment; absenteeism and workman comp claims citizens 2. We have exceedingly more hate crimes, prejudice and murder 3. We have exploited nature, pollution of air, water, land and natural resources with mining and fracking placing the climate crisis with weather extremes of hot and cold, fires, flooding and hurricanes at the center of our survival 4.We have created socioeconomic class warfare billionaires becoming more wealthy, income disparities and high poverty levels 5. We have political issues with the filibuster and congressional gridlock 6. We have a moving toward authoritarianism exemplified with Trump’s Republican election fraud lies and anti-public health illusions of the Covid-19 debacle. Moreover, within the history of civilization, frustration, repression, stress and conflict becomes exacerbated and the citizenship becomes exceedingly unhappy despite man’s magnificent productive achievements. However, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson “The first wealth is health”, but’s hard to find.

Eve of Destruction

 

Kierkegaard’s quote” Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” provides reality. The current craziness is bothersome to say the least. For example, my friend’s interaction comes to mind. He stopped to purchase coffee and noticed that a first responder firetruck was illegally parked. The obese first responder, because of his weight, had difficulty exiting the vehicle. To make a long story short, he commented about him being illegally parked and him being excessively overweight. The first responder replied “I’m getting something for my men.” A few minutes later a policeman showed up confronting my friend about a harassment complaint made against him. Of course, the policeman didn’t have all the facts. My friend said “We can discuss the matter in front of all these witnesses at the coffee shop or we can go across the street and discuss it with the people at the Auburn Journal?” The end of story. This essay addresses current insanity.

The first responder’s comment “I’m getting something for my men” is a rationalization, and a moral and ethical justification for parking illegally. This man may believe he’s acting morally and ethically however, he is not acting morally and ethically because he is breaking the law. The fact that he believes what he’s doing is his truth but was not his motivation, but an excuse. He was breaking the law since he knew he was part of the “system” and there would be no consequences.

Last week’s post “Challenge Illusions” could not have been more pertinent regarding the chaos in Afghanistan. The recent reality regarding the history of the fighting infidels in Afghanistan has been well documented. The illusion that the United States’ military involvement and outcome would be different than the previous British and Russian efforts is the illusion. A few facts: 1. The Taliban have total control of their country 2. The president of Afghanistan left the country 3.  The US military is sending additional forces to evacuate US citizens 4. The US trained Afghan security force did what? 5. Afghan interpreters are fearful of being killed by the Taliban etc. 6.The US taxpayers have donated $6.4 trillion in wars in the Middle East 7. 3,500 coalition military personnel have died since 2001 8. 20,066 have been wounded since 2001 9. 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans of those conflicts have committed suicide 10. US tax payers have donated $ 2.261 trillion in the Afghan war. 11. There is much media and political criticism regarding the withdrawal.

A few rationalizations given for our Middle East involvement have been as follows: 1. Protect” our “interests 2. Weapons of mass destruction 3. Providing freedom and democracy in a politically divided country – look in the mirror 4. National Security-we will fight there so we don’t have to fight them here 5. We have to kill bin Laden 6. We are fighting terrorism 7. We haven’t been attacked since 2001. With our rationalizations we have established a motive for revenge.

Perhaps, our “leaders” believed their rationalizations. Whether they believed them or not, is not the point. They are pure and simple rationalizations given to justify moral and ethical behavior. However, there is nothing moral and ethical about 20 years of death, destruction and war. Looking back, it’s clear that U.S citizens were deceived. It’s also apparent, you can bet your life, and it’s not an illusion that certain corporations of the military industrial complex and others have politically and/or economically benefited. It’s also obvious that John Q citizen and G.I. Joe have not benefited. We don’t have a living wage for many; we have poverty; our democracy is in peril and we have a pandemic. We can’t afford to deal with infrastructure or climate change but we can waste over $6 trillion. When it comes to guns or butter, the values of the elite are clear. Why wasn’t there much moral criticism about starting the war in the first place among our Christian leaders? In any event, we have certainly made more enemies in the last 20 years.

There is a public health crisis in our country. This crisis is no illusion.  A few facts pertaining to Covid-19 crisis: 1. it’s predicted that the US could soon have more than 200,000 new Covid cases per day 2. The number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 are at record levels 3. There are 36.7 million cases and 621,000 deaths in our country and growing 4. 207 million total cases worldwide and 4.3 million deaths worldwide. 5.  Florida Governor threatened to withhold salaries to school personnel regarding their mask wearing policy 6.  Texas Governor asked the state Supreme Court to uphold his ban of wearing a mask 7. I could not accompany Linda for her x-ray today since I didn’t have my proof of vaccine card with me. I did not object.

It’s true that many poor people and people without insurance haven’t been vaccinated. Some rationalizations found in the August 8, 2021 edition of The New York Times: 1. A Covid -19 person said he didn’t get the vaccine because he wasn’t sick 2. Contrary information by the CDC 3. Freedom is not negotiable 6. It’s a hoax 7. Government is lying to you 8. Say no to the Covid vaccine-Save the children 9. The vaccines were rushed and dangerous to take 10.  Do not tell my coworkers because I don’t want them to think I’m crazy 11. I am wearing personal protective equipment and a hand sanitizer 12. The vaccine location is inconvenient and expensive 13. I’m worried about side effects 12. To vaccinate is not part of our nature.

It should be apparent that everyone rationalizes at some point. The spectacular ability to rationalize separates us from animals, and that can be argued as a good or bad thing, but not pertinent today. At some juncture, if lucky, one may acknowledge the folly, the illusions of past justifications and decisions. Morally and ethically, rationalizations are harmful and deadly. Under most decisions, a decision to take one’s own life can be argued but not the taking of another life.

