Individuation Last Phase Of Healing From Narcissistic Abuse
In this video, Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the process of individuation after separating from a narcissist. He explains that the narcissist is a duality, making it difficult to separate and silence the narcissist’s voice in your head. The process of individuation involves silencing the narcissist’s voice, embodying your authentic voice, self-mothering, self-saving, and choosing life. It is about becoming a person with personhood and defining who you are without allowing anyone else to tell you who you are.
Free Will: Illusion or Reality?
Free will is a useful fiction that helps humans make sense of life and provides self-efficacious guidance. It is an article of faith rather than a fact or hypothesis, and has no place in modern scientific discourse. However, it is crucial for human civilization and moral responsibility. The concept of free will depends on the frame of reference and level of description, and while it may not exist from a cosmic point of view, it is a powerful organizing principle from a human perspective.
Consciousness is: Intending Inwards (with Benny Hendel)
Professor Sam Vaknin discusses the problem of consciousness and the psychophysical problem, which is the linkage between the physical body and our consciousness. He argues that consciousness is a secondary phenomenon, and the primary phenomenon is intentionality, which is a mode of relating to external physical objects and internal objects. He believes that intentionality is universal and is the organizing principle of mental life, and that reality is observer-defined. He argues that his thesis reunites the mind and reality, and that understanding this can help us take responsibility for our role as creators in nature.
Study: Weak Self of Covert Narcissists, Secondary Psychopaths
A study has found that individuals with Cluster B personality disorders, specifically those with dark triad traits, have a weak, unstable, and unclear sense of self. The study’s authors suggest that recognizing these traits is important in predicting behaviors and avoiding destructive, impulsive, and callous behaviors. The study also found that high-level dark triad traits are associated with a weaker sense of self, regardless of gender and age. However, when analyzing sub-traits of narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism, the study found that vulnerable narcissism and secondary psychopathy are most strongly correlated with a weaker or unclear sense of self.
Pandemic as Collective Narcissistic Injury: Headless and Chickens
The pandemic is a collective narcissistic injury to all of us because we were living in a narcissistic civilization. We have developed a civilization that was highly narcissistic and highly psychopathic, where values such as ambition, competitiveness, defiance, hatred of authority, despising the intellect and expertise, promiscuity, lack of impulse control, faking it till you make it, always became the core values of our civilization. The pandemic caused a collective narcissistic injury to all of us, and we are all developing post-traumatic stress disorders. We need to be humble and realize how fragile we are, how ephemeral, how transient.