In this workshop we looked at the first 30 pages of Chapter 4, including the full section on “Acquired deviations,” i.e., paranoid, frontal, and drug- and disease-induced characteropathies. Some topics of discussion included:
the psychobiosocial model, and how susceptibility to certain character-damaging influences shades between biological and social
the degrees to which people with certain disorders can be rehabilitated back to healthy functioning
why subclinical forms of personality disorders are the most dangerous
the “exclusionary hypothesis,” and how the absence of a pathological factor (whether the brain damage itself, or a pathological leader with one, like Wilhelm II) implies that things wouldn’t have been so bad
close versus distant pathological influences
small-hand versus large-hand narcissism (mirth!)
the other interpretation of “the devil is in the details” (with a hat-tip to McGilchrist)
the “happy path” of only focusing on the good or deal, and ignoring the potential roadblocks or exceptions
characteropaths as mostly “hot-blooded” verses psychopaths as “cold-blooded”
the pathological personality sequence
and more!
During the next session, we will discuss the second major section of Chapter 4 (on “inherited deviations”). For readers with the print copy, this will be pages 101-131 (stopping at the section on “ponerogenic phenomena”).
The next session is scheduled for Saturday, January 13 at 12:30 pm.
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Political Ponerology to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
