Sebastian Zimmermann

@SMTaylorauthor @PsychToday The moral of the story is that the inevitable bond between a large swath of uninformed, misled and well meaning people and the relatively small minority of psychopathic leaders must be broken. And that can only happen through education and steering clear of misinformation.

Why do some people take pleasure in death and destruction? Why do human beings keep waging war? New article from my @PsychToday blog, partly based on my book DisConnected. psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/out-of…

@SMTaylorauthor @PsychToday The scope of the problem becomes clear when one considers that about 1/3 of the human population seem to be almost automatically identifying with the ideas of authoriarians (see Milgram experiment) their empowering slogans and the seductive charm of these spellbinders

@SMTaylorauthor @PsychToday Thank you for this incisive article, Dr Taylor. While no one would dispute the existence of the Dark Triad or of necrophilic character traits, the aformentioned individuals are thankfully a minority - between 1-3% - which is the prevalence of antisocial personality disorder

@SMTaylorauthor @RachelD1892 Agreed. Please leave the diagnosis of narcissists to trained clinicians

@RachelD1892 I'm a psychologist and think you've picked completely the wrong example. There are far more obvious examples in the ranks of Reform and the Tories. Reform is basically a collective of narcissists and psychopaths.

Spotting a narcissist: Patterns of self-importance, lack of empathy, high need for admiration. Red flags include constant bragging, manipulation, entitlement, and inability to handle criticism. They often shift blame, refusing to take accountability. Here's a visual clue ...

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". Voltaire

4/4 The weapons were provided by Biden who Trump called a very stupid man. In the end, Trump made it clear that the US was holding all the cards. Nothing was signed. These are facts, but it seems unreal. Am I missing something? #Zelensky #Ukraine #Vance #Ovaloffice #Gaslighting

2/4 The next day, the New York Post showed a picture of Vladimir Putin on the cover with the caption, “Mr President, this is a dictator!” The "deal" to be signed today was for war torn Ukraine to turn over a good chunk of their mineral resources to the US.

1/4 What transpired in the Oval Office today was very disheartening. Here are some facts on the ground: In the run up to the meeting, Trump had called Zelensky a dictator who allowed Russia to invade Ukraine.

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness — Abraham Maslw

@GrantHBrennerMD 3/3 This is called "secondary ponerization." In the end, the union succumbs to a moral degeneration. The original group’s primary values provide cover for the psychopaths now running it. Outwardly, the names and symbols are retained as the spellbinder repackages the message.

@GrantHBrennerMD 2/3 According to AL, a political organization, previously made up of relatively normal people, is gradually infiltrated by a network of psychopaths without moral scruples. The normal people, repulsed by a "strange, new ideology" resign, are fired and replaced by more sycophants

@GrantHBrennerMD 1/3 Indeed, @GrantHBrenner Andrzej Lobaczewski's "Political Ponerology" is a dense read. "Poneros" is the greek word for "wicked." Ponerization is akin to an infection of a body or a whole society by diseased thought content (moral warping) initially spread by a "spellbinder."

@gtconway3d 3/3

@gtconway3d 2/2

@gtconway3d 1/1 The term #pathocracy which you mentioned in your last podcast was coined by Polish psychologist Andrew Lobaczweski in his important book Political #Ponerology published by Red Pill Press 2022, page 179