I was having a little difficulty getting my head around this Anankastia concept until you showed the shots from Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", then it all started to fall into place.
The first shot is just after the SWAT team bust into a nice family home to arrest the wrong guy, the officious Stasi-like bureaucrat informs him that he has "been invited to assist the ministry of information with certain inquiries". He then turns to the terrified wife and says, "That is your receipt for your husband, and this is my receipt for your receipt".
I think later in the movie, after the poor sap has been tortured to death, because he didn't know anything and The Ministry of Information had the wrong medical files, the wife actually gets a refund for her dead husband.
Once again science fiction shows us the way. If you want a vision of the future imagine a vast tribe of pettifogging administrators screwing things up - forever
I wonder if the sudden spike in anakastia isn't committed to our increasingly permissive and self-centered worldview. If you tell people, "You can be whatever you want and do whatever you want to do," most of them will run in terror to find somebody who will tell them who they should be and what they should do. In a society where truth is flexible and rules are whatever you want them to be, it's not surprising that many people will run toward Unquestionable Truths and Unbending Rules.
Hence, the problem a strong faith in a Christian God; if only on the surface for any number of Pedophiles, Witches and such, built the U.S. into the Superpower it became in less than a century.
And, the current reason this lack of a Christian God...among the same shallow, superficial population, is being allowed to tear it to shreds.
All really does begin within the soul of humanity built in FAITH OF GOD with the certainty of agreement in what is right and what it wrong among the vast majority,
If you want to see anankastia in action, look no farther than Peter Hotez—the vaccinologist who got his 1-year-old daughter jabbed, who immediately had a bad reaction, started making high-pitched squealing noises indicative of encephalitic brain inflammation, and became autistic almost overnight. He then wrote a book literally entitled "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism."
He dresses like a nerd so everyone knows what a know-it-all he is, and when people call him a nerd on Twitter, he posts a photo of himself in a football tee and safari hat. He retweets the most cutting jabs at him, with lame, pedantic rebuttals that support his enemies and give them more exposure.
You can see, in Hotez, the difference between a liar and a man lying to himself; the cluster-B personality just spews his bullshit everywhere, but the anankastic is actually high on his own supply.
I can't watch him without picturing Vizzini from The Princess Bride exclaiming "inconceivable!" and dropping dead on the spot (if only!). I wish Joe Rogan would flush his head in the toilet.
A note to our evil overlords: if you're going to give a platform to doctors and scientists, avoid these extremely off-putting archetypes:
+ The uptight nerd (a la Hotez);
+ The gaunt, expressionless schizoid (looking at you, Kevorkian!);
+ Dr. Giggles (did you know Patch Adams was the Finders' pediatrician? I shit you not!)
Excellent article on a character type I was unfamiliar with. The enforcer class do indeed exist. So this is extremely useful. They are also the layer most people will have some contact with. Less so with narcissists and psychopathic leaders.
Sep 29, 2023·edited Sep 29, 2023Liked by Harrison Koehli
Anankast's can be fence sitters too. They just cannot be wrong. Here's an example of the bureaucratic class finally admitting they cannot rule make against the US Constitution when there is a natural entitlement and their track record of and by the bureau security state is one of abuse.
A very interesting read! Explains much about where we're at currently in the western world and how so many worker bees are able to convince themselves that they're working for the good of all.
Anankastics practice credentialism. If you don’t have a certificate and a title, you’re not an expert. Rare is the truly autodidactic individual, and never is the anankastic such a person. Her mind cannot educate itself. This is largely why she scoffs at the notion of self-education: because she could never learn through curiosity, dialectic, experimentation, and experience. She learns by instruction, and the extent of her self-education is to read the manual.
~
I think there is bias in this typing. But consider this:
~
The anankastic needs to believe that the system is fair, and not just fair but perfect; that the construction of rules and procedures contains within it an almost mystical clairvoyance, in which all questions can be answered and all problems solved; and that when this system is operational, any real life dysfunction can be “debugged” by perfecting it with more rules and procedures.
