Mental Health Today - Hospitals and Aftercare
Having experienced, and witnessed, plenty of 'malignant' Narcissism in my trembly, enlightened, life, I can guarantee it's being wildly misdiagnosed. I'm almost certain that's also a part of Sam Vaknin's (NPD expert and psychopath) message too (Not sure yet, he has a lot of advice online (including loads of video's on Youtube that I haven't finished viewing yet)
I've also witnessed social workers (and mental health nurses) chronically misusing psychiatric terms - in various situations- that are then translated into actual, very serious disorders by doctors ('taking their word for it') when the evident behaviours witnessed were clearly (mostly not exaggerated) normal, human expressions. Not a major tantrum in sight. Such team-work could be construed as 'gaslighting/gang-stalking/conspiracy. So don't blame the paranoids.
In that particular hospital, giggling was described as 'mania' and fear ='Psychosis' (they were simple anxiety attacks/phobic reaction)
- worse, a cocky psychiatrist was regularly informing obviously bright people, that they have no 'insight' but the same was not guilty of giving any personalised, constructive direction, only probing, smug interviews, culminating in giving extremely serious drugs (maybe, in the process, causing future brain-damage/Dementia?) with indefinite detention in a room alone, no radio/TV, 24/7 for months on end, without hope or a release date (on plastic mattress of 2 feet wide) this prescription , mostly, only ever proves to relieve temporary situations and thus regularly disabling these already confused and frightened human animals who need their problem-solving skills honed rather than annihilated.
Makes you wonder on what genius philosophy psychiatry is based (a bit of Buddhism, Mu is useful) and if it's still globally relevant and why psychiatry has the highest rate of suicide than any other profession. Do they appreciate that each snowflake, leaf and identical twin, is unique? Do they want a heaving mass of sameness? I prefer to listen to happy and healthy people, me. I like to control my own my serotonin and dopamine, thanks, I kinda know how to regulate it, mostly. Panic attacks miss the benzo's though. Doctors were very silly in misprescribing those things, now nobody can benefit from them (not in this part of the world) due to 'addiction potential'(don't give many and limit them even further to stupid people?)
Some of the staff were also overtly religious at that place (MH Hospital). Makes you wonder when they'll start trying to exorcise their talking snakes? But they were (often) very kind, not so much when doubling up and dragging terrified sick people out of bed and onto public halls (when very poorly with hospital bugs though!)
Students and advocates were consistently lovely, respectful, as well as very kind. Always trying to understand. Some regular staff too, tried quite hard to be good most of the time and face facts, it's not an easy job (by ANY stretch)
Where DO those boss doctors obtain their joy though?
Evidently, such psychiatric 'therapy' Often ends in homelessness, ill-health, suicide, dependence on daily drugs, depression and dejected hopelessness. One woman wrote (after having been raped by a MH worker during her hospital stay)
'I was (generally) too defeated to do anything about it' (he was caught and imprisoned)
Those 'patients' are still people, if not elderly in care-homes (at risk) and forgotten?
*Elderly, globally, should all have a NEW tablet, advertised in the NY times recently (for little kids) waterproof and shatterproof (cost about a hundred quid) - with online interactive support. The tech-phobia-anger is only fear. Gentle demonstrations will get them past that. Patience is underrated too. Experience can't be bought and is underutilised.
I witnessed an (actually fun and very funny/nice!) disturbed, NPD/Sociopath win a MH tribunal to leave hospital in order to escape ECT, and two perfectly 'normal' (if frightened and phobic) people lose their MH tribunals (Tribunals can include angry looking, excited/flushed red-faced kinda, panting magistrate plus superficially charming and sweet but ruthless and negligent MH solicitors, attractive (if condescending) MH nurses (truth, sorry), all working, valiantly, 'as a team' to condemn said scared mentals, who are then forced to stay in terribly noisy (and quite dangerous, extremely loud alarms all day) invasive mixed wards (though folks were kindly warned when rapists were awake) - for months on end due to not wanting to take drugs (and suffering frequent threats of physical restraint by using huge-guy force if not) *You have to call the police if you get assaulted by patients in there, which isn't that rare. Their visits were strangely welcome relief.
Being properly assertive, seems to be a winner. Not every patient can own that skill too well under pressure or terror though. The fear-factor is misunderstood.
About 20-30% of the patients, quite clearly, shouldn't have been there. Not with their type of problems. Not in that adversarial, demeaning, defeating, scary place. They also shouldn't be cuffed unless very dangerous indeed.
