Narcissists respond to several additional emotional themes beyond their divergence from K-mores, which I will present here for the record, to aid further research. Although some of these techniques will also work on Liberals, some may be much less effective than others. I present these here, for future research.
First, is the bad option two-fer. As discussed previously, for reasons which elude me, Narcissists cannot see options beyond those presented by their opponent. As a result, if you give them two bad options, they will freeze, as their amygdala panics, unable to see any other option. As an example, “Hillary Clinton either knew Bill was having affairs, in which case she is a bald faced liar, and unfit for office, or she didn’t know Bill was having affairs, in which case she is far too ignorant and stupid to be placed in any position of power or authority.” Narcissists will furrow their brow and back down, and so will Liberals, in my experience.
Next is relative inferiority. Narcissists are acutely sensitive to relative states. If a Narcissist notices someone else has a nicer car, a nicer watch, a better job, a nicer house, higher status, higher intelligence, etc, it will bother them profoundly. My Narcissist’s family members would often splurge on a single item to use at a gathering, to try and illicit envy and irritation in their relatives. Other times, they would clearly relish emphasizing how great a relationship they had with their families, to depress any relative who was in the midst of familial trouble.
You see this in Liberals, with their assertions of the Liberal’s intellectual superiority. Even though a Conservative may be plenty smart, and more accomplished, the Liberal will assert that they are vastly more intelligent than the Conservative, by virtue of their Liberalism.
This is a defensive psychological strategy to prevent them from having to confront any practical competitive inferiority on the Liberal’s part. Therefore, President George W. Bush is an idiot. He ran circles around Liberals politically, easily beat both Al Gore and John Kerry, and showed himself to be the political better of Liberal’s everywhere (at least with his own political fortune, if not the Republican party’s). And yet according to the Liberal, he clearly was stupid.
This is also why anticompetitive movements such as the Ku Klux Klan (which seeks to forestall competition with Black Americans through government oppression) asserts it’s racial superiority, while the community organizer (who want’s government to rearrange competitive outcomes through oppression) asserts the moral superiority of the poor over the rich, while the Nazi’s (who sought to use government to avert free competition with all non-Aryans) asserted their Aryan superiority.
In each case, the blind assertion of superiority is an attempt to assuage easily activated amygdalae by shielding them from any hint of personal inferiority, while attempting to use force of government to prevent any competition which might actually establish a clearly demonstrated superiority. Shatter the Liberal’s superiority bubble, perhaps by rubbing their face in a clearly established inferiority, and you will trigger their amygdala, and put them off their game. As an example, “If President George W. Bush was so stupid, how did he manage to defeat John Kerry, as well as the entire Liberal political establishment, despite the unpopular War in Iraq?” Then add in an out-grouping to finish the job “I’ll tell you why. Two reasons. It’s because he was smarter than all of the Liberals in the Democratic party, and people don’t like whiny Liberals who support our terrorist enemies in time of war.”
Which brings us to the third theme, humiliation in defeat. Narcissists are strangely competitive. They see competitions everywhere, from how successful someone else is, to how happy they are relative to others, to how much food a hostess spoons on their plate. Relative disparities which normal people don’t even notice will capture a Narcissist’s attention, and they will fixate upon them. If that disparity is to a Narcissist’s disadvantage, it can crush their mood and trigger their amygdala.
Emphasize any clear defeat, no matter how minor, and you will trigger the Narcissist’s (and the Liberal’s) amygdala. Jimmy Carter used to be perfect, but times change. Now I would go with, “Wasn’t Barack Obama supposed to be the answer to all our prayers? I thought you said he would be a great President? I thought you said he was smarter than everybody? I’ve never seen anyone in over their head as badly as Barack Obama in the Presidency. Your best candidate, and he is more incompetent than any other President in modern history. I can’t imagine how embarrassed you must be.”
This is also effective in demotivating the Liberal establishment. Part of the Liberal movement’s strategy of creating an air of “inevitability” during the 2008 Presidential campaign, was it’s effect in motivating Liberals by shutting off their amygdalae. r-strategists are programmed to seek the easy win aggressively. They want the low hanging fruit, not the long, hard, competitive slog. Portray them as defeated, and watch their amygdalae fire up and their morale evaporate.