~
My conclusion is this - too many ladies in gubment don't make for good governance.
What an excellent commentary and descriptions of various pathological personality types and especially the Anankastic! Helpfully described and broken down into a mire of personality traits and characteristics by the WHO of all global entities! Omg the irony in this is absolutely off the charts!
I recognize our narcissistic prime minister Justin Trudeau perfectly in the description of narcissists and I also recognize former president Donald Trump under the populism heading with a populist leader. Most especially in the “Orange Man Bad” crazy over the top fanaticism displayed by so many radical Liberals and Libertarians when he won the presidency. The writer laid this out so clearly by saying such a populist leader would drive the Anankastic personality type to just completely and totally lose it which is exactly what happened and is captured forever on the Internet!
The exact same reaction occurred in Ottawa during the truckers freedom movement which likewise drove a few of them absolutely insane too because a few of them legitimately did not seem to EVEN BE AWARE of ANY rights or freedoms that are written into our Canadian constitution and charter had been lost!!!
So yes now that I have an understanding of how their minds work and how they see things and even how they educate themselves their actions, reactions and behaviours make a lot more sense, pathological but somewhat explained.
I guess the big question is how do we turn this thing around from pathological governments and societies back to normal and healthy functioning governments and societies and replacing governments is probably our only hope as the writer suggests which takes time which we seem to be in short supply of!
Oct 3, 2023·edited Oct 3, 2023Liked by Harrison Koehli
There are different reasons for the Trump freakout. A large segment of the public had already gone over to clown world before Trump came on the scene, and they couldn't tolerate anyone ridiculing their ridiculous values.
One of the first things Trump did when he became president was to bring all the heads of these media conglomerates into a room and dress them down to their faces. They then whipped the public into a frenzy because they were so personally butthurt, and couldn't think straight. Like Saul Alinsky said, people hurt faster than institutions.
But Trump is also a severe narcissist, of the grandiose type (as opposed to Trudeau's vulnerable narcissism). Trudeau is destroyed, though. I can see it in his eyes. I saw a recent video of him talking about the "2SLGBTQI+" community and behind him are no fewer than three turbans, and two midgets! He's also started speaking with a lisp, like he's wearing a retainer. I don't remember him talking like that before. Is that new?
Also: has there ever been a less presentable president than Joe Biden? I don't have a solid explanation for the anankastic tolerance of Biden, except that these people have a frame in their mind that Democrats are "the adults in the room" and no amount of contrary evidence will dissuade them.
In answer to your last question no there has never been a less presentable president than Joe Biden! He has dementia and he is as crooked as crooked gets! There are so many brilliant Americans to choose from who could handle the position and handle it well of being the president of the United States! The same can be said for vice president Kamella Harris sorry if I spelled it wrong… there are also so many brilliant Americans to choose from to be VP as she seems solely like a diversity hire and vastly under qualified for her position. I’m praying for your country, you have a vast population and many brilliant actual experts in their fields of study that are also brave people who are risking all trying to get the truth out there despite the mass censorship! The US is a beacon for freedom, I don’t feel as much despair as I do for Canada, your Constitution is much better and much stronger than ours and Americans are historically tough and independent minded people where we have mostly sheep.
Thank you for this further information about the people already being woke before Trump even appeared on the scene, as I wasn’t personally aware of this fact. Also about what transpired with Trump and the msm and their extremely hostile reaction to it by targeting him publicly for annihilation!
I don’t know about Trudeau’s sudden lisp, he could have decided he needed a retainer now he’s single lol! I admit I also don’t know much about different categories of narcissists but no matter what type Trudeau is, he is successfully destroying this country bit by bit and piece by piece and he seems totally blind to it so preoccupied he is with his gender ideology push onto everyone and his zeal for climate change! Whenever he is called out he never accepts any responsibility or blame always shoving someone else under the bus. He has earned the nickname Teflon Man as none of his scandals stick to him and he is allowed to just carry on to the next one, the welcoming of a former Nazi into parliament to a standing ovation being only the most recent. Back in normal times he and many of his cabinet ministers would have resigned to not hurt “ the party” but he is so high on himself that he will never resign and with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s blessing he can continue on destroying Canada until he has to call an election so we’re pretty much screwed.
