The attorney for disgraced Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar presented the judge presiding over his sentencing with a letter expressing concern for his mental health as he listens to four days worth of victim impact statements…
He wrote he’s had two “stressful heart moments” and that if he passed out, she would prop him back on the witness stand, the judge said.
Note how he is feeling physical trauma. For him, this would be like you or I strapped into a chair, and having our fingernails removed.
It reminds me of Mike Wallace’s words when he was in a similar situation:
Mike Wallace : “Well, I had to sit there in that drafty courtroom in Foley Square and the plaintiff put on its case first. So, I had to sit there every day and listen to myself publicly being called, in effect, a liar, a cheat and many other words to attack one’s ethics and self-pride…At first I couldn’t sleep, then I couldn’t eat. I felt hopeless and I just couldn’t cope… and then I just lost all perspective on things. You know, you become crazy.”
I can’t label myself law-abiding in philosophy, although the technical term law-abiding may apply to me more or less most of the time. In my view, laws by their nature carry no moral relevance. A product of the myriad of moral reprobates and psychological degenerates who occupy the legal profession and the legislatures of our decaying republic, I view them as merely suggestions to help you avoid the inconveniences of running afoul of the state – and even there following them is no guarantee.
So I could see myself in the dock someday, being lectured by victims on the transgressions against the rules which I committed against them for some principle or other. But if I committed such transgressions, I would see myself boldly embracing it from a psychological perspective. If my victims were to lecture me about what I had done to them, my mindset would be something along the lines of, “Then you should never have been such a shitbag as to have provoked me like you obviously did.” I could not see myself being traumatized like this by repeatedly hearing what I had done.
Imagine the mind of this little shit. What he did was so horrific to think about, even for him, he cannot tolerate being exposed to the idea of it. So he committed horrific acts which would repulse normal humans, and which do repulse him, but he avoided the repulsion by immersing himself in a lie of his own decency and his act’s morality.
He knows the truth deep down, because if he didn’t, these rehashings of truth would not traumatize him. If he honestly believed he was decent, he would see these rehashings as lies, and his amygdala would dismiss their significance. This is rending his brain because he knows he is a bad person, and this is the evidence
Look at how badly he needed that lie. Look at how he breaks down mentally when stripped of it. Look at how that cognitive hack, of being able to immerse himself in a lie, is what allowed him to commit the evil which most people would not be capable of, because most people cannot similarly lie to themselves. Look at how different this is from your mind’s mode of operation.
This is the difference between a decent person and most evil people. The evil people short circuit their decency by embracing the lies they create to liberate themselves from normal human nature. Scott Peck saw this in his psychiatry practice, labeling such individuals People of the Lie in his bestselling book on the subject. That is the mechanism behind the evil, and interestingly you see it in this child abuser, you see it in narcissists, and you see it in leftist SJWs. It is an almost universal trait of evil.
Even the evil cannot embrace what they are, if they look at themselves honestly. And that trait can be their weakest vulnerability. All you have to do is throw what they are in their face honestly and make them face the truth.
Interestingly, this ability to lie to themselves often began with an external trauma which they could not contemplate, such as a sexual molestation, or physical or psychological abuse, usually applied by an evil person. This external infliction of evil, applied to the weak who could not tolerate its contemplation, would then culture within the victim the ability to lie to themselves, which would then allow the evil to emerge in them as they grew, producing a new generation of evil. It is almost as if evil is evil because it is seeking to breed more evil.
It is also a sign that airing this case openly, outing what happened, and letting all these girls have their say is almost a tangible rejection of evil by each girl.
What I still do not understand however is how a removal of the constraint on behaviors through self-lying, produces the burning need to hurt others. Why would removing the natural moral constraints on behavior, by developing the ability to lie to oneself about abhorrent behavior, not simply produce a selfish person who pursued their own interests relentlessly, without care for who was hurt? Why does it produce people who need to hurt others, and who often will do it even at great cost to themselves?
That is the one question which still eludes me, and leaves me thinking there is something more.
Tell others about r/K, because to thine own self one must be true
Perhaps narcissists need to imagine themselves as happy and successful, even though they realize deep down that they are miserable losers. If so, the existence of genuinely happy and successful people would be a constant, painful reminder of their own failure. To counteract that they are driven to make everyone around them miserable in order to guard their own illusion of themselves as happy and successful.
I don’t know if there’s been any research done on this idea, but it seems consistent with what is known about narcissists.
It seems as if most, if not all, narcissist behavior is driven by the need to sustain some illusion.
That makes a lot of sense, and would explain the drive.
Absolutely correct, Michael. In effect you have it backwards, AC. The desire to hurt others comes first; the rationalization and self-lying come second – they are a by-product to stop them from appreciating the full horror of their behaviour.
Interesting. Could be.
Great post. Ann Barnhardt has made a video on what she calls Diabolical Narcissism https://www.barnhardt.biz/diabolical-narcissism/ It intersects what you talk about here.
I’ve always thought jealousy has a lot to do with it. My narcissist literally cannot bear it when someone else has something she is incapable of obtaining herself. It could be a thing, a relationship, a character trait, an experience, anything at all. She will rage and plot and destroy rather than try to earn it for herself. The effort she puts in to destruction is astonishing.
If the prison guards really want to troll him they should tell him all of his victims are leading happy productive lives- while he just rots away.
Your comment makes sense Michael, the narcissists I have known were always putting on a front of being omnipotent; it is as if they have a need not so much to do well, but to be seen doing well.