Self-improvement credences, creeds of the sociopath?

[Paladin-X]

In my random travels across the world wide web, I came across this article for self-improvement. These are common suggestions found on any given anxiety, depression or other self-improvement sites. A thought just occurred to me however, the recommendations themselves, also sound like the characteristics of a sociopath!

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/li...-save-yourself-from-messing-up-your-life.html

Summarized:

1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.
3. Ease up on the internal life commentary.
4. Take no notice of your inner critic.
5. Give up on feeling guilty.
6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you.
7. Stop keeping score.
8. Don't be concerned that your life and career aren't working out the way you planned.
9. Don't let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions.
10. Don't worry about your personality. You don't really have one.

This is merely an observation. I do not now posit that you should avoid these stress-reducing ideas!

Correlation #2 - I would use these same characteristics in describing an INTJ. :S

 

[muir]

Yeah the message is:

''stop thinking, your government is in control; just keep working, keep paying taxes, keep consuming, ignore the rising tide of anxiety, just buy yourself something new and it will all be ok''

but most of all the message is: ''don't look within''

 

[Paladin-X]

Exactly!

Hence the first quote in my signature!

 

[muir]

Yeah Jung's awesome!

I was looking a little into different spiritual systems and just getting bogged down with some of the concepts and the ways in which things are expressed but after a while i realised they are all describing the same internal processes that are our common heritage as humans

I would read several different things and then think 'ahh crap that was all saying the same thing really' and i haven't gained much understanding for all that effort, but Jung just ties it all in beautifully.....i have lots of 'aha' moments with his work. I feel like i have only scratched the surface though, but that's cool...it'll all unfold in time

But why's it not in the school curriculem? (you don't need to answer man...we both know why! lol)

I love your signature quotes...v.true

 

[Paladin-X]

Yes. I wish to read and study his works more thoroughly, unfortunately I have difficulties comprehending his writing. I need to boost my reading comprehension level significantly somehow. He is a genius far more than his field gives him credit for. He is becoming a great inspiration for me as I pursue an education in Psychology.

Haha thanks for that addendum to your question. I will now accept it as a rhetorical statement! And agree!

Thanks! Your quote is pretty awesome as well. It is also strongly applicable to Autistic individuals. I've now just experienced an AHA moment! Thank you! (Will post it in my Autism thread)

 

[muir]

Cool i'll have a read of the thread.

Yeah Jung's hard work! I found 'man and his symbols' pretty accessible, if you haven't read it already

 

[knight in battle]

2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.

Ha. Trying to let go of it only makes it worse.

 

[CindyLou]

I have been diagnosed with OCD by my psych. I have thought this whole thing to be an entertaining experiment. Anyway, newest thing? "You think too much, your thoughts about things are obsessive...I'm going to up your Luvox"

Lol.

 

[the]

5. Give up on feeling guilty.

This has always bothered me. If you do shitty things you should feel guilty, otherwise you will just keep being shitty!

 

[CindyLou]

This has always bothered me. If you do shitty things you should feel guilty, otherwise you will just keep being shitty!

exactly.

 

[this is only temporary]

exactly.

I agree with the overall sentiment of if you've done something crappy you should very well feel guilty, but I think sometimes people feel guilty for things they really shouldn't. And the people who have done truly awful things seem to feel no guilt whatsoever. CindyLou, I remember, if you will forgive me bringing it up, how you once mentioned you felt guilty, or somehow "less", for your not-so-enjoyable pregnancy. Really, you should stop that, if you ask me!

So yes, there is reasonable guilt, and then there are guilty feelings that perhaps have been brainwashed into us. If that makes sense.

And I do agree with this: "Tell yourself that whatever you feel, you feel; whatever you think, you think. Since you can’t stop yourself thinking, or prevent emotions from arising in your mind, it makes no sense to be proud or ashamed of either. You didn’t cause them. Only your actions are directly under your control. They’re the only proper cause of pleasure or shame." For instance, I often feel like beating the daylights out of certain people, or harming them in some other way, but I don't actually do that. You just let those feelings go, and DO what you know is right/best/most likely to meet your goals and agree with your ethics.

 

[latte]

This has always bothered me. If you do shitty things you should feel guilty, otherwise you will just keep being shitty!

You believe there are no alternate mechanisms through which motivation for the desired behavioral modification can arise?

 

[the]

You believe there are no alternate mechanisms through which motivation for the desired behavioral modification can arise?

I believe that there is only one way to solve every problem. /sarcasm.

Really?

 

[palomica26.2]

Yeah the message is:

''stop thinking, your government is in control; just keep working, keep paying taxes, keep consuming, ignore the rising tide of anxiety, just buy yourself something new and it will all be ok''

but most of all the message is: ''don't look within''

also, "lose yourself" and I don't mean this in a good way

 

[Tin Man]

In my random travels across the world wide web, I came across this article for self-improvement. These are common suggestions found on any given anxiety, depression or other self-improvement sites. A thought just occurred to me however, the recommendations themselves, also sound like the characteristics of a sociopath!

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/li...-save-yourself-from-messing-up-your-life.html

Summarized:

1. Stop taking so much notice of how you feel.
2. Let go of worrying. It often makes things worse.
3. Ease up on the internal life commentary.
4. Take no notice of your inner critic.
5. Give up on feeling guilty.
6. Stop being concerned what the rest of the world says about you.
7. Stop keeping score.
8. Don't be concerned that your life and career aren't working out the way you planned.
9. Don't let others use you to avoid being responsible for their own decisions.
10. Don't worry about your personality. You don't really have one.

This is merely an observation. I do not now posit that you should avoid these stress-reducing ideas!

Correlation #2 - I would use these same characteristics in describing an INTJ. :S

Oh nice, real nice. Basically you're saying that INTJs share all the same characteristics as a sociopath. Just from glancing at the list I can see 3, 4 and 8 are completely unINTJ. We're a very introspective type and also quite driven when it comes to our career. Number ten says you really don't have a personality. I know we can come across as cold and aloof but surely that's a bit of an over-exaggeration.

Do you actually see INTJs this way?

 

[Brodskizzle]

Being the born equivocator that I am, I'm gonna say that I definitely agree with Paladin that it's generally a bad idea, and I think that, all things considered, constant self-doubt has made me a better man, but I believe that you can be more effective following the credences, at least with regard to practical matters, even if it does make you a less moral person. The reason why all the most popular leaders are ESTX is because they take life by the balls without paying attention to silly things like the ramifications of their actions or morality.

 

[sassafras]

Taken out of context, I suppose that does paint a rather convincing portrait of a sociopath (I'm a little hairy on calling that an INTJ, to be honest, but this is not a type discussion) However, keep in mind that this advice is given out singularly to balance extreme or exaggerated behaviors that leave no room for the usual shades of gray and is not meant to be taken together to sculpt a holistic portrait of the 'ideal individual.'

For instance, when people tell a worry-wort to 'stop worrying' they don't mean that this person has to swing to the opposite extreme and become a Careless Carl. Rather, the underlying implication is that this person's worrying is either disproportionate to the situation or becoming borderline dysfunctional.

The same applies to every item