The pro-Nazi stuff is especially hilarious (Hitlerious?) because it reveals these people to have no values. Inconsistency and hypocrisy don't bother them at all.
Jagmeet Singh was simply "Jimmy" until he decided to "other" himself with that stupid turban and beard—an obnoxious affectation.
This was a fascinating article. One of the most interesting, to me, things to arise from the whole Covid debacle has been discussions around social and institutional hierarchies, both psychological and otherwise.
I had never heard this term before. I know a lady like this, and spend a lot of time with her because she depends on me to do many things for her as she has mobility issues. I think it is interesting that the writer speaks of the anankast as female, as this certainly matches my experience.
I spent much of my life around sane people, but more recently have met some who are much less sane. Living around this lady, for instance, is a constant exercise in self-restraint and basically quite upsetting. This woman has blown off the fathers of both her children. And the one who actually loved her died in her arms, the victim of a drug overdose.
Though this particular lady is a hoarder, she also "hoards" her body fat and is very overweight. Her genetics tell her that she should be less than half her current weight.
We have to deal with the fact that these people exist in society, often hold responsible jobs, and have other people - including children - who depend on them. Can you imagine being raised by such a woman? It borders on emotional torture.
From the point of view of my training I see such a person as extremely "out of present time," but not dealing with it quite as horribly as the psychopath. This person is incapable of self-reflection, and is only interested in the concept of self-help as it applies to the imperfect people who surround her. She is in therapy because she knows she is too anxious about life, but has no real intention to use the therapist for anything more than a patient listener. A complete waste of time.
Left alone and unsupported, many such people who end up dead. I must say one is tempted to treat them that way. But after they go, they will only come back later to haunt our planet further.
Like the psychopath they present a certain danger to society that might warrant them being separated from the rest of us in the hopes that some sort of therapeutic program could be arranged for them. But it would take a therapist of extreme patience and skill to bring such beings back to present time and sanity, even using the procedures I am aware of which are very good.
What a conundrum for us! We would all prefer to just leave these people alone somewhere, but we know that some would not survive such treatment, or might even take others with them.
It is a problem that MUST be solved if we ever expect to have an enjoyable life on Earth. Perhaps that is too much to expect.
Oct 2, 2023·edited Oct 2, 2023Liked by Harrison Koehli
Short answer: I once lived in a big social justice co-op for several years. Over that time, I probably lived with almost 150 social justice warriors. Living that closely with people wired very differently than myself, then seeing a lot of the same behavior replay on a macro, societal scale, got me thinking about the connection between politics and personality. Political Ponerology is a great book but I felt this piece was missing.
Oct 2, 2023·edited Oct 2, 2023Liked by Harrison Koehli
My goodness! Well, I thank you for the essay. It gave me some sort of conceptual handle to think about my own recent experience with such a person. It is an infuriating situation, as these people are nearly incapable of carrying on a rational conversation.
It’s so hypocritical cause Trudeau called anyone who supported the truckers freedom convoy protests Nazis, racists, misogynists, white supremacists, a fringe minority. Yeah no one but no one has forgotten any of those nasty and derogatory names that he had for all us Canadians who were sick of his lockdowns and mandates and wanted our freedoms back. Look where we are now tho…
I didn’t know that about Singh, wow what a grifter who is keeping Trudeau in power til 2025 cause he needs to be in parliament for 6 years to collect his considerable pension. What a snake he is too.
„… libertarians who will try to enforce the non-aggression principle, and claim Ayn Rand’s objectivism applies to all these aspects of reality that are actually quite subjective (Rand herself was guilty of this).“
I was having a little difficulty getting my head around this Anankastia concept until you showed the shots from Terry Gilliam's "Brazil", then it all started to fall into place.
