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I posted this rant yesterday, and found it missing when I came back today. After getting out my tin foil I emailed the web site, and got a very nice email from the site admin saying oops, they'd goofed and accidently it, and I could repost it. They lost the comments but had the rant. So here it is reposted.
And thanks for all who posted comments. Yes, i would consider North Koreans to be suffering many effects similar to a personality disorder.
So here's the original rant:
While reading through the definitions of personality disorders, it occurred to me that groups too can exhibit those traits. So as an exercise let's see how Scientology fares when looking over the characteristics of a personality disorder. Let's start with the characteristics common to all types of personality disorders. Quoted materials are from the NIH.gov website
"Symptoms have been present for an extended period of time, are inflexible and pervasive..."
The rules concerning scientology are inflexible, rigid and not subject to change or modification under any circumstances. The tech is perfect as it is, hence unchanging and unchangeable. In fact the scientology writings are considered sacred scriptures and to change them is one of the worst crimes scientology has.
"The symptoms have caused and continue to cause significant distress or negative consequences in different aspects of the person's life."
We can certainly see the distress and negative consequences of scientology. They are hounded in Europe, lawsuits are being filed for human trafficking in California and protesters show up on their doorsteps at least once a month to point out the abuses scientology engages in.
"Symptoms are seen in at least two of the following areas:
ìThoughts (ways of looking at the world, thinking about self or others, and interacting)
ìEmotions (appropriateness, intensity, and range of emotional functioning)
ìInterpersonal Functioning (relationships and interpersonal skills)
ìImpulse Control"
Scientology teaches their adherents that they will become Homo novus, new man, no longer Homo sapiens like the rest of us, and yet when confronted with the slightest confound even the highest level scientologist, the so called OT8s, collapse into name calling and curtain tech. They say they are the ones best able to communicate and yet when the situation calls for a dialog they instead rant and rave about how unfair and intolerant their opponents are. Scientology has NO honorable opponents and can have none because opposition to scientology is of itself cause for a scientologist to hate that person, to think the person is a suppressive person, evil.
So in general there is enough to think there is something to this line of thought. Next, let's look at the specifics of several personality disorders to see if we can diagnose scientology. Personality disorders are categorized into three types with several disorders in each category. So let's read through the lists and see what we find.
"Cluster A is characterized by odd, eccentric thinking or behavior" and include: Paranoid personality disorder, Schizoid personality disorder and Schizotypal personality disorder.
In reading through the list of symptoms for the Cluster A group, the schizoid types aren't relevant, but the paranoid disorder had some interesting symptoms.
"Distrust and suspicion of others"ójust read the CCHR website or realize that scientologists are taught that reporters and police are Merchants of Chaos
"Believing that others are trying to harm you"ósimple peaceful protests are considered terrorism
"Emotional detachment"ónot detachment so much as surgery, they are taught to excise all emotions under 2.0 on their Tone Scale.
"Hostility"óScientologists are taught to think in terms of black and white, good and bad, and to label everything they encounter as one or the other. So they can't avoid thinking their opponents are not just wrong but bad and evil.
"Cluster B. These are personality disorders characterized by dramatic, overly emotional thinking or behavior and include: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic"
"The symptoms of antisocial personality disorder include a longstanding pattern (after the age of 15) of disregard for the rights of others. There is a failure to conform to society's norms and expectations that often results in numerous arrests or legal involvement as well as a history of deceitfulness where the individual attempts to con people or use trickery for personal profit."
These characteristics have been apparent long before scientology's fifteenth birthday, but around that time, 1965, was when the Fair Game policies were being made explicit.
Other symptoms include:
"Anger and arrogance"óinteracting with the typical scientologist at a protest is to see their philosophy laid out stark and plain for all to see. They either try to bull bait and intimidate or they run away. And for an example of arrogance watch the Tom Cruise video when he tells the world that only scientologists can help.
"Capable of acting witty and charming"ówhen it suits their purpose, meaning when they smell raw meat or some advantage to accrue to scientology they can indeed fake a good smile. They work with others when it suits their purpose.
"Good at flattery and manipulating other people's emotions"óoh yeah. How else do they get recruits other than love bombing and other fun methods. And to augment this they give personality tests to gather more data to find someone's ruin, that is, the item the person feels needs to be improved. They do this not to help the person but to manipulate them into giving scientology money.
"Substance abuse and legal problems"ófrom what can be seen, scientologists do not use drugs nor drink too much. Instead, they go in the opposite direction and ban everything, including many medicines that may help.
So we've found a good fit for scientology. So are we done? Not quite yet. People can have multiple diagnoses, so let's follow that model and look what else we can find.
Narcissistic personality disorder:
"Believing that you're better than others"óHomo novus
ìFantasizing about power, success and attractiveness"óThe Ideal Org, Clearing the Planet
ìExaggerating your achievements or talentsîócheck out the changing number of scientologists over the years. Fifteen years ago they claimed 15M, but now it seems to be 8M. Either way, the number is likely under 50,000.
ìExpecting constant praise and admirationîówell they do have the only workable tech, after all, so they just want to be acknowledged.
ìFailing to recognize other people's emotions and feelingsîótelling heinous lies about innocent people falls under this category, So does the disconnection policy.
Cluster C is characterized by anxious, fearful behavior. The specific disorders are avoidant, dependent and obsessive compulsive disorders, and one of those describe scientology:
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
ìPreoccupation with orderliness and rulesîóthey stand in line at musters by rank and department, they have white glove inspections. The staff have rules so all pervasive there is a detailed description on how to dust. And if you don't do it according to the rules, you can get in trouble, even have your pay, what little there is, lowered or taken away for not dusting properly.
ìExtreme perfectionismîóanything short of perfect in scientology can become an ethics matter. See above.
ìDesire to be in control of situationsîóthey talk about control a lot, control of bodies, people, groups. They want to be the one in control of the rest.
ìInability to discard broken or worthless objectsîódon't know about worthless objects, though those bronze busts of LRH seem to fit the category, they certainly have a hard time discarding old and outmoded tech, such as the Telex, to send messages.
ìInflexibilityîóthey have the perfect tech, and nothing else can possibly matter, so yeah, they are as inflexible as any ritual obeying group can be. No possibility of improvisation. It's against the rules.
Scientology manages to earn one diagnosis in each of the three cluster areas, with paranoid in Cluster A; antisocial and narcissistic in Cluster B and obsessive compulsive in Cluster C.
We come to the unmistakable conclusion that scientology needs therapy. Modern methods, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy have been shown to be very useful for helping people with personality disorders recover and lead a full life.
But in truth, just getting away from the bad influence is the first best step any scientologist can make to become a whole person again.
Anyone know a good therapist?