One client was ordered to take her drugs and 'accept and integrate' with her psychopathic, bullying neighbour (who was largely responsible for getting her there)
Let's be clear. The clients I refer to, are not ignorant, nasty, violent nor consistently erratic but generally rather kind, pleasant & passive, mildly eccentric (scared to death, a bit confused) - vulnerable, people. They're not a danger to themselves or anyone else, either.
The area this happened is in Kensington, Central London (England) in 2013. ( Strangely, Kensington also has an above average suicide rate) One Flew Over The Bloody Cuckoo's Nest.
Why not get the patients to write it all down, and analyse THAT, instead of analysing a person
who's going to be in state of extreme defensiveness, distress, fear and embarrassment (when terrified at having been sectioned/being
interviewed by a 'scary' doctor (and his masses of charming Bond-girl type colleagues)? Thus spewing out misleading and fragmented 'confessions' when panic-truck, 'intimidated' and vulnerable?
A very buoyant and robust (and otherwise healthy) character was there and couldn't understand why they wanted her to stop loving someone. 'Without Love, what is life?' she said. She couldn't comprehend the damage she was doing (pest) and was from the sticks in an Eastern European country. She wasn't stupid at all, she was deeply interested in health, physics and other dynamics, but she just wasn't having her *personal* dynamics explained to her in a way she could process, in order to adjust.
She was drugged to the hilt and kept in a secure ward for months on end. Not at all dangerous, rather, a delight to know. It was desperately sad to witness her super-healthy countenance deteriorated so, the longer she was detained. She was a positive-thinking, foreign, non-malignant Narcissist was all. Harmless.
The sociopath NPD, as far as I can tell (not really considered in Diagnostic manuals?) seems to be the main 'reason' behind a lot of nastiness and passive aggressive actions (eg. trolls, libel) and/or covertly prone to domestic violence in varying forms, maybe often found energising subversive groups and other troublemakers (if not out of work and obsessing full-time on 'supply' - (hard to find those 'drivers'?))
(You're prone to learn a bit about this stuff when you've been frequently abused/exploited/stalked for years and nobody listens)
Psychopath Humour and Entertainment
A dead give-away is the lack of appropriate demonstrable, relaxed, interactive humour (discounting built-in mock-reflex, excused as 'wit') and
obvious inability to *sympathetically* recognise (or properly
respect) another human (perspective) in trouble. Though an NPD is voracious for information to back up his own interests/obsessions.
Sociopath service people CAN empathise to a degree, despite athletically 'storming' in on heart-attack victims, who would also be in a state of terror - which is surely doubled when the alarm caused by these VERY LOUD AND AGGRESSIVE visits must be finishing a few patients off? Eh Dad? (R.I.P)
They often have huge hearts but often seem to regard 'stupid sick people' as large, helpless infant elephants. They also like to inform patients of complex bodily functions and possible 'events', scaring people with 'friendly' banter. Some hospital Porters do it too, using the excuse they'd 'go mad' if they didn't have a laugh. Maybe they would turn all criminal? Bit like team-playing charity-loving Jimmy Savile?
You can't 'teach' some humour
(you had to BE there) - and frighteningly - some more lateral humour - can form part of a diagnosis - ''inappropriate laughter'' - used as evidence of insanity. Is that true? At all?
Sociopaths enjoy watching accidents/potential accidents but can be personally DESTROYED by stinging nettles/someone bigger. Psychopaths on the other hand, fight on, even if cornered, they never 'lose' and they never learn to understand their own apparent fearlessness. Why should they, when NLP negatively/positively reinforces their 'professional' Psychopathology?
Nothing, not any law, stands in their way. 'You've Been Framed' is probably their favourite laugh on TV in the UK (clips of mishaps). They'd also probably watch Eastenders (BBC Soap/emotional masturbation) and often 'hate' coronation Street (ITV Soap, more creative) as it's often good and sometimes demonstrates subtle humour that usually isn't perceived. Frankie Boyle and other similarly talented humorists, have been witnessed, in almost distraught pain, trying to explain the irony/humour, bit by bit, to such NPD's, who stare on, with their blank, perplexed 'accusatory' (fixed) expression.
