Borderline Disorder and State Worship

[TheSchoolofAthens]

Hello everyone, 

I'm reading The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty by Simon Baron-Cohen. This book was recently recommended by Stefan in this wonderful video. Just as Stefan does, I highly recommend everyone read this book. 

Why do I recommend this book? Because I can not begin to explain how insightful this book is in regards to understanding the facts about how empathy works, as well as what destroys and nurtures empathy in individuals. The science is explained in a way so that one feels well educated after reading each passage and at the same time does not have any need to become a neurobiologist himself to understand what is being said. I would like to say that the book is written for the layman because of how easy it is to understand, but I don't think that is the right expression to use because Baron-Cohen himself refers to some of the phenomena as "rather simple." The fact of the matter is that it is irrelevant how complex or simple the phenomena in this book are. Why? Because the conclusions that this book points to are of significant importance.

Please take a look at the following quotes as I piece them together in order to give you a better understanding of what I am talking about. "Zero degrees of empathy [it is what it sounds like, having zero empathy - none] can lead one to commit acts of cruelty, it can leave one insensitive towards others, or, simply, socially isolated." Baron-Cohen goes on to say "Zero degrees of empathy does not strike random in the population. There are at least three well-defined routes to this end point."

 

I will briefly discuss one of the patients that the author met at his team's clinic and the path that led her to her zero degrees of empathy. This patient's name is Carol, she has bipolar disorder, and she had an absolutely heartbreaking childhood. While reading, I had to close my eyes and reflect upon how devastating and real all the abuse, neglect, and fear is for so many children - and it is happening right now as we speak. I continued on reading and was not shocked when Baron-Cohen talked about Carols early sexual promiscuity as well as drug abuse, as Stefan talks about this greatly and explains the correlation with neglect and abuse. As I like to say, the best way to prevent a child from abusing drugs is to not abuse the child. Other tragedies follow this abused soul but I will leave that for you to read in the book itself. 

"More than a century of research into the effects of early deprivation has clearly established that such environmental factors affect brain development, probably irreversibly (69). On the same age, Baron-Cohen goes on to say "Borderlines, it turns out, are pretty common." This does not surprise me one bit seeing how it is socially acceptable - yet incredibly immoral and wrong - to abuse kids regularly. There are two results of Carol's child abuse that I want to briefly focus on. 

One, as the author says right before the aforementioned quotes, "She soon simply used Mike to pay the bills, look after the children, and look after her, while she went out most nights clubbing. Her friendships are short-lived. She doesn't want to hear about other people's problems. All she cares about is herself" (69). Seeing as Carol's way of thinking is irreversible, it is critical to educate future parents about non violent parenting before more Carol's are turned from beautiful, innocent children into hurt, lifeless, monsters. (Me and my girlfriend will be tabling at out local college about peaceful parenting, the consequences of child abuse, etc. at our college next fall when we are attending again after our spring internship programs. This is thanks to the work of FDR, Stefan, Mike, and all the contributors for inspiring us)

That was the first point - the moral reasons to oppose child abuse and educate future parents about it in order to save innocent children and stop the creation of monstrous beings. The second point I want to focus on, and the one I find fascinating, is this: "Borderlines also tend to think in very black-and-white ways (so-called "splitting"), so that people are either 'all good' or 'all bad.' (This may be why borderlines can be particularly attracted to cults because the cult leader is seen by members as all good)" (70). 

The author says that borderlines are common, being 2% of the general population. For an individual to see someone as all good or all bad and to be prone to cults are the perfect conditions for statism. I know that 2% of the population being diagnosed with bipolar disorder might sound trivial and that this leaves 98% of the general population to have other types of disorders or no disorders at all, but I am inclined to believe that the majority of the population is suffering from their childhood experiences. My point is that if we as a community can reduce that number of 2% at all - a number that is far larger when combining it with other disorders that are are result of childhood trauma - then we will killing two birds with one stone. We will be killing the bird, in this case the hawk (or the parents) that abuse their children as well as the vulture (or the state) the feeds off of the carcass that is left behind by the parents.

I hope this post has been an enjoyable read and has contributed something meaningful to someone. I thank you all for reading it and I would appreciate your thoughts and comments.
 

[TheSchoolofAthens]

Why is there no text in this post?

EDIT: never mind, the original post is now appearing. For a day or so it wasn't showing up at all.