The first shot is just after the SWAT team bust into a nice family home to arrest the wrong guy, the officious Stasi-like bureaucrat informs him that he has "been invited to assist the ministry of information with certain inquiries". He then turns to the terrified wife and says, "That is your receipt for your husband, and this is my receipt for your receipt".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSQ5EsbT4cE
I think later in the movie, after the poor sap has been tortured to death, because he didn't know anything and The Ministry of Information had the wrong medical files, the wife actually gets a refund for her dead husband.
Once again science fiction shows us the way. If you want a vision of the future imagine a vast tribe of pettifogging administrators screwing things up - forever
"Pettifogging" is the word of the day!
My all-time favorite movie.
I wonder if the sudden spike in anakastia isn't committed to our increasingly permissive and self-centered worldview. If you tell people, "You can be whatever you want and do whatever you want to do," most of them will run in terror to find somebody who will tell them who they should be and what they should do. In a society where truth is flexible and rules are whatever you want them to be, it's not surprising that many people will run toward Unquestionable Truths and Unbending Rules.
Hence, the problem a strong faith in a Christian God; if only on the surface for any number of Pedophiles, Witches and such, built the U.S. into the Superpower it became in less than a century.
And, the current reason this lack of a Christian God...among the same shallow, superficial population, is being allowed to tear it to shreds.
All really does begin within the soul of humanity built in FAITH OF GOD with the certainty of agreement in what is right and what it wrong among the vast majority,
If you want to see anankastia in action, look no farther than Peter Hotez—the vaccinologist who got his 1-year-old daughter jabbed, who immediately had a bad reaction, started making high-pitched squealing noises indicative of encephalitic brain inflammation, and became autistic almost overnight. He then wrote a book literally entitled "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism."
He dresses like a nerd so everyone knows what a know-it-all he is, and when people call him a nerd on Twitter, he posts a photo of himself in a football tee and safari hat. He retweets the most cutting jabs at him, with lame, pedantic rebuttals that support his enemies and give them more exposure.
You can see, in Hotez, the difference between a liar and a man lying to himself; the cluster-B personality just spews his bullshit everywhere, but the anankastic is actually high on his own supply.
I can't watch him without picturing Vizzini from The Princess Bride exclaiming "inconceivable!" and dropping dead on the spot (if only!). I wish Joe Rogan would flush his head in the toilet.
A note to our evil overlords: if you're going to give a platform to doctors and scientists, avoid these extremely off-putting archetypes:
+ The uptight nerd (a la Hotez);
+ The gaunt, expressionless schizoid (looking at you, Kevorkian!);
+ Dr. Giggles (did you know Patch Adams was the Finders' pediatrician? I shit you not!)
Excellent article on a character type I was unfamiliar with. The enforcer class do indeed exist. So this is extremely useful. They are also the layer most people will have some contact with. Less so with narcissists and psychopathic leaders.
I would love to see more exploration of this.
Anankast's can be fence sitters too. They just cannot be wrong. Here's an example of the bureaucratic class finally admitting they cannot rule make against the US Constitution when there is a natural entitlement and their track record of and by the bureau security state is one of abuse.
https://iapp.org/news/a/pclob-report-further-divides-fisa-section-702-reauthorization-talks/
Funny, I did a triple take. Instead of Tyranny, I kept seeing Tranny.
A very interesting read! Explains much about where we're at currently in the western world and how so many worker bees are able to convince themselves that they're working for the good of all.
Case in point:
Anankastics practice credentialism. If you don’t have a certificate and a title, you’re not an expert. Rare is the truly autodidactic individual, and never is the anankastic such a person. Her mind cannot educate itself. This is largely why she scoffs at the notion of self-education: because she could never learn through curiosity, dialectic, experimentation, and experience. She learns by instruction, and the extent of her self-education is to read the manual.
~
I think there is bias in this typing. But consider this:
~
The anankastic needs to believe that the system is fair, and not just fair but perfect; that the construction of rules and procedures contains within it an almost mystical clairvoyance, in which all questions can be answered and all problems solved; and that when this system is operational, any real life dysfunction can be “debugged” by perfecting it with more rules and procedures.
