Free Republic

-- abstract -- We investigate the consequences and predictors of emitting signals of victimhood and virtue. In our first three studies, we show that the virtuous victim signal can facilitate nonreciprocal resource transfer from others to the signaler. Next, we develop and validate a victim signaling scale that we combine with an established measure of virtue signaling to operationalize the virtuous victim construct. We show that individuals with Dark Triad traits—Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy—more frequently signal virtuous victimhood, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables that are commonly associated with victimization in Western societies. In Study 5, we show that a...

A brilliant Ryan Long video reminds us that, while we’re facing a well-organized leftist opponent, many of its troops are deeply damaged people. This is my day for reminding conservatives that one of the things that will work in our favor over the long run is the fact that leftists are crazy. In the short term, that makes them dangerous opponents because they have no morals or natural stopping points. In the long term, however, they cannot sustain their impetus. People this insane eventually implode (although the implosions are ugly and can have far-reaching effects). Preliminarily, let me remind you...

If complaining is so awful, why is it so prevalent? It turns out that complaining has captured the attention of many of my colleagues. There is a growing body of research addressing complaining: what it is and when and why it happens. To begin with, complaining is simply expressing dissatisfaction. This usually happens verbally, as in the case of two people on a date commenting on the awful dinner they have been served. For consumers, it can happen through online feedback forms or customer service counters—but consumer complaints are a separate matter.

Why are evidence and reason largely absent from political discussion? Why are well-supported facts often no match for emotion? Much of it can be explained by a process called “splitting.” Though little known to the public, the term is used widely by mental-health professionals. I first noticed splitting a few years ago, when I provided psychotherapy to a depressed college student. At first our sessions focused on her depression, but my patient, a white woman, took frequent detours into racial politics. She “loved” Malcolm X and railed against “white privilege.” Then she told me that she “identified” as black. She...

As soon as Donald Trump clinched the Presidential Nomination in 2016, that's when it all started. Trump vs Mental Health Somehow it was assumed that Trump (and his supporters) could never be pro-Mental Health. On Psychology Today, who has approached me to join their team, there are tens of thousands of articles about President Trump and I've yet to find a positive one. In August of 2016, the founder of PsychCentral labeled Trump, "the consummate American bullshit artist" and further proceeded to insult every Trump Supporter on PsychCentral by saying, "the American people will buy any line of B.S." Having...

Jordan Peterson - Choosing a sexual partner is discrimination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ0EU5gpqIQ

In the space of what feels like a breath, we went from the Greatest Generation to the legalization of infanticide, from a country with a singular and evolved moral code to the ripping down of the Ten Commandments in courtrooms across the country, from a rational acknowledgment of natural gender to drag-queen story hour at the public library. How in the world did this happen? I’m saddened to say that some of the biggest players in this cultural catastrophe have been psychotherapists. My generation was bottle fed with the nectar of psychotherapy and a philosophy that presented itself as secular...

New Book Release Date October 3, 2017 The consensus view of two dozen psychiatrists and psychologists that Trump is dangerously mentally ill and that he presents a clear and present danger to the nation and our own mental health. Since the start of Donald Trump’s presidential run, one question has quietly but urgently permeated the observations of concerned citizens: What is wrong with him? Constrained by the American Psychiatric Association’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to answer this question have shied away from discussing the...

A prominent Alaska psychiatrist faces a criminal charge for allegedly punching a man in the face for not wearing a face mask in a Juneau Fred Meyer earlier this month. Joshua Sonkiss, 49, was charged with a single count of misdemeanor assault for the incident. He appeared in court Wednesday. The 53-year-old victim, Bowen Dallmann, told police Sonkiss “punched him in the face” for “not wearing a mask” at the Juneau grocery store on June 1, according to a citation filed by Juneau municipal prosecutors. The document notes a witness backed up Dallmann’s account. “Dallmann wanted to pursue assault charges,”...

On May 26, Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam announced that wearing masks outside one’s home will be mandatory effective May 29. He first hinted he might issue a masking order a week ago, likely to test the water. A new refrain in public discourse is growing in volume by the day: “Things will never be the same.” The certainty with which we are assured of this pre-determined future is perplexing. Whether or not “things” will ever be the same is not at all clear, but that some people hope things will never be the same is certain. To those looking to...

