Gift of Fear was a good book. But the author’s bias shown through at times. He hates guns, and truly believes that they cause crimes. Probably because of the violence done to him and those close to him growing up, he can not see any value to common people having a gun.
Thank you red, I don’t even remember the gun part at this point...read it too long ago. I’ll try to remember to post that caveat, because the book is very helpful re: ‘trusting your gut’.
I notice the people posting on this thread that are very big on that understand it/trust it for a reason, and it’s not that hard to figure out why. Problem with learning gut-trusting is our rational, ‘thinking’ brain says; “Naww, that can’t be!”, when all of our other faculties are screaming; “Yes it IS!” It is usually trauma of some sort that changes that, and causes skill-sharpening/radar-honing, etc.
The *general* rule of thumb I use to differentiate is frequency of exposure...
- Narcissists usually stay below the radar, and confine their damage to close individuals, families. They have to be perceived as rainbow-colored, skittle-pooping unicorns to the outside world. They pretty much DRIVE family court drama, as the rest of the normals want to just be done with it, get away, and move on. N’s need to “win”, they’re justified, it’s never their fault.
- Sociopaths appear above the radar more often, as they are less bound by the constraint to “appear” good.
- Psychopaths...not sure...you could argue they’re clever enough to hide their evil...hollywood’s full of those stories, but as the researcher mentioned in the article, spending 2-3 hrs. with the subject was mesmerizing, he felt he had been hypnotized...interesting! (and a trained ‘observer’ to boot!). So I’d say the psycho has the make-your-neckhairs-rise quotient pretty high in a one-on-one.
Even seasoned counselors say; “A Narcissist *feels* this way, and a Borderline *feels* that way.”
It’s ok, we’re talking about complex humans, and as someone mentioned, one of the hallmarks is ‘black and white’ thinking. All good or all evil.
Liberals...in the main...feel like Narcissists to me, and it’s not that far of a leap to see why more crimes are committed by them, since it’s a short walk from there to socio and psycho.
Cheers all!