~
My conclusion is this - too many ladies in gubment don't make for good governance.
What an excellent commentary and descriptions of various pathological personality types and especially the Anankastic! Helpfully described and broken down into a mire of personality traits and characteristics by the WHO of all global entities! Omg the irony in this is absolutely off the charts!
I recognize our narcissistic prime minister Justin Trudeau perfectly in the description of narcissists and I also recognize former president Donald Trump under the populism heading with a populist leader. Most especially in the “Orange Man Bad” crazy over the top fanaticism displayed by so many radical Liberals and Libertarians when he won the presidency. The writer laid this out so clearly by saying such a populist leader would drive the Anankastic personality type to just completely and totally lose it which is exactly what happened and is captured forever on the Internet!
The exact same reaction occurred in Ottawa during the truckers freedom movement which likewise drove a few of them absolutely insane too because a few of them legitimately did not seem to EVEN BE AWARE of ANY rights or freedoms that are written into our Canadian constitution and charter had been lost!!!
So yes now that I have an understanding of how their minds work and how they see things and even how they educate themselves their actions, reactions and behaviours make a lot more sense, pathological but somewhat explained.
I guess the big question is how do we turn this thing around from pathological governments and societies back to normal and healthy functioning governments and societies and replacing governments is probably our only hope as the writer suggests which takes time which we seem to be in short supply of!
There are different reasons for the Trump freakout. A large segment of the public had already gone over to clown world before Trump came on the scene, and they couldn't tolerate anyone ridiculing their ridiculous values.
One of the first things Trump did when he became president was to bring all the heads of these media conglomerates into a room and dress them down to their faces. They then whipped the public into a frenzy because they were so personally butthurt, and couldn't think straight. Like Saul Alinsky said, people hurt faster than institutions.
But Trump is also a severe narcissist, of the grandiose type (as opposed to Trudeau's vulnerable narcissism). Trudeau is destroyed, though. I can see it in his eyes. I saw a recent video of him talking about the "2SLGBTQI+" community and behind him are no fewer than three turbans, and two midgets! He's also started speaking with a lisp, like he's wearing a retainer. I don't remember him talking like that before. Is that new?
Also: has there ever been a less presentable president than Joe Biden? I don't have a solid explanation for the anankastic tolerance of Biden, except that these people have a frame in their mind that Democrats are "the adults in the room" and no amount of contrary evidence will dissuade them.
In answer to your last question no there has never been a less presentable president than Joe Biden! He has dementia and he is as crooked as crooked gets! There are so many brilliant Americans to choose from who could handle the position and handle it well of being the president of the United States! The same can be said for vice president Kamella Harris sorry if I spelled it wrong… there are also so many brilliant Americans to choose from to be VP as she seems solely like a diversity hire and vastly under qualified for her position. I’m praying for your country, you have a vast population and many brilliant actual experts in their fields of study that are also brave people who are risking all trying to get the truth out there despite the mass censorship! The US is a beacon for freedom, I don’t feel as much despair as I do for Canada, your Constitution is much better and much stronger than ours and Americans are historically tough and independent minded people where we have mostly sheep.
Thank you for this further information about the people already being woke before Trump even appeared on the scene, as I wasn’t personally aware of this fact. Also about what transpired with Trump and the msm and their extremely hostile reaction to it by targeting him publicly for annihilation!
I don’t know about Trudeau’s sudden lisp, he could have decided he needed a retainer now he’s single lol! I admit I also don’t know much about different categories of narcissists but no matter what type Trudeau is, he is successfully destroying this country bit by bit and piece by piece and he seems totally blind to it so preoccupied he is with his gender ideology push onto everyone and his zeal for climate change! Whenever he is called out he never accepts any responsibility or blame always shoving someone else under the bus. He has earned the nickname Teflon Man as none of his scandals stick to him and he is allowed to just carry on to the next one, the welcoming of a former Nazi into parliament to a standing ovation being only the most recent. Back in normal times he and many of his cabinet ministers would have resigned to not hurt “ the party” but he is so high on himself that he will never resign and with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh’s blessing he can continue on destroying Canada until he has to call an election so we’re pretty much screwed.
