Community: Psychology

Allodoxaphobia is the irrational fear of opinions. Someone suffering from this disorder may find it extremely difficult to cope with day to day life, whether due to actually being judged by others or merely due to their own paranoia. In some extreme cases, they may even experience full blown panic attacks that will require hospitalization.
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Their intense fear of other people making opinions of them or just opinions in general may be deeply rooted in their own insecurities as they may be extremely critical of themselves. So, essentially, they may fear that the opinions of other people are the same critical opinions that they have of themselves.

More at:
psychtimes.com/allodoxaphobia-fe...
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The radical loser
Hans Magnus Enzensberger looks at the kind of ideological trigger required to ignite the radical loser - whether amok killer, murderer or terrorist - and make him explode

Hans Magnus Enzensberger (born 11 November 1929) is a German author, poet, translator and editor. In my humble opinion he is one of the greatest living German authors, thinkers and a universal genius. Left wing polticians as well as right wings (by nature: not as often) were trying to occupy Enzensbergers intellect.
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This text - already published in 2005- is one of the most brilliant analysis of exploding individuals. It is universal: It fits just as well for muslim terrorists as it fits for humans like Norwegian Anders Breivik.

I am aware this is long text that takes some time to read. I want to encourage you to try.

Here is a "teaser" right out of the middle of it. I choose THAT part because it has a lot to do qith the horrible attacks in France and the stupid muslim states reactions to western press freedom.

The Arab world's sense of pride is hurt not only by military inferiority to the West. Far worse is the impact of intellectual and material dependency. In the last 400 years, not a single noteworthy invention was made by the Arabs. Rudolph Chimelli quotes one Iraqi author as saying: "If an Arab had invented the steam engine in the 18th century, it would not have been built." No historian would contradict him. This means that for any Arab who cares to think about it, the very objects on which everyday life in the Maghreb and the Middle East depends represent an unspoken humiliation – every fridge, every telephone, every power socket, every screwdriver, not to mention hi-tech products. Even the parasitic oil states, frittering away their future security, are obliged to import the technology from abroad; without Western geologists, drilling experts and civil engineers, fleets of tankers and refineries they would not even be capable of exploiting their own resources. In this light, even their wealth is a curse that constantly reminds them of their dependency. Not including the revenue from crude oil, the economic performance of the entire Arab world today counts for less than that of a single Finnish telecommunications company.

If you consider that interesting, read the rest.
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Empathy is talked about a lot these days. Against the backdrop of a global pandemic and a divisive political climate in the United States, calls for empathy have become louder and more urgent. We encourage empathy for those inflicted with COVID-19 and those struggling with unemployment. We reminisce about the empathy of public figures who have recently passed away. Both Democrats and Republicans have highlighted their own presidential candidate's empathy and accused the other side of lacking it.
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But do we always want people to show empathy? Not so, said researchers from the University of California, Davis. A recently published paper suggests that although empathy is often portrayed as a virtue, people who express empathy are not necessarily viewed favorably.

"Empathy has become a sort of 'catch-all' for desirable personal qualities," said Y. Andre Wang, who is a doctoral candidate and lead author of the paper. "But people's views on empathy are actually more complicated.

"We found that what people think of empathizers depends on who is receiving their empathy. People don't necessarily like or respect those who show empathy toward morally questionable individuals," he added.

The paper, "Evaluations of Empathizers Depend on the Target of Empathy," was published online in September in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It is co-authored by Andrew Todd, associate professor of psychology at UC Davis.
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Trump will go away and our memes will be worthless.
It's a shame about the many pictures in which he looks like sh*t.
So throw them on the market quickly before they completely lose their value.

No matter if you reject or adore him. What are we going to do without him?
... We need to arm ourselves against becoming depressed. We have to replace him with something else.
We are in danger of falling into a hole. What should be the meaning of life in the future?
You have to ask yourself these questions, otherwise you will be lost, you will drift through time without orientation.