The executive function of the brain provides the tools allowing emotionally based defensive rationalizations. As a result, it’s difficult to convince that individual that their thinking is flawed. In part, it’s because the underlying dynamics of rationalizations have an emotional but not a rational, ethical or moral basis which is unknown to said individual. Furthermore, the conscious expression and reasons given might have a kernel of truth. Therefore, a defensive or indignant response follows as the person believes his own words to be truth even though it’s their illusion. Be aware of illusions propagated by the political, economic and religious elite since they are designed to fool and distort even though one wants to believe the pleasurable fiction. It’s little wonder that there so much craziness in our country. Truth be aware-of Perses. It  just might be ”Blowing in the Wind.”

Challenge Illusions

 

 

No one ever said living is easy and I agree. Developmentally, crises happen at each stage. To illustrate, Erik Erickson’s psychosocial model identified eight stages of crisis beginning with the developing a sense of trust or mistrust and then finally the eighth stage of developing a sense of integrity or despair. Aside from the psychological crises, we have physical health issues as well. For those receiving Medicare, physical health issues become exacerbated until death. Nature also provides problems as well. In California, with global warming we have a drought, excessive heat and out of control forest fires darkening the once blue sky. Then there’s flooding in Europe as the many issues of nature are becoming worse, not better. We have lost control of our ability to control nature. Also, do not forget about the man made conflicts that affect our country. Therefore, illusions are invented in our political, economic, social and religious environments making existence more manageable and pleasurable. What would life be like without illusions? This disquisition addresses man’s repressions and illusions.

As a result of all the difficult issues and concerns that impinge upon man during the lifecycle, man, in his mind, creates devotions to his illusions in order to distort reality. An illusion is simply a false-perception within his mind. The purpose for the illusions are essentially subjective wish fulfillments which is a falsification in an attempt to bring back the homeostasis of anxiety or tension originally resulting from the weakness and helplessness beginning at birth. The illusion temporarily results in some pleasure, a sense of satisfaction. In other words it’s a mechanism of safety that “protects” us from the many existing dangers. Sometimes the illusion becomes a delusion which is a belief that cannot be changed by logic or objective reason. We know there are many dangers that confront us and that we require protection. However, we desire pleasure but society says no with its social taboos. The following relates to a few illusions and falsehoods.

More specifically, we experience threatening impulses that effect thinking and action. Then, the psychological mechanism of repression can be activated. Repression is the mechanism that keeps the fear unconscious and not being able to enter consciousness of reality. Repression keeps the irrational, pleasurable impulses in check, in the unconscious, thus protecting the individual from having to deal or experience it consciously. Since its unconscious and out of our awareness, this means that we are typically unaware of those inner dreaded, pleasurable desires that are not socially or legally approved. Looking at the 10 Commandments, some of the irrational desired unacceptable impulses of man include: murder, sexual relations with others, stealing, swearing, and lying.

With repression, we are able to fool ourselves and can easily be fooled by others since those irrational, hostile and aggressive strivings are not part of our awareness. We go into our conscious reality because we can create wonderful story lines and fictions. Repression, the ability to distort becomes activated by fear. The unconscious fear, a threat, can relate to a number of factors. For example, potential loss of significant love , affection or self-esteem, rejection by others, being  abandoned or not part of, being excommunicated from the group for not being loyal or buying into the message, being threatened or bullied, being incarcerated or experiencing financial loss, status or possession. In other words we have many motivational threats that drives us to repress and become part of the consensus.

Linda and I witnessed an example of repression and rationalization with the film “Inherit the Wind.” The story actually occurred in the 1925 in Tennessee. A public school teacher was put on trial for violating a state law. The law prohibited public school teachers from teaching evolution instead of creationism. In the film, the town inhabitants rallied around the words in the Bible regarding creation as the truth. In fact, the judge did not allow science, University professors or even Darwin’s “Evolution of the Species” to be admitted as evidence. That information would have promoted great anxiety, fear about science challenging the idea of God and the words written centuries ago. Scientific information had to be repressed. Initially, in the film, no one dared voice any opposition to the words found in Genesis. Repression of science, Darwin’s theory, logic, thinking or acknowledging information not found in the Bible were cognizant and on display. On a side note, Frederick March, Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly were terrific. Tracy and Kelly were not part of the consensus of the group’s social narcissism. They were, like the little boy in Anderson’s fairytale. They saw that the Emperor was not wearing clothes.

The wonders within the mind has many maneuvers at its disposal for gratifying its desires and passions frowned upon by society. These maneuvers will be addressed subsequently. However, consider this illustration. What does a righteous God fearing Christian do with his unconscious desires and strivings for sex?  He states that sex is dirty, evil and sinful. He voices his stern disapproval against pornography and volunteers to be on a commission to rid this evil travesty from society. In so doing, he gets to view pornography, call it amoral, dirty and fight for its ban and removal. Thus, this individual’s repressed unconscious sexual desire is expressed consciously within the protection of a moralistic sub culture. In other words, his conscious moral indignation is an illusion about himself. The individual is not aware of his hypocrisy. This defense, within the mind, is called reaction formation. Shakespeare was right on in Hamlet: “The Lady Doth Protest Too Much.”