The pro-Nazi stuff is especially hilarious (Hitlerious?) because it reveals these people to have no values. Inconsistency and hypocrisy don't bother them at all.
Jagmeet Singh was simply "Jimmy" until he decided to "other" himself with that stupid turban and beard—an obnoxious affectation.
This was a fascinating article. One of the most interesting, to me, things to arise from the whole Covid debacle has been discussions around social and institutional hierarchies, both psychological and otherwise.
You had me at the still from Brazil.
Excellent article! Very informative 👍
I had never heard this term before. I know a lady like this, and spend a lot of time with her because she depends on me to do many things for her as she has mobility issues. I think it is interesting that the writer speaks of the anankast as female, as this certainly matches my experience.
I spent much of my life around sane people, but more recently have met some who are much less sane. Living around this lady, for instance, is a constant exercise in self-restraint and basically quite upsetting. This woman has blown off the fathers of both her children. And the one who actually loved her died in her arms, the victim of a drug overdose.
Though this particular lady is a hoarder, she also "hoards" her body fat and is very overweight. Her genetics tell her that she should be less than half her current weight.
We have to deal with the fact that these people exist in society, often hold responsible jobs, and have other people - including children - who depend on them. Can you imagine being raised by such a woman? It borders on emotional torture.
From the point of view of my training I see such a person as extremely "out of present time," but not dealing with it quite as horribly as the psychopath. This person is incapable of self-reflection, and is only interested in the concept of self-help as it applies to the imperfect people who surround her. She is in therapy because she knows she is too anxious about life, but has no real intention to use the therapist for anything more than a patient listener. A complete waste of time.
Left alone and unsupported, many such people who end up dead. I must say one is tempted to treat them that way. But after they go, they will only come back later to haunt our planet further.
Like the psychopath they present a certain danger to society that might warrant them being separated from the rest of us in the hopes that some sort of therapeutic program could be arranged for them. But it would take a therapist of extreme patience and skill to bring such beings back to present time and sanity, even using the procedures I am aware of which are very good.
What a conundrum for us! We would all prefer to just leave these people alone somewhere, but we know that some would not survive such treatment, or might even take others with them.
It is a problem that MUST be solved if we ever expect to have an enjoyable life on Earth. Perhaps that is too much to expect.
By the way Harrison, who is Martin Grady?
I am. I'm not sure how to change my handle here, though...
Oh look, I changed it!
Martin, what brings you to this subject? You seem very deep into the subject of psychology. Is this your profession or only your interest?
Short answer: I once lived in a big social justice co-op for several years. Over that time, I probably lived with almost 150 social justice warriors. Living that closely with people wired very differently than myself, then seeing a lot of the same behavior replay on a macro, societal scale, got me thinking about the connection between politics and personality. Political Ponerology is a great book but I felt this piece was missing.
My goodness! Well, I thank you for the essay. It gave me some sort of conceptual handle to think about my own recent experience with such a person. It is an infuriating situation, as these people are nearly incapable of carrying on a rational conversation.
It’s so hypocritical cause Trudeau called anyone who supported the truckers freedom convoy protests Nazis, racists, misogynists, white supremacists, a fringe minority. Yeah no one but no one has forgotten any of those nasty and derogatory names that he had for all us Canadians who were sick of his lockdowns and mandates and wanted our freedoms back. Look where we are now tho…
I didn’t know that about Singh, wow what a grifter who is keeping Trudeau in power til 2025 cause he needs to be in parliament for 6 years to collect his considerable pension. What a snake he is too.
„… libertarians who will try to enforce the non-aggression principle, and claim Ayn Rand’s objectivism applies to all these aspects of reality that are actually quite subjective (Rand herself was guilty of this).“
How dare you! A is A. QED!
Exhibit B:
https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1718287220187001199
Incontheivable!