Let's Get It Straight: Hillary Is Not A Sociopath
Sun May 04, 2008 at 11:50:18 PM PDT
I never thought I, Mr. "Blind With Hillary Hate" (per Alegre) would have to defend Hillary Clinton. But sometimes opposition derails the political agent--you and I--as independent consumers of media. So here we go.
Problem:
She has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder (32+ / 0-)
The only "reality" that is meaningful to her is one that can be construed to bathe her in the golden light she feels radiating around her.
The conversation then preceded to turn down the avenue of unfounded claims she is a sociopath.
As someone who was probably raised by a sociopath, let me tell you why this is not ok.
Then in this comment Hillary allegedly is a "sociopath" who " she has no sense of people's needs and I believe she has lost all sense of what's right and wrong". I agree that her morals are compromised in light of the decisions her campaign's made.
Race baiting. Empowering the GOP in an election she almost surely won't have to worry about winning. Uncertain election practices at the NV caucuses. These all show a lack of leadership Hence why I was criticizing Hillary Clinton in 2006 for her failures to demonstrate critical thinking and courage and integrity when it came to Iraq and, if you might have the kindness to remember, passivity in all of Washington while Israel lobbed the hell out of Lebanon--including residential areas--with the residual, child-mangling menace of cluster bombs, which she still has not opposed.
But lesson number one in pulling psychiatric diagnosis out of your ass: make sure they actually fit your amateur analysis. The case has been made for Bush before, and cogently:
no, he's a sociopath, the real thing (3+ / 0-)
though and through.
by kate mckinnon on Sun May 04, 2008 at 08:59:19 PM PDT
he's fucked up everything he's ever touched.
But since he is from a wealthy, powerful family, he just keeps getting reassigned, with no penalty.
And he should be in jail, because of his crimes, but it's doubtful that he ever will be.
by kate mckinnon on Sun May 04, 2008 at 09:06:28 PM PDT
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Bush not only is indifferent to the needs of others (which I don't think HC clinically is) but the real clincher is that he has very little control over himself (20 years of alcoholism, cocaine, explosive temper), little to no interest in academic or work pursuits, and never actually worked if he could avoid it, even when he was a businessman. He would joke his way through the office because it covered up the fact that he didn't know what he was doing!
I've made the case before about the Senator McJackass from Alaska, Ted Stevens. If you care enough to throw around words you're not professionally qualified to use, maybe we could start caring more about his impending re-election vote when he personally hobbled into the Senate to take up time to accuse Mike Gravel (there's somebody who's been kicked around far too many times for no reason to ever qualify for being a sociopath) of killing his wife, Mrs. Stevens on Congressional record? You know, a serial liar and financial baby who's never had to face a tough political battle in the last twenty or so years?
That's another reason where he and Clinton differ. See, anti-socials are geniuses at getting what they want. Hillary Clinton doesn't always get what she wants. She doesn't have the social skills of say, the psychopath, to get people to go along with her. Her lying backfires, as with most normal people. Her bullying backfires. It didn't with Bush. Bush achieved his primary goals. And like marriage to a sociopath, we're only backpedalling and turning away when it's way too late.
Now, Bill Clinton is definitely narcissistic, if whether or not he has a Narcissistic Personality Disorder is up for debate. You can find actual examples to correlate with the diagnostic criteria for being such-and-such. Even George Stephanopolous has admitted that Bill Clinton is extremely inflexible, but more so he has an outrageous temper, and has alienated many of his personal allies over the years. Again, poor personal control and extreme grandiosity. Bill Clinton is known for both pathological lying and promiscuity, two of the central traits of psychopaths. His charitable trust is essentially narcissistic--how better to keep him in the spotlight and convince himself he's a great person? All he has to do is see a charitable poster with his name on it and know he's keeping the world spinning!
What some of you may not also know is that narcissist's, with a 'n' or an "N" can often change and mold their spouses personalities. Their behavior is so abusive and so warped that the spouse begins to cope and adapt. That's the only way to exist in such a bizarre, dysfunctional relationship.
Bill needs to constantly be worshipped. Bill takes the attacks on his wife more personally than a normal spouse. Weren't we rec'ing that up the diary list only recently? Bill, if anyone, is the Narcissistic Personality Disordered one or psychopath.
pathological liar, narcissist (16+ / 0-)
but not a sociopath. True sociopaths can't rise to the level as she has, they tend to be criminals and can't hold down jobs.
It's a term that's been thrown around with regards to Clinton, and as much as I loathe her behavior, as a mental health clinician, I have to take exception to the sociopath label.
by leawood on Sun May 04, 2008 at 07:21:43 PM PDT
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Hillary's lying is probably compulsive, but not pathological. She lies like most politicians do, out of perceived necessity. She's neurotic and wrong. So are millions of people also not sociopaths. Workplaces often cause decent or at least sane people to behave in anti-social (without regard for the rights of others) manner. Hillary Clinton, unlike Bill, actually cares about liberalism. She does care about health care, and you're an idiot if you think otherwise about 1994. She did it wrong because she has unhealthy personality habits, and she is intolerant and vindictive at times, Her least successful traits. The number of vindictive and closed-minded men and women I've known? Holy shit, I'm surrounded by sociopaths!
Two things about Hillary's political personality (4+ / 0-)
she is married to a serial obfuscater. This is a fact, this is neither hatred of Bill Clinton for his more loyal supporters lately, nor... hatred of Bill Clinton, for those who want it. Real narcissists (and therefor, pathological liars) are known to influence and mold their spouse's personalities.
Secondly, Hillary Clinton was a late comer to a generation of New Democrats that believed in pandering, even Senator Gore among them. Her formative political years were spent married to one, but then later in Washington when the other successful Democrats showed a deep distrust of public sentiment.
by Nulwee
Her lying is compulsive. It's situational. If you don't think people lie all the time in this manner, being conditioned to, you live in a dream world. I avoid lying. I know people who don't lie, but lying itself is pretty common, if not to Hillary Clinton's degree. Again, debatable.
There's no shortage of coy political wives, cronies, oblivious jerks, moral idiots and shortsightedness in Washington, in America, or in the world. Not everyone who's an asshole is a sociopath. In case you don't see the problem in overstating the case, millions of people out there have been raised, dated, married to or worked for sociopaths. These waking monsters without conscience are not the average nightmare boss or bloviating schmuck. Out of thousands of people I've known, hundreds are bad people, mean, vindictive, petty, abusive. Maybe 10-20 are sociopaths, psychopaths and clinically narcissistic, as in NPD. But ultimately I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm merely saying that while I can't diagnose those individuals, their anti-social behavior is markedly worse than your run of the mill, power-drunk, ladder-climbing jerk.
It just makes you look bad when you have to raise the stakes throwing around verbose nonsense to try to grab attention. Clinton is many things, but run of the mill sociopath she is not.
P.S.
To any morons without the powers of critical thinking outside of Daily Kos. We have some 150,000-plus registered users. 30 is not representative of the site as a whole, which is thoroughly democratic and self-filtering, most of the time. At least more so than most collaborative efforts, including your own work place.
This is not a site idly powered on Hillary hate or any other form of negativism, but rather, continually re-invents itself as all creative fluid communities do. Kossacks are by and large an exceptionally well-read, passionate, kind and positive group of people.
Thanks.
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