 Repression pertains to significant emotional knowledge which can compromise our sense of identity. We cannot afford to become ostracized or separated from our social group as we traverse life socially, economically, religiously, and politically. We become alienated from others in the process. To compensate, to return to emotional homeostasis from our underlying or unconscious fears, we   intellectually create, in our mind illusions, fictions and fables about our self. These illusions become our inauthentic reality. We can tell ourselves that we are righteous or Christian even when not following the teachings of Christ, peaceful even though we sadistically attack others, make excuses about infidelity as in blaming her, lying, cheating ,following conscience  by employing the mechanisms of denial and rationalization. In other words, repression and rationalizations protects us from the truth about ourselves even with all our contradictions and inconsistencies regarding our behavior. Moreover, our society also perpetuates and reinforces through advertising and other brainwashing, indoctrination strategies the unprecedented greatness or illusions pertaining to our country, its capitalism, its democracy, its healthcare, its way of life etc.

Everyone knows that we have the world’s best democracy. However, our framers or subjective “fathers” created a form of government that was not representative of all the people that lived at the time- a republic. Females and blacks got to vote when? Madison and his WASP’s made sure that a wealthy minority would rule. He was influenced by Adam Smith who didn’t want the majority to take over property and rule. The Texas Republicans believe the same thing with their voting restriction legislation.

Lincoln issued the proclamation and Jim Crow laws followed. State and/or local laws enforced or legalized racial segregation. Today, we have Republican state legislatures and other Republican officials attempting to enact legislation that allows them to overturn a popular vote among other draconian measures to disfranchise people of color and others. We even had the head Republican call the head of the Georgia voting system, Brad Raffensperger to find more votes for him. Democracy for certain white people.

“We” have the best athletes in the world and dominate certain sports like basketball. However, last week, our Olympic NBA basketball team lost to France in a close game.  Yes, we dominated France for the Gold. “We” won 87-82. In 2019 and 2020, the Greek born Giannis Antetokounmpo and in 2021 Nikola Jokic were voted the most valuable players in the NBA.  Jokic was born in Serbia. The all-tournament Tokyo Olympics included Durant, Ricky Rubio of Spain, Patty Mills of Australia, Luka Doncic of Slovenia, and Rudy Gobert of France.

Tom Brady has achieved more Super Bowl wins than any other quarterback. Does that make Brady the best quarterback ever? Is Brady the best NFL player ever? Those discussions and fictions are found in the media and on articles written about players and their rankings. Of course, winning a Super Bowl is impressive. But it’s a team game and it takes players, coaches, and owners etc. to put together a team. Luck, outstanding players and an absence of injury are some of the components for a team on one Sunday to be victorious over another team.

Potato, an acquaintance, said, coming in second place is the first loser. Yes, we are talking about competition. Competitiveness is important for our survival. Love of mother and father and later competition surfaces- called sibling rivalry. The educational system reinforces competition with its grading system, spelling bees, class ranking and the number of years of football dominance. Get good grades so you can attend college. Get good grades and good test scores and go to the “best” university in order to earn more money, power and prestige. Rankings and competition only divides and does not bring anyone together.

It’s important to define best.  Is winning the MVP in basketball, a team game, over one season the definition of the best? Don’t forget that winning the MVP is based on subjective voting and subjective voting only. In MVP voting, one gets 10 points for first-place vote, 7 for a  second-place vote, five for third-place vote, three for a fourth-place vote and one for a fifth place vote.  And the definition or distinction between first and fifth is what? With swimming and track and field, placement is determined by the watch. That is certainly more exact .On that one day, a person can have the fastest time in the world. Does that one day occurrence, make him the best?

I heard that America was the melting pot. We had the immigration act of 1921. That was really an emergency quota act that restricted the number of immigrants admitted from any country. By the way, restricting immigrants was something that was perpetuated the Ku Klux Klan. That group stated we should limit people based on religious and ethnic grounds. In 1924, Congress passed the Johnson-Reed immigration act. This act set quotas, inspired in part by American proponents of eugenics and was calculated to privilege desirable immigrants from Northern and Western Europe. The act limited immigrants considered less racially desirable including southern and eastern European Jews. Many born in Asia and Africa were barred from emigrating United States entirely on racial grounds. After Great Britain, Germany had the second-highest allocation of visas granted.

Don’t forget about the internment camps. The first internment camp was located in Southern California  between 1942 - 1945, a total of  10 camps opened, holding approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas. How many German or Italian entertainment camps were there?

 Do we have the best military? Our last great military victory was in 1945. Our record in Afghanistan has accomplished?  Certainly, we spend more on military domestically and more than a number of other countries combined. Military suicides are on the rise and finally there’s talk about mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations. Nearly one in four US servicewomen report being sexually assaulted and don’t ask or don’t tell!

To falsely build self-esteem, ponder about “the best.” However, remember that it’s only fiction or illusion generated between ones ears. It’s not about wisdom, it’s not about reality, and it’s not about truth. Its purpose is social group narcissistic propaganda with the intent to separate and/or nationalize. It does very little to resolve or fix emotional insecurity or to follow the early Judeo-Christian teachings regarding killing, stealing and having sex with your neighbor. It’s about the division to perpetuate the socioeconomic, political and current religious structure. Better keep the dollar strong, China in second-place along with a high wall at the southern border etc. Repression of awareness is followed by the acceptance of fiction as a Topeka, Kansas Mayor stated “I thought I was going to beat it” pertaining to his Covid admission.  Yes, repression, rationalization, alienation, and social group nationalism are threats to peace, well-being, and happiness and keep the majority in check by feeding them crumbs at the dinner table.

PS

Aristotle had it right “falsehood is in itself bad and reprehensible, while the truth is a fine and praiseworthy thing.”

