--- In [email protected], "Xenophaneros Anartaxius"  wrote:
>
> Dr. Kevin Dutton is a research psychologist at the Calleva 
> Research Centre for Evolution and Human Science, Magdalen 
> College, University of Oxford and is a fellow of the Royal 
> Society of Medicine and the Society for the Scientific 
> Study of Psychopathy. He has produced the following lists 
> indicating occupations that have the highest and lowest 
> rates of pyschopathy.
> 
> Occupations with the highest rates of psychopathy:
> 
> 1.  CEO
> 2.  Lawyer
> 3.  Media (Television/Radio)
> 4.  Salesperson
> 5.  Surgeon
> 6.  Journalist
> 7.  Police officer
> 8.  Clergy person
> 9.  Chef
> 10. Civil servant
> 
> Occupations with the lowest rates of psychopathy:
> 
> 1.  Care aide
> 2.  Nurse
> 3.  Therapist
> 4.  Craftsperson
> 5.  Beautician/Stylist
> 6.  Charity worker
> 7.  Teacher
> 8.  Creative artist
> 9.  Doctor
> 10. Accountant
> 
> Number 8 in the first list is interesting, while it uses the 
> terminology associated with Christian metaphysics, it could 
> just as easily be applied to Rabbi, Ayatollah, and Guru, 
> though there might be cultural differences that would alter 
> the position on the list. We do see a lot of strange and 
> abusive Gurus, of which many here feel MMY was one.

What I find interesting are numbers 4 and 8 on the
second list. Many on the non-psychopathic list are
care-givers or those who have chosen a profession
based on service to others, something I would expect
to help keep psychopathy at bay. But craftspersons
(a term I assume refers to someone good enough at a 
craft as to be considered somewhat of an artist at 
it) and creative artists? 

The connection this provokes in me is that most of
the gurus/teachers/spiritual leaders I've run into 
or studied over the years whom I would assess as 
suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder 
and possibly psychopathy were *not* creative 
personally. But they longed to be *perceived* by
others as creative. Fred Lenz - Rama, for example,
couldn't play an instrument or read music, but he
claimed to have "composed" all of the music that
Zazen (a band he formed composed of real, profes-
sional musicians, who I knew well, and well enough
to know that they wrote every note) recorded. He 
didn't...he just claimed that. Similarly, there 
are strong rumors that he didn't write the "Snow-
boarding To Nirvana" book that he published under 
his name, but instead farmed it out to students 
of his to write, and then signed his name to it. 

I've heard similar stories of abusive or contro-
versial gurus/teachers doing exactly the same thing,
and ripping off creative works done by other people
so that they could sign their name to them. We've
all heard stories of Maharishi doing exactly the
same thing, starting with commentaries on the Gita
that almost certainly weren't actually written by
him, and continuing through his presentation of 
stuff about A-V, S-V, and other subjects that he
"borrowed" from other people. 

I wonder what it is about actually *being* creative
that helps those who are to avoid psychopathic 
tendencies, and what it is about psychopaths that
makes them envy real creative people enough to
fake it, so as to be thought of as one of them.




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