A recent article written primarily by a medical doctor in Alabama claimed that, “The way in which the media has pushed fear nonstop amounts to psychological warfare against this country.” He added, “If it hasn’t occurred to you that we have heard one story and essentially one story alone for literally two months, well, that should have aroused suspicion.” Is this doctor correct? Or is the media doing its best to be responsible in the midst of an unprecedented crisis? I’m quite confident that nothing I write here will influence what the media is doing for two reasons. First, who...

Is there a solution to the human condition? Given that human love is layered over blind forces that react automatically to the slightest sign of danger, is there any chance for redemption, or are we bound to endless cycles of aggression and destruction?

It is a startling reaction, but LGBTQ advocates are continuing their campaign to ostracize “transgender” people who want to return to their birth sex. Charlie Evans fits the profile of a “former transgender” who felt shunned by LGBTQ members and was labeled a “traitor.” She naively set out to help teenagers from making the same “horrendous mistakes” she had made when starting to transition at age 17. She began living as a boy, binding her chest and shaving her head. The floodgates to this bizarre phenomenon opened in the aftermath of Evans appearing on a popular cable program, Sky News,...

Many clinicians, political commentators, and members of the public have speculated upon the mental health of President Donald Trump. Indeed, over 70,000 people self-identifying as "mental health professionals" have signed a petition declaring that "Trump is mentally ill and must be removed." In sociological terms, the "medical gaze" has been hitherto focused on President Trump, and to a lesser extent his ardent supporters. However, in recent months, many have been questioning the direction of this "medical gaze." In fact, more and more people are suggesting that this "medical gaze" should be reversed and refocused on President Trump’s most embittered and...

About this book: Multicultural counseling and psychology evolved as a response to the Eurocentrism prevalent in the Western healing professions and has been used to challenge the Eurocentric, patriarchal, and heteronormative constructs commonly embedded in counseling and psychology. Ironically, some of the practices and paradigms commonly associated with “multiculturalism” reinforce the very hegemonic practices and paradigms that multicultural counseling and psychology approaches were created to correct. In Decolonizing "Multicultural" Counseling through Social Justice, counseling and psychology scholars and practitioners examine this paradox through a social justice lens by questioning and challenging the infrastructure of dominance in society, as well as...

NYPD officers will now have to stop referring to dangerously unhinged people as “emotionally disturbed persons”. This is part of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new $37 million program to deal with serious mental health emergencies in the city.

Shortly before my gender assignment surgery in 2002, my father told me that he was grieving the loss of his first-born son. My first impulse was to comfort him. We talked about his feelings one afternoon and I reassured him that he wasn’t losing me. I thought this was my duty; after all, he had supported my transition, defending me against bigoted relatives (even as he stumbled over my pronouns and told me I needed to be less argumentative if I planned to live as a woman). Still, I counted myself lucky that he and other members of my immediate...

Dog owners live longer than people without a canine pet, two new studies suggest. And older people who live alone are a third less likely to die after a heart attack if they have a furry friend at home, according to the Swedish researchers. Loneliness plays a well known role to the detriment of older people in the US, not only hindering them from living happy lives, but often actually increasing their risks of death and chronic illnesses. The American Heart Association (AHA), which released an accompanying statement, noted that it's not exactly proof that dogs will keep you healthier,...

A Tampa city ordinance banning counseling for minors with unwanted same-sex attraction and gender confusion has been overturned in federal court. In a Friday ruling from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Judge William F. Jung issued an order granting summary judgment to Christian legal group Liberty Counsel in its lawsuit to invalidate an ordinance in the city of Tampa that prohibited voluntary talk therapy for minors experiencing unwanted sexual feelings and attractions and gender identity confusion. The group represented Robert Vazzo, a marriage and family therapist, and New Hearts Outreach Tampa Bay, a Christian...

A federal judge has ruled one Florida city cannot ban therapists from practicing a controversial “gay conversion” therapy in their jurisdiction. NBC affiliate WFLA-TV reports the judge struck down a 2017 ban imposed by the city of Tampa, ruling that the city has no authority to regulate health professionals and only the state government can do that – a victory for some religious based groups....