Despite Sophisticated humour mostly being lost on them, they may be very suspicious of it. They'd rather jump off bridges/out of windows/roller blade over baby squirrels/put cats in bins/invent psychiatric labels/angles/protests/spin, watch Jeremy Kyle or scream even louder 'in his name' between vacuuming again for the 5th time that day (anything to avoid books/healthy-sex/laughter) - but they naturally don't consider themselves deficient in any way. Instead they invest more (almost rabid) dopamine in their pursuit of OTHER things to judge.
Sociopaths enjoy a more varied lifestyle than Psychopaths do although the Psychopath tries REALLY hard, but the finer, less glittery, pursuits, just don't 'register' though. They don't understand why they don't get it.
They can't laugh (naturally) if they can't 'own' it (amygdala damage/shrinkage)) Schizotypals and lesser Narcissists are into The Fast Show, Monty Python, Frankie Boyle and other, more thoughtful stuff. They often enjoy B3TA online whereas the Psychopath would prefer the more popular joke site, Sickipedia. (*though interestingly, some Schizotypals, don't like dark humour/horror films, NPD's often do) *None of this is in the ICD10 or DSMV.
Frankie Boyle would probably know all about it (ex MH worker, controversial and much admired author and comic in UK)
I guarantee your local welfare department, that the average 'benefit cheat' is an NPD cluster B (olden days would be known as 'fishwife', now 'chav') but is *that* really 'disability? Or 'salt of the earth'? A Criminal (if out of work)? What else can they do with their time if not running a religion or a country?
IQ is no indicator of Psychopathy either. They are though, very sadly, super-lacking in EQ or are fair fakers, whatever their status. *Sociopaths are probably good at poker whereas psychopaths, probably wouldn't be. And just cuz someone can't articulate, doesn't mean they aren't an EQ genius.
Psychopaths make successful gang-leaders and enjoy group activity - controlling/partaking/leading -'team playing'- gets them off when they're not indulging in 'water-sports'/bdsm/paedophilia. They hate boredom and 'emotional' isolation. They'd make reasonably effective, supervised, Gym managers. They are very particular about their choices. Or else.
Psychopaths 'in Love'
There are some very gentle, insidious types of passive-aggressive psychopaths. Rolf Harris comes to mind. The childish style of art should've been a red-flag we missed? Minimum effort, maximum output? So often encouraged by the wrong sort of advisor? Oblivious to the regard for choice in the mind of the innocent, confused (and naturally silly) child. Wildly discourteous of the laws and rights of the young and then claiming it couldn't be crime because he was 'gentle'. Probably had read and missed the point of the Nabokov book, Lolita, entirely (pervs gave that author a bad name, he's a brilliant and hilarious writer when read from a healthy adult perspective). Excusing the crime as 'human'(rather than animal) Apparently driven by overly liberal values as let's face it, those laws can come in handy for such habits? Did Harris get long enough? I don't think he did.
The average male Psychopath's anorexic/bulimic (schizotypal/NPD) co-dependent, existential wife may be found writing about more successful fictional characters in an effort to draw attention to her 'partner' to show him her potentially honest and good existence as a real individual with autonomy (he won't get it) or be seen publicly begging for mercy for dying cats/focusing desperately on creating foreign mayonnaise whilst being quietly destroyed/taken-apart and/continuously corrected & directed by the 'friendly, happy and healthy' control freak 24/7 over her shoulder, year-in, year-out suffering Stockholm Syndrome (no less) as she's dressed by and admired by the monster and forced to 'enjoy' (or death-threats/punched) coercion and unwanted/unsatisfactory/painful rape/'sex'. She would usually always be rejected as a 'slut' should she ever initiate.
These worms are often situated in prominent positions of authority and respect, all over the quaking, undermining, sodding world. My personal belief is, it's partly due to NASTY NLP we've been saturated & trained with since the early 90's (most public services across the west, check it out)
The trouble is, can we trust them to change their personality (as only Sociopaths can, not the 'hard-wired' Psychopaths) and how to motivate them to demonstrate their ability to empathise with respect and thus adapt to more humane (and just) pursuits? (We can't have them working in child-protection/mental-health though!Teaching healthy and strong esteem is one thing, actionable, consistent & criminal abuse and insensitivity is quite another)
Also - annoyingly, NPD's/narcissist non-pedants are usually, if charming, OCD housework police, with little clue how to
comprehend and not patronise the best sort of diverse consumer, the artistic (when reinforced) Schizoptypal (not 'Schizophrenia') 'hoarder'/lazy sod (with bad back) - who usually need cleaning services as much as ambitious NPD Sociopaths do.
