Some things get my attention: first the APPARENT (IOW maybe not real) inability to distinguish between "process" and "content", the repetition of the diversionary tactic, the effort to "hook" me on a "content level", and, of course, the contempt - the "dynamic" of which should need no explanation at this point.
I would say one of the signs of a pathological process is the relative hamfistedness of the reactions. These are smart people. But you couldn't tell that from their rebuffs, which remind me of prep school 10th graders in 1962-63.
Grown-ups don't do that kind of stuff, but I am told that a priest at the end of a long career of parish ministry was asked what he had learned for hearing so many confessions, and he said, "few people are happy and even fewer ever grow up."
Your past and current lives are no doubt fascinating, MD, but let's all try to stick to discussing the thread at hand.
Otherwise we're liable to go off on all sorts of nonsensical tangents.
I am told that a priest at the end of a long career of parish ministry was asked what he had learned for hearing so many confessions, and he said, "few people are happy and even fewer ever grow up."
I don't find that to be the case in my Presbyterian church. We're quite a happy bunch, by the grace of God.
And guys like Quix and blue-duncan and Manfred and the_conscience and wmfights and wileypink and scubienuc and forstkeeper and harleyd and ftd and 1000S and Lord-Calvinus and Gamecock all give every indication of being likewise contented and productive and happy by and for and through the merciful faith in Jesus Christ that God has blessed them with.
That's the way it's supposed to work.