It's Not Illusion

 

We have health and people problems in our country. Please turn to the science of public health which is designed to protect and improve the lives of people in their communities! I was reared, in a household, with my father who had a Juvenile Diabetes diagnosis. This fact resulted in my focus, interest and devotion to health. This disquisition stresses the importance of employing the ideas of: 1.Evaluating the source 2.Discovering truth 3. Employing a humanistic attitude pertaining to Covid-19 and its variants.

Being subjected on a daily basis with the health hazards of juvenile diabetes had a major impact on me. Every day, I witnessed my father injecting insulin into his body and even assisted him in that process. He talked about his dim future thanks to this dreaded disease. He mentioned failing eyesight, shortened life span and the loss of limbs as result of poor circulation among other symptom

We traveled to Windsor, Ontario where he purchased insulin. On those trips, I received duck style haircuts, food treats, lunch or dinner. Later on, my mother and I took numerous trips to hospitals in the Detroit area for visits. As an adolescent, my mother and I traveled to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. There, my dad introduced me to a patient- Terry Sawchuk, the goalie of the Detroit Red Wings. In front of Terry, my father, impressed with with my strength, had me, with my arm extended hold up one leg of a chair parallel to the ground. I don’t remember Terry’s response.

I moved to California and remember talking to him, on the phone, near the end of his life. During that time I carried my Bible which was Ernest Becker’s “Denial of Death.” My father was discouraged and depressed as they started surgically removing his toes. What an awful time for him and he passed at the age of 70. That was likely a welcomed relief.

An article titled “Between 1920 and 2020, the average human lifespan doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered-but so did activism” found in the May 2, 2021 of The New York Times Magazine was informative. It started with the description of the Spanish flu, H1N1 and its devastation of killing during World War I and the decline in life expectancy from 1916 to 1920. Incremental improvements followed and resulted in breakthroughs of overwhelming proportions-vaccines, germ theory and antibiotics.

Edward Jenner’s invention of the smallpox vaccine; Louis Pasteur’s triumph with milk and wine ; chlorine added to drinking water; vaccine development for whooping cough, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and polio helped curtail future infections and  death;  and penicillin with its protection from cuts and scrapes. Milk, at one time, was called the “liquid poison.” It killed many, but cow’s milk was more flavorful and people in our country did not want to purchase pasteurization of milk. It took advertising to change popular attitudes along with the immigrant from Bavaria, Nathan Straus. Straus was born in 1848. He created, low-cost, milk depots in poor areas on the lower East side of New York. President Theodore Roosevelt got into the act and Chicago in 1909 became the first major American city to require pasteurization .Thanks to Straus and others, unpasteurized milk has been outlawed in almost every major American city. By the way, Straus and his brother were part owners of Macy’s department store. Thanks to John Leal, chlorine disinfectants was introduced in the waterworks in Chicago in 1912 and in Detroit 1913. Thank you John.

Smallpox and cholera are interesting stories as well as it took many health individuals from different locations on our planet to deal with those health problems. Alexander Fleming’s contribution was the magic bullet - penicillin. It was a lifesaver and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Penicillin along with other antibiotics fought tuberculosis in the antibiotic revolution that began with antiviral drugs. Thank you Salk for your polio vaccine. It took the Kefauver-Harris drug amendments to make sure that the listed ingredients on the drug label were in fact such. Now, with the CDC and the W.H.O, we have global scientific organizations working in concert to deal with the eradication of continuous new disease threats to our planet. Thus, there are many scientific minded individuals devoted to wiping out the various diseases that confront us[FL1] .

During the previous administration, individuals were hired based on their loyalty to their leader. Loyalty was defined as being subservient and agreeing with him regardless of reality.  The inept Redfield was appointed to run the CDC and follow directions given by the administration. Other appointees were on the airways along with the leader of providing false and dangerous information. The leader was credited with an enormous amount of lying regardless of the subject.

As a result of the lies and misinformation regarding Covid-19, it is important to question the data. Fox news and social media also presented nonscientific and false lying behavior. Why would anyone believe a liar? Remember the fairytale about the boy who cried Wolf. The boy was not credible which the moral of the story is. Check and evaluate the source. One woman told me she didn’t get the vaccine because of contradictory messaging by CDC. Yes, CDC would be one source of information; WHO would be another source; public health physicians; virologists and even Bill Gates. Bill Gates contributed an enormous amount of funding in search for a vaccine to combat Covid-19. Gates warned and predicted that we have to be on guard for future viruses back in 2016. Always check and evaluate the source of information. I trust and have faith in the New York Times and the Washington Post . On the other hand, A D.O., one of 12 credited with spreading misinformation on social media, makes his living promoting natural ingredients for treatment. There is nothing wrong, in treating people, with natural ingredients or functional medicine. However, providing discredited information is not part of the Hippocratic Oath. He should be silenced and not allowed, because of his economic incentive, to spread lies not supported by science. The article “Disinformation is Big business For One Doctor” found in the July 25, 2021 of The New York Times.

The truth regarding Covid-19 and it’s the variants has tremendous numbers such as 201,503,940 cases worldwide and 4,276,868 deaths affecting 220 countries and territories. The statistics are based on United Nations Geoscheme Sources. 181,320,710 individuals have recovered. The USA leads in total number of cases; total number of deaths; and is second as far as total number recovered. USA also leads in active cases although we are far from the largest population of the world.