Psychiatry gets it wrong because -
If I may suggest a recent BPS study is probably right, would you hold it against me? It said something like 'more time off work proves better performance and profits' - stands to reason? (less time spent on drugs/brothels/bad decisions?) Are they failing to 'get' Freud/Jung/Kierkegaard? (To be fair, CBT and 'Wellness Centres' have barely arrived, and community care is (in our bit of London) streets better than the hospital, with extremely compassionate and intelligent staff too) Though proper community care took four months to kick-in, leaving one patient living in a micro-room B&B on pot-noodles exclusively for main-meals, bed-bound and housebound, in the same room, for four, solitary months with no contact from humans other than the daily cleaner for five minutes and one weekly visit from the hospital. And zero sleep since her section. No sleep at all, not even a minute. ABSOLUTELY Sleepless for TEN months, and nobody gives a hoot. Even the nice guys.
No word of a lie. When returned to her home (that had been redecorated) she had lost everything she had ever owned, every photograph, every letter, every memento. All belongings, all memories, jewellery, furniture, The lot. She was forced to sleep on a concrete floor, without curtains, in a basement on a busy street. It took seven months for her to be able to communicate again, effectively. She was very ill after having been forced to take anti-psychotic drugs, but had the ability and sense to be able to get off of them.
Sociopaths are the less able to adapt to sensitive views and tend to be dangerous hackers, stalkers, natural liars and recidivists, driven by ambitious scheming quests to be 'right' or the 'best' - regardless of truths (often heavily buying into their own advertising/the ego-massaging of Guru's (*see @DBagChopra on Twitter, you WON'T be disappointed)) including NLP/cheap psychology/'dark-arts') - even when consistent & clear hard evidence proves them wrong, time and time again (eg. drink-drive recidivism). Sadly, they've been 'winning' far too often lately. Might be worth trying to probe what type of unspeakable abuse they may have suffered before employing them in order to gauge their capacity for adaptive skills.
A worrying example is a recent study - Dr.Phylis Chesler - proving 70% of 'good' mothers are losing custody of their children to fathers, in secret family courts (UK) - who don't seem to understand coercion/rape, NPD's nor sour-grapes properly.
NPD's tend to swap gods/business/partners to suit designer white/red pants/red sports cars. Loyalty in personal relationships, like their ambition in work issues, is obsessive and shallow, rather than perceptive or logical.
Their expression can be desperately pedantic/controlled, attacking things they don't understand (threat perception) They aren't usually guilty of much candour, preferring to say what people want to hear. They love to give sermons. Healthier narcissists tend to be *a tad* less wary of what they say/how they say it. Success to them both is acquisition and total control. Psychopaths are inherently (hard-wired/amygdala) insecure and find solace in intricate detail and fame.
Love (and insistence) of strict routines is just too narrow for current Psychiatric practices? (I've met a couple of REALLY gentle, exceptionally nice shrinks though! BOTH of them, mature women. (*Private note- Despite frequent psychopath assertions to the contrary - whenever other females were mentioned (even a sister)- I'm straight and always have been (apart from a minor indiscretion as a teen with best friend whilst on stolen Gin & Scotch (and she was on top))
Also, every day same-old routines just aint everyone's bag, aren't great at promoting adaptive skills - and the best schizotypal artist/creatives just don't function like that, yet psychiatry deems such inspirational, 'Libertarian Socialists' as 'sick' - has Psychiatry become institutionally, extreme/religious/Sociopathic?)
Maybe, establishing what they liked to do, as very small children, prior to social structuring, perhaps, will give clues on how to proceed and get the most out of your psycho but only if he/she had a pretty much unremarkable childhood, and wasn't oddly prone to enjoying hurting smaller beings, for no particular reason, which could mean you could have a more serious problem.
Every day 'healthy' narcissists, are usually just insecure and seek group attention using dramas. (Sometimes to very worthy causes) - seeing too much more than that, when no other psycho traits are consistent, is likely to be a mistake. A traumatised narcissist might look like an NPD/Sociopath, especially when under pressure or otherwise severely wronged.
Psychiatry doesn't seem to me, to be happy until it's reduced patients into quivering, barely-conscious/functioning controlled and dependent drone-status. And it often get its labels wrong.
Let's hope (psychopath expert) Prof. Kevin Dutton's next book will give us some more clues. Meantime, here is another really good and informative book (on Google) about Cluster B Personality Disorders.
Elizabeth Lucye Robillard
Further reading - Psychopath Types (''You have to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad' Pink Floyd.)