Brace yourself! I warned you!
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How the media has warped how we see ourselves


From a young age, we are all exposed to TV programmes, advertising, online content and books. But who are the storytellers and programme makers, and in what ways have they shaped our view of the world? Most importantly, how does it affect our identity and sense of self?
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Presenter: Cherry Stewart-Czerkas
Motion Graphics: Maple Shipp
Commissioning Editor: Griesham Taan

WATCH HERE:

www.bbc.com/reel/video/p08v4zgd/...
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This Psychology Today article includes findings gathered over a ten year period that attempt to explain Conservatism in general as well as Trump's success with supporters, many who are not necessarily Conservative.

It's a relatively long read, but is quite comprehensive in it's treatment.

Some of the underlying articles that this references, especially those from the 2008 era, provide an interesting neurological basis for Conservatism.

A new study has found that right-wing authoritarians – that is, people who are hostile to non-conformity – are considerably less funny than people who do not share that disposition. www.psychnewsdaily.com/study-fin...

“I received phone calls and emails like this I am going to read to you. Warning: it has some terrible language in it, but I'm going to read it verbatim”:

“You filthy cock suckers inverting right to being wrong...I hope Trump declares martial law sooner rather than later…to start rounding up whiny little faggots like yourself at 4:00 in the morning in windowless vans”.
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Ronald F. Levant reads aloud one of several hate mail messages he received in early 2019. “Isn't it incredible that people would write something like that to a person that he has never met?”, he says after finishing reading. “And I say ‘he’ because I am sure it is a man”.

A former president of the American Psychological Association (APA) and now professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Akron in Ohio, Levant was in the team who drafted the first-ever guidelines to help psychologists who treat men and boys, calling some traditionally masculine behavior harmful for men’s mental health.

“Though men benefit from patriarchy, they are also impinged upon by patriarchy”, these guidelines read.

“They are 3.5 times more likely than women to die by suicide, and their life expectancy is 4.9 years shorter than women’s. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder than girls, and they face harsher punishments in school - especially boys of color.”

The email Levant received is proof of the strong reactions to the new guidelines: some men saw them as a declaration of war.

People who sent him these kinds of emails, he suggests, are probably those who, in their forties, still “feel ashamed of having backed down from a fight in junior high school”. Levant says he has encountered such people during his practice as a psychologist.

And this is not something he has seen only as a mental health professional.

He says that as the son of a World War II veteran he knows exactly what it is like to grow up in a home where one is taught to be “a tough guy.”

“I am an older man, I was raised in the 1940s and 1950s, I certainly got the message that you don’t cry”.

All societies have widely accepted ideas of what masculine behavior is, with pressure to conform to these norms.......(Continued in the article)
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There’s not much good that’s come out of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But at least it’s giving us new, fascinating insights about the humans.
www.oddee.com/study-refusing-to-...

Bert Hellinger, a German psychotherapist, told "therapeutic stories" in his sessions, stories that show a way out. This is one of them, I hope I translated it well.

Something much more common now is a tactic that has been used by serial abusers and malignant narcissists for a very, very long time. The term "gaslighting," though originally coined from the movie Gaslight, is based on this tactic (so was the movie, actually).

DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender.
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Trump uses it all the time, and so do most of his most die-hard followers. You'll find it here on this site quite often.
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For half a century, prohibition has been causing chaos and misery worldwide. Any attempt to shut down the drugs trade invariably sets off a chain of events that just makes things worse, leaving a trail of death, illness, violence, slavery, addiction, crime and inequality across the globe. The War On Drugs is a war in which everyone loses – except, in a weird kind of way, the drugs themselves.
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It may lack the glamorous associations of cocaine and the hedonistic kudos of ecstasy, but ravers, doctors and therapists worldwide are united in their love for ketamine. The trippy anaesthetic has thrived despite global attempts to ban it and has overcome PR damage caused by teenage incontinence and knocked-out horses. Since it was first used by US field surgeons in the Vietnam War, the drug has quietly been winning battles in the War On Drugs across the planet, and today is adored by club kids zoning out at afterparties and pioneering psychotherapists alike.
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A group of 120 people in Germany will be given £1,080 per month and compared against a group of 1,380 people who will get nothing to see how their attitudes and behaviours change.

In response to President Trump's unchecked actions, the left has closed ranks and began to institute clearer standards, purity tests and ever harsher sanctioning of its members — also known as, cancel culture.