This virus cannot be treated with disinfectants or herd immunity at this time. One professional golfer contracted Covid-19 prior and contracted it again. He was disqualified from participating in the Olympics. He said that he had herd immunity so he didn’t need to get vaccinated. Denial and rationalization are designed to protect and distort the anxiety resulting from reality. It’s easy to distort reality by one’s illogical, nonobjective and delusional thinking and believing. For surgery, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon and not a talk show host. Recently, an evangelical pastor suggested to his churchgoers to ditch their masks. Yes, get your health and virus information from an ill-informed, non-credible and non-reliable ignoramus, if you’re so inclined.

As far as humanistic principles, the following is apparent. We have many rules laws and policies designed to protect and benefit people in our society. Paying taxes is about providing services and protection for everyone. If one wants to drive an automobile, one is required to get a license to demonstrate driving skills and knowledge about driving and the law. One is required to have automobile insurance, wear a seatbelt, and drive speed limits posted on the roadways. Notice they are limits. If one breaks the law, there are consequences. Negative consequences are required and expected to change behavior in the positive direction.

There should be consequences for those not receiving a Covid-19 vaccination, mask wearing and social distances. The virus and its variants are on the rise. How can there be herd immunity when variants exist? In other words, to combat and deal with this virus and its variants effectively, we require more than guidelines-we require laws and consequences. One friend suggested that those that don’t get vaccinated should not be allowed public hospital treatment. That certainly is not a humanistic policy but suggests the importance of this issue with those that are potentially harming all of us. In essence, humanism is based on the idea of working together as we are all cohabitating on this planet. When ignorant and delusional people place themselves and others in harm’s way, they are dangerous and should be held accountable. We lead the world with too many awful statistics.

In the middle of the 18^th century, lifespan was about 35 years of age. Thanks to Jenner, Pasteur, Fleming, Salk, Straus, Leal, Gates and so many others including WHO, CDC, US FDA and other organizations, our lifespan has more than doubled because of chemistry, vaccines, drugs, and the rigors of scientific studies, inventions, breakthroughs etc. We have not given our proper due to the perseverance of those not so ordinary Homo sapiens. Monuments, national holidays, prayers and thanks are needed and not memorials to racist Southern generals and football coaches. Are values are what? Yes, thinking and attitudes for so many are anti-humanistic, alienated and crippled. No wonder this country has serious health issues. Check the source for credibility and reliability, use objective reasoning for finding truth, with an attitude of humanism.

---

 [FL1]

Crippled Inside

 

Man, historically, has a rignificant proneness to be asocial and inhumane toward members of his own and self. Some causes relate to primary, secondary and social narcissism, identification, alienation, sadomasochism, fear, reinforcement, emotional conditioning and programming irrespective of the biblical “love thy enemy.” At about 6 months, the infant fears strangers and later learns to hate differences of skin color, race, sexual orientation, and intelligence, religious and political beliefs.  Because of man’s psychological design, it’s far too easy to convince him man that his enemies are nonhuman and belong to another species.

Contrasting man’s aggressiveness toward his own species, the study of paleontology has revealed the following: 1. Researchers found that if the social structure of baboons was not disturbed, there was little aggressive behavior except gestures or threatening postures. 2.  The likelihood of aggressive behavior for chimpanzees was low. 3. Jane Goodall found that a gorilla’s behavior was primarily related to eating, sex and grooming. As far as dominance, her gorillas exhibited assertiveness during the navigation of trail and grooming. The guerrillas used, with an alight tap, the back of their hand to direct another guerrilla. When it comes to defensive aggression or survival, animals can be found to fight or flee.  With that being said, this disquisition looks at violence in a compendious way.

Our 3 basic brain structures include: 1.The Archaic Brain. One function of the archaic brain (lizards and snakes} is instinctual behavior for defending territory and keeping safe.2. The Old Brain (cats and dogs) have many functions one of which includes and found in the ‘amygdala.” The amygdala is primarily responsible for fear, fight or flight responses and anger.  The hypothalamus, another brain function, is the major controlling organ of the autonomic endocrine system. It regulates temperature, hunger, thirst, sexual arousal and the sleep -wake cycle. 3. Humans have the New Brain. This new brain has higher cognition, abstract thought, use of tools, formation and comprehension of language, social behavior, creativity and problem solving. It is called the Executive Function. Let’s reframe and refer to it as the “Destructive Function.”

It’s apparent that man and the animal species are aggressively wired for survival. Paleontology studies have observed animals in the wild and in captivity. Briefly, yes there are predatory animals, but field observations show that aggression is found in food acquisition and mainly as a defensive reaction. In captivity, often an animal will show aggression when a new member enters the setting. Generally speaking, animals are not found to be predatory. They prefer to run or escape as opposed to fighting.

In the evolution of intuitional Catholicism, Adam’s disobedience was considered sinful because of man’s nature. Luther and Calvin agreed and had man dependent on God for salvation. Both the Old and New Testament, with the 10 commandments, acknowledged man’s aggressiveness toward man. Later, Charles Darwin wrote about evolution and the necessity for aggression regarding survival of the species and his “Survival of the Fittest” was published in 1869.

Sigmund Freud wrote, from a biological orientation, about the development of the mind. He identified the master drive or need for survival, the libido and with its aggressiveness as in sadomasochism. He later added the death instinct as a second major competing need or drive. He believed there was an interplay dynamic and struggle between life and death. I’m winning Dr. Freud.

