Privatized Empathy and Cowardly Public “Intellectuals”
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the decline of empathy in society, particularly among public intellectuals who prioritize self-interest, power, and manipulation over compassion and care for others. He identifies four groups of intellectuals in Macedonia, including the fearful, the self-interested, the territorial, and the malignantly romantic. He attributes the behavior of intellectuals in the Balkans, including Macedonia, to the influence of Marxism, socialism, and communism, which redefined the role of intellectuals as leaders and co-opted them into the power machine. Ultimately, he argues that intellectuals in Macedonia have betrayed their role in invigorating the nation and integrating society and culture into global trends.
Autism, ADHD, BPD, or Narcissism? (Compilation)
The text discusses the challenges in diagnosing and differentiating between psychopathy, autism, schizoid personality disorder, and PTSD or CPTSD. These conditions often present similarly, with reduced affect display, reticent self-disclosure, defensive and aggressive body language, and idiosyncratic use of language. Clinicians must look for specific signs, such as attitudes towards sex and intimacy, deceitfulness, goal orientation, and hypervigilance, to accurately diagnose and treat these distinct disorders. The etiologies of these disorders are different, with psychopathy possibly rooted in brain damage affecting empathy and emotions, autism characterized by obliviousness to social cues and concrete thinking, schizoid personality disorder marked by a desire for solitude, and trauma survivors repressing emotions due to the overwhelming nature of their experiences.
Our Public “Intellectuals”: Avarice, Malice, Grandiosity
Public intellectuals are not teaching people how to develop empathy, compassion, care, and love towards their fellow beings. Instead, they are teaching people how to make maximal use of their natural endowments and to fake, lie, and pretend to obtain whatever they can for themselves. The view of public intellectuals today is that the world is a win-lose situation, and they are not different from Donald Trump’s jungle, Darwinian view of the world.
ADHD, Autism, Narcissism: No Empathy in Dead Mother Triad
Sam Vaknin discusses the connection between ADHD, autism, and narcissism, speculating that a dysfunctional upbringing can lead to attention deficit and a lack of empathy. He emphasizes the importance of empathy in psychological functioning and highlights the decline of empathy in society. He also criticizes the societal focus on self-interest and manipulation.