Laughter and merriment never go over well with Narcissists. I have no idea whether Narcissists want to be the only people who are the life of the party (and get jealous of others who genuinely are the life of the party and begin the laughter), or if they were conditioned to hate laughter because in their childhood, when others were laughing, it was at them and they were humiliated. Either way they seem universally irritated when others laugh and are happy. Get others laughing at the Narcissists, even just in good fun, and inside they will be livid, even as they smile broadly on the outside.
Disregard of the Narcissist’s misfortune is another amygdala triggering stimuli. I suspect many Narcissists develop a game (in the parlance of Erik Berne) during their childhood, by which they seek attention from parents through the use of sympathy. In childhood this is probably a reliable means by which to focus attention upon themselves. When it persists into childhood, seeing someone else taking obvious enjoyment from their tales of woe can be highly traumatizing to Narcissists who play this game. I do not know if this is as effective with Liberals, however.
Diminution of Stature, as we discussed, is a powerful technique to apply to the Narcissists. Best done in groups, it entails a quickly delivered aside explaining the Narcissist’s low stature or lack of ability. Combined with quick laughter, and delivered quickly before moving on the to main topic, it is fiercely irritating to the Narcissist. As an example Mitt Romney could answer a question on his economic plans by saying, “Well, obviously I’m hoping I will be a little better with the economy than Barack Obama has been (laughing). My plan entails…..” After Mitt has given a long description of his plan, Obama is forced to let Romney’s assertion of Obama’s failure sit, because to go back to it would just seem too try-hard, and might even lend credence to it. Narcissists hate that.
The Stare. Steve Jobs was reputed to periodically unnerve people he didn’t want to deal with by using direct eye contact, delivering a wide-eyed, emotionally blank stare which he had carefully developed through hours of looking at himself in the mirror. One woman he used it on actually recoiled in horror, saying something to the effect that his eyes were absolutely soul-less. I do know that the Narcissist I had the most contact with would seek to try to use eye contact early in an encounter to establish dominance. This would last until his amygdala had been overwhelmed, at which point he would appear exactly as an autistic – staring at the ground, and assiduously avoiding even a cursory examination of any part of another’s face.
The rise of the mob. I suspect aggressive Narcissism will often accompany a fear of the mob turning upon the individual. It is possible that the childhood stress which creates Narcissism often requires a mob, in order for it to be severe enough and inevitable enough to fracture the individual’s reality. Or maybe children who become Narcissists have something detectably aberrant in their childhood manner which other children pick up on, causing mobs to frequently turn upon the child Narcissist. I don’t know. But in my experience, r-type Liberals will be r-type Liberals, right up until the perception creeps in of the mob turning upon them, at which point they will retreat frantically. Think of the Brooks Brother’s Riot, and imagine what would happen if we cared.
From a national perspective, this fear of the mob’s antipathy is why Charleton Heston’s “From my cold dead hands!” marked the beginning of the end of gun control. It is why r-type terrorists, seeking to oppress the Iraqi people, suddenly stopped their attacks on our troops in Iraq after Abu Ghraib (see page 3 of this pdf, and examine how quickly coalition fatalites dropped after the Abu Ghraib Torture scandal broke in April 2004) – they thought we were finally going to deal with them as violently and ruthlessly as we should have. The absence of this “fear of the mob,” is why today Obama shows no sign of embarrassment over his Marxist ties during his university years. r-type Liberals and Narcissists are practical cowards, and they will retreat rapidly when the tide turns against them. The presentation of images showing the mob rising against them can be a powerful amygdala stimulant.
Next up, Part VII – Amygdala Development and Inducing Maturity
Touching the Raw Amygdala: An Analysis of Liberal Debate Tactics
Table of Contents
Touching the Raw Amygdala: An Analysis of Liberal Debate Tactics – Preface
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part I – Foundational Understandings
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part II – Mike Wallace Debates a Marine
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part III – Mike Wallace’s Amygdala On Overload
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part IV – The Presentation
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part V – Distilling the Stimuli
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part VI – Additional Stimuli
Touching the Raw Amygdala – Part VII – Amygdala Development and Inducing Maturity