The history of Homo sapiens have glorified  military rulers  Joshua, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, William the Conqueror, Caesar, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Suleiman the Magnificent, Francis Drake, Frederick The Great, George Washington, Horatio Nelson, Geronimo, Ulysses S Grant, Eisenhower, Halsey, Lemay, Patton Jr, Rommel Jr, Dayan, Zedong and many others. Our military gives medals for excessive killing. Yes, winning, death, destruction is glorified for the winners. Man’s aggressiveness toward man is noted.

For the past 20 years, our country has been at war in the Middle East and is withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.  We’ve been part of a worldwide pandemic in which there have been over 190 million cases with over 4 million deaths. On January 6, 2021 we witnessed an attack on the US Capital. Certainly the war in the Middle East, the pandemic and capital attack was fight and not for defensive purposes. Moreover, there are numerous shootings and killings every day in this country.  There is little doubt of the preponderance of aggression, on display, directed toward others.

Now, let’s take a look at how man aggressively treats himself. First, Henry Murray built on Freud’s psycho dynamic theory and then created his own theory of personality. Murray stated that the existence of a need can be inferred on the basis of: 1. The effect and result of the behavior 2. The particular pattern or mode of behavior involved 3. The selective attention and response to a particular action of stimulus objects 4. The expression of a particular emotion or affect 5. The expression of satisfaction when a particular effect is achieved and disappointment when the effect is not achieved.

Murray then identified man’s needs that pertain to survival. Our focus is Abasement Need-to submit passively to external force. To accept injury, blame, criticism, punishment. To surrender. To become resigned to fate. To admit inferiority, error, wrongdoing or defeat. To confess and atone. To blame, belittle or mutilate the self. To seek and enjoy pain, punishment, illness and satisfaction.

I know, first hand, about a basement. I have been consistently running, roughly 50 trail miles a week for 50 weeks per year since 1997 totaling over 50,000 miles; approximately 650,000 hours or for a total of a year and a half. Take that Forest Gump! Did I seek and enjoy pain, punishment, illness, and satisfaction? Well, I have often experienced pain, punishment, satisfaction and some injury. Also important, is the ability of having an image of a special food, during a run, which is an aspect of the oral experience and addressed later.

I have experienced discomforts from overuse injury. Treatments included ibuprofen, ice, spa Jets and visits to chiropractor Matt; Monster of Massage Veloyce, physical therapist Jim, and in 2019 to the Dutch Dr. orthopedic surgeon. He told me that I had a knee of a young man. Oh yes, in 2005 I had meniscus surgery on the left knee with Dr. Kevin, one squamous cell surgical procedure and two hernia’s removed. I do my best to rationalize my running obsession. I have read and wrote in “It Has Nothing To Do With Age” about the benefits regarding health. Currently, I am running slower and therefore not likely to experience another overuse injury. In essence, I’m currently satisfied with my abasement need Dr. Murray.

I know a number of NFL and college players. Most were linemen that received honors. They enjoyed their NFL careers and likely would do it again. Ed, Jim, Reggie, Connie, Dan and Mike, with the exception of Ed, are about 10 years younger than me. I can easily run circles around all of them suggesting that they significantly hurt themselves while playing that violent game. Another friend, Thom, is part of a longitudinal Harvard study evaluating the health effects of playing that game.

Noting the need for abasement, certain occupations have high suicide rates. For instance, a recent study stated that police officers are at a higher risk of suicide than any other occupation. Number of police officers who died by suicide is more than triple that of officers who were badly injured in the line of duty. 13.42 out of every 100,000 people have died by suicide in the general population. That number increases to 17 out of every 100,000 for police officers.  Hate supersedes love. California, Florida, New York and Texas suffer from the highest rates of officer suicides.

In the military, a total of 377 active-duty service members died by suicide 2020. Active duty suicides have been steadily increasing since 2016. Also in 2020, there were more than 6,500 Covid -19 deaths and 150,000 infections. They are losing. Then we have military casualties of war. Join the military and learn how to die and kill others as well.

There were 33,244 total motor vehicle crashes the United States in 2019.  36,096 deaths occurred. The fatality rate per 100,000 people ranged from 3.3 in the District of Columbia to 25.4 in Wyoming. With mental illness, there were an estimated 18 million individuals in United States suffering from depression; 40 million affected by anxiety disorders and 1 in 20 children found to have anxiety or depression in the single year.  As far as gun violence, there were nearly 20,000 Americans killed from gun violence in 2020. Plenty of killers in our society.

Turning to oral dependent behavior, the US adult obesity rate stands at 42.4%. There were more than 2.8 million hospital stays every year in the US where obesity was a cause or contributing factor. Approximately 300,000 people die for obesity in America every year. People are eating more processed and high-fat foods, eating larger portions, exercising less, spending more time in front of screens for some explanations. 71.6% of adults age 20 are either overweight or obese.

Excessive alcohol use is responsible for more than 95,000 designated deaths each year. The number of shortened lives that die are calculated to be roughly 29 years or a total of 2.8 million years of potential life lost.  Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2019, there were 70,630 drug overdose deaths in the country. Further, there are more than 480,000 smoking deaths per year, including more than 41,000 suffering from secondhand smoke or 1300 deaths every day.

