Xeno, fortunately we have experts like Mindsight author and UCLA prof of psychiatry Dr. Daniel J. Siegel who focus on treatment and brain based diagnosis. I'm not sure how helpful labels are, unless they are behavior based such as Overeaters Anonymous uses. I think one criticism of the recently published DSM5 is that labels can lead to over dependence on pharmaceutical interventions as long term treatments rather than as short term help with debilitating symptoms. And labels such as narcissistic sociopath IMO can be damaging in and of themselves. I mean really, what can a person do with such a label?! Ms. Thomas seems to be making the most of it with her blog and now her book. But even she has experienced mixed results with such self treatment and coping strategies.
She might do better with a little help from someone like Dr. Siegel who talks about mirror neurons and resonance circuits which include neural networks not only in the brain but also around the heart and throughout the whole body. In addition he has a toolbox of mindfulness techniques to help a person develop their brain in ways that have not yet happened for one reason or another. In her case I'd guess that those belt beatings by her father had some dire effect on her brain as well as on other parts of her body. What parts of her brain did she have to shut down to survive such treatment? Mentioning the book below again as it addresses topics in the last part of your post: http://www.sethhfarber.com/the_spiritual_gift_of_madness_the_failure_of_psychiatry_and_the_rise_of_the_mad__113226.htm ________________________________ From: Xenophaneros Anartaxius <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 8:32 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Sure sounds like Robin to me... --- In [email protected], Ravi Chivukula <chivukula.ravi@...> wrote: > > What's with this slander Barry - first it was Xeno and now you? This is > totally malicious and completely uncalled for. You guys seriously need some > help for your malicious, vindictive nature. > > What threatens you guys so much - his intelligence? brilliance? loving > sensitivity? maturity? wisdom? > > Take your pick Barry baby. > > On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 10:28 PM, turquoiseb <[email protected]>wrote: > > > ** > > Except for the success / top-of-the-ladder thang. > > > > http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/25/how-to-spot-a-sociopath-hint-it-could-be-you.html > > > Robin is intelligent and has a peculiar kind of brilliance - he may be sensitive, or could be faking it - he certainly shows certain aspects of maturity and has wisdom. But there is something essentially strange about him, and I think to some people, scary. I found his posts manipulative, very much so. Ravi, it is very difficult to tell on a forum if anyone is threatened by anything, although that word is used frequently. Barry even uses it, though in Barry's case it is a lure with a thread attached, out of sight is a flexible pole with a reel. I tend to think that when you (and Judy) use the word 'threaten', you are serious about it: correct me if I am wrong. None of us here are exactly an 'average' person, but on a scale of averageness, Robin departs significantly from average, and some of those divergent traits at one time brought about his downfall. And why is he not on the forum now? Everybody here gets criticised - no way to escape it. Sociopaths get bored, always need to be doing something. That does not mean Robin is a true sociopath, but like me he shares some traits that could be sociopathic though we have a different mix. Things like meditation also develop traits that could be sociopathic as these practices may take one's sense of identity out of the conventional view that 'I am a person' and 'I am in a world much larger than myself' (and depending on the individual, such practices may fail to do this as well). As one of the early posts on FFL stated concerning Robin, after his 'enlightenment' things got very strange. There are numbers of people that learned TM for example, that cracked up in some way after learning the practice. Meditation techniques mess with your mind in ways that are not entirely predictable. If you are fortunate, after the screwy spiritual path part of life's journey, you may become more or less normal again.
