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Ask Bon: Why can’t this person listen to reason (or see the truth)?
It has been said in popular culture “if it feels good, do it.” In the case of BPD, the saying should be more like “if I feel it, it must be true.” Emotional reasoning is the inclination to believe that feelings actually equal (or cause) facts and events to happen. The feelings of someone with BPD are so immediate and overpowering; it is difficult for someone experiencing these feelings and emotions to believe that these feelings are self-generated. It is important to remember the function of emotions to understand why emotional reasoning takes place. As stated, the basic emotions function to detect threats to one’s survival (or either body or…
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The important difference between lying and bullshitting
An ATSTP List member explains the difference between lying and bullshitting as being about intent: I think the distinction between lying and bullshitting is an attempt to clarify the intent of the person engaged in the act. According to my interpretation Harry Frankfurt’s essay, “On Bullshit” (http://athens.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/ frankfurt__harry_-_on_bullshit.pdf), lying is a conscious effort to misrepresent reality, whereas bullshitting is a conscious effort to misrepresent the person doing the bullshitting. So the purpose of bullshitting is to make the bullshitter seem like a different sort of person than they actually are, or to misrepresent their own mental state. Lying, in contrast, has as its primary goal to deceive another person about…
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ABC News Experts talk about Casey Anthony’s potential disorder
An article from ABC News about Casey Anthony’s pathological lying and the disorder from which it may arise. Before I supply the text here, I want to discuss this quote: Two of the potential issues Anthony could suffer from are border personality disorder and psychopathology, the experts said. The main thing these issues have in common is a total lack of empathy, according to LeslieBeth Wish, a psychologist and licensed social worker in Sarasota, Fla. “They can turn a person into a non-person,” Wish said. “Borderline personalities have more emotional regulation problem and often use lying to get away from something and not ever feeling like they’re responsible.” Those two potential issues…
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Casey Anthony found not guilty, yet what’s wrong with her?
A few weeks ago I posted an article entitled Casey Anthony: Borderline Personality Disorder, a Psychopath or What? This “analysis” garnered a lot of attention (or at least a lot of traffic) for me. I found that yesterday was the busiest day on my blog ever with over 400 views of that article alone (usually I get about 600 daily views of my blog so this was unusual). Of course anyone that has followed the Casey Anthony trial knows why – she was acquitted of first degree murder and aggravated child abuse, but was convicted of four misdemeanor charges of making false statements to the police. I watched about half of…
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Insightful comment on lying from an ATSTP Member
Today, one of the members of the ATSTP Google Group made an insightful comment about his wife’s lying. Lying was a big thing for me as well–I took my wife’s lying personally. In retrospect, I did a lot of damage because of that. I made my wife feel like sh*t by pushing her on it, which didn’t help her or the relationship. I understand now that she used lies as a way to create a space in her life that was more tolerable for her. It was one of her few (albeit ineffective) ways to escape some of her personal anguish, and I took it away from her–not because I…
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Casey Anthony: Borderline Personality Disorder, a Psychopath or What?
A few days ago I got an email from a member of the ATSTP list asking me what I thought about the possibility of Casey Anthony, who is currently on trial for the murder of her 2 year old daughter (Caylee Anthony), having Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In 2008, I was following the case with interest. I have followed it a bit during the trial. I am not a doctor or a mental health professional, yet I have met a LOT of people with BPD (both men and women) and members of their families. I’ve looked at Casey Anthony’s behavior and compared it with the behavior of people that I…