Psychodynamically, infants are not born to hate but are born helpless, dependent and begin to form reality. The infant’s tension system is activated when hungry and reduced-pleasure when fed in this primary narcissistic object less phase. How, when, what and the manner in which the infant is fed is considered psychologically a critical period. As in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the porridge can be hot, cold or just right. Being held, cuddled, talked to and being able to be properly nursed by a warm, secure, non-anxious, healthy and loving caretaker is the issue. Also important is the timing to reduce the tension; the proper amount of milk; or on whose schedule when the infant is fed, especially during night feeding? The feeding process and interaction can be easily disturbed and the infant can be spoiled, constricted, regulated or even in varying degrees frustrated. How much and how often should delaying gratification be implemented? With frustration, conflict and other psychological issues at this stage, a number of timely studies by Spitz, Goldfarb, Harlow, Anna Freud and others found significant infant childhood illness depending upon the dynamics of caretaking.  In Erikson’s psychosocial model, he wrote about whether or not the infant can develops a sense of trust (emotional health and richness of interpersonal interactions) or whether a sense of mistrust was established. This psychological state has implications for inter-and intra-psychological interactions. With mistrust, the ground floor for the development of paranoia and suspiciousness becomes established. Thus, initial emotional well-being or not becomes generalized toward the outside world.

During this oral, mouth, lips and tongue dominance stage of infancy, the infant’s mentation   introjects an object from the outside world. It can take in “love,” pleasure which is a reduction of tension and/or can take in “deprivation” and frustration without the reduction of tension or discomfort and pain. The object, person or persons can also be introjected as “good or evil” and if evil, rage follows and this feeling can be generalized and directed and attributed to others as well. Simply stated, the mother’s character and well-being is of critical importance for optimum child development. If the woman has already been exposed to consistent pleasure in giving and receiving of love, nurturance and respect, as a wife and mother, the chances are high that the baby will greatly benefit despite his rage, resentments, temper tantrums and “I hate you comments.”.

The mouth, the need or an initial anxiety state, can be a source of tension reduction-pleasure or a source of frustrated painful tension. The mouth and tongue can be associated with love, pleasure or zone of receptivity. Essentially, nurturance taken in by the mouth becomes destroyed. For a moment, think about the nursing mother. Initially it’s a wonderful, symbiotic and pleasurable experience. With development of the teeth, biting of the nipple, can change that pleasure experience and facilitate quick weaning. Initially, we see receptive passivity and then we see aggression as in teething, biting, chewing, devouring with more and more pressure. Devouring is aggressive and becomes destructive.

This oral stage is passive and aggressive as it’s the first pleasure or painful zone in psychological development. Difficulties at this critical stage can become tendencies for oral aggression and hate. Oral aggression, later on, can be exemplified passively by arguing, yelling, shouting, spitting, and/or verbalizing hate and violence. This tendency are passive aggressive examples of an individual developing an oral character. In other words, excessive gratification and/or excessive delay equals frustration of the physiological need, at this stage of development. This dynamic often results with the sadistic impulse to attack others. Also apparent, at this stage, with the frustration of that need, becomes the attempt to magically resolve that early oral deprivation by devouring. Now, for the first time can exert dominance, even if short-term, for being in control- a reception of pleasure. Psychologically, this is referred to as going from the passive to aggressive mode.

With significant problems at the oral or psychosocial stage of development, we find that the individual emotionally regresses in the attempt to overcome and undo that initial and traumatic deprivation.  Individuals use their oral cavity or mouth to bring in food. Food is taken in emotionally, compulsively and not related to survival or being full. It’s the emotional emptiness and anxiety that can never be filled. In addition to food, nicotine and drugs are also emotionally and compulsively misused. They provide, at best, only temporary pleasure, distorting reality by reducing the tension. However, unfortunately these substances have long term dependent, addictive and far reaching unhealthy consequences. Alcohol, is another temporary oral pleasure that distorts reality-reducing tension. It also has significant negative long-term ill health effects. No wonder, our hospitals are filled, as the American life span is shortening.

In essence, lack of trust, disturbance during the oral and psychosocial stage of development, sets in motion the prospect for oral fixation. The oral stamp on character cannot be overstated.  With an oral fixation, we find pessimistic outlook tendencies coupled with aggressiveness and rage directed both inward and outward. There is much more to the story about addictive, dependent and self-destructive behavior but beyond the realm of this essay. In other words, ineffective parenting contributes greatly to the development of this dependent and addictive character disorder. Yes, it’s apparent, that the social character in our country has a negative and sadistic oral dominance.

Thank you John Lennon for your song “Crippled Inside.” It’s clear that individuals have a productivity for directing aggression and sadomasochism against others which cripples our country’s mental and physical health. We are harming ourselves and others over and over again with statistics on the rise. There are some, compromised by health and other cognitive issues, but many individuals are making poor choices, seem out of control, and not able nor care to regulate or moderate their sadistic and hateful behavior. They seem as if they want to end their life sooner than later. It’s not the American dream but the American nightmare.  Too much of the population has ineffective “New Brain” evolution.

PS

Do not forget about another self- destructive act like not following public health and common sense recommendations for the Pandemic and its variants. They are spreading the virus of fear and hate with nearly 4 million cases and nearly 65 k deaths. One evangelical pastor (so called spiritual leader) claimed “Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense.”  That ignoramus is teaching hate.

Reference

Fromm, Erich. The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. A. Fawcett Crest Book

Murray, H. A. Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford

Malignant Narcissism

 

 

It’s apparent that man has to fulfill his biological needs for survival. Psychologically, the infant’s initial reality has to do with its body, the physical sensations of warmth, thirst, the need for sleep and bodily contact. This psychological state has been referred to as primary narcissism in which all the psychic energy of the mind is directed inward. Over time, psychic energy becomes directed outward toward an object or objects within his life space. This psychological state has been referred to as secondary narcissism. Subsequently, the psychic energy of secondary narcissism is transferred and directed towards groups. It’s imperative that group assistance is necessary for survival. This disquisition focuses on individual and social narcissism.

First, let’s distinguish between benign and malignant narcissism. The productivity and achievement of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Michelangelo, Epicurus, da Vinci, Kepler, Spinoza, Chagall, Picasso, Bacon, Locke, Newton, Frost ,Einstein, Marx, Mozart, Bach, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Goethe, Mendelsohn, Gutenberg, Freud, Lewin, Skinner, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson , Lincoln, Stanton, Anthony, Gompers, Roosevelt, Faulkner, Hemingway, Whitney, King Jr., Salk, Chomsky, Steph Curry’s winning this year’s NBA scoring title etc. are  a few examples of benign narcissism. This essay, however focuses on malignant narcissism which is not related to accomplishment, works of art, literature, music, productive intellectual achievement or a creation.

Survival is an important aspect of narcissism since it requires psychic energy to stay alive. Yet, exerting, directing and focusing energy primarily related to self can make man ineffective in dealing with others as in asocial behavior.

The malignant narcissist thinks that everything about himself is extraordinary. His hair, his mind, his intelligence, his personality, etc., for him, are exceptional; and superior. It’s not about accomplishment or production. Further, there’s no limit to his possessiveness and/or lust; he can do what he wants, when he wants it. His words are wonderful, special and exhibit exceptional intellectual power according to him. The more he perceives himself to be God like, the more he exploits and perceives himself to be above others. Then, he fears that the enemy is everywhere and against him.  He reacts by wanting more power, being more ruthless, in his exploitation and control of his subordinates. He demands loyalty; his precepts becomes the “guide”; everyone has to agree that he’s the greatest; the most powerful and the wisest of leaders.

When others are critical, it’s a threat, to his self-esteem. The reaction results in frustration and anger. Threats are perceived as hostile attacks. He then rationalizes that his violent outbursts and/ or responses are justified. When self-inflation is threatened by a critic, his primary response is to destroy and/or humiliate the critic or the persons.

When Trump lost to Biden that was a narcissistic injury. He angrily responded that the election was stolen and put in motion 62 frivolous lawsuits attempting to right his perceived wrong. In his mind, he was right to do what he did. Again, he was behind the January 6 riot, at the capital, in an attempt to overturn the election results and scapegoated Pence in the process. He was righteous and had to ward off the psychological threat by transforming reality, making it conform to his self-image. Destroying democracy was justified and is an illustration of malignant narcissism.

The elections, impeachments, lawsuits against voting, leads to the danger and power of group narcissism. Joining and identifying with a group allows one to be part of the protection which assists in one’s survival. With feelings of social, economic and political inadequacies, one identifies, follows and irrationally submits, loves and is drawn to the power of the leader. This “magically “occurs with identification and illustrates how the mind works in an attempt to reduce the anxiety, insecurity or dangers.

One transfers narcissistic attachment to a group which is thought to be good, beautiful, and wise, the best etc. in other words, cognitive thought, rational judgment and moral capacity becomes distorted. Joining the group leads to a distortion, lack of capacity to think, to judge and to evaluate. It’s subjective, biased and becomes one like “a band of brothers in arms.” My group is good, decent, stronger, and clean while the other group or groups are bad, inferior, weaker, stupid, dishonest, dangerous, immoral etc. Note the importance of rivalry between groups. With group affiliation and identification, one becomes” better “equipped for survival in the dangerous world.

Think about the Olympic rivalry and the narcissistic quest for superiority against the other nations. Our country’s athletes are pitted against the athletes of the world. The gold medal becomes the ultimate prize.  Then, our country counts and compares our number of prizes with our competitor’s number of medals. Does this make us the best, the most superior? Therefore, capitalism is superior?  What does capitalism have to do with athletic performance? In other words, rationalizations follow which are necessary for satisfying the ideology of self-superiority which is a divisive group narcissism requirement. There is no finitude.

A few examples of group narcissism include but not limited to: 1. US versus China, Russia, and Iran 2. Capitalism versus Socialism 3. Democrats versus Republicans 4. Trump versus Biden 5. Whites versus Blacks 6. Phoenix Suns versus Milwaukee Bucks.

If an individual with malignant narcissism, has a narcissistic injury, the reaction is vengeance and rage. Don’t forget the Hatfields and McCoy’s; The North Versus South; Protestants versus Catholics; the Axis powers versus the Allied powers are just a few examples of vengeance, reaction and destruction following narcissistic injuries. Rivalries, as in college and professional sports are good examples of fan craziness. Even though an opposing important player becomes injured, the opposing fans clap and yet are happy as the other team lost its star player.

In order for group narcissism to be significant, it requires a powerful leader who’s convinced of his greatness without any doubt. This leader can justify any of his actions even if they are amoral, above the law, anti-democratic etc. The followers submit, become obedient, magnify his power and even take on the amoral qualities of their leader without acute guilt or wrong doing. They deny and rationalize the leader’s reality and his subjectiveness and his precepts become theirs. Of course, even though their hate and racist attitudes were there all along, they would not, by themselves, attack an officer etc. With a leader of malignant narcissism, the group’s malignant narcissism fits as well. Trump and his Republican followers, are a significant threat to the rest of us because of their hate , quest for power, control, and exploitation .Their policies  regarding anti-vaccine stance, January 6 capital attack, voter suppression legislation, anti-infrastructure stance, and being against legislation that benefits everyone but the corporations and top 1% are a few illustrations.

PS

Sibling rivalry, watch the lackey’s fawn.

Reference

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and It’s Discontents. W, W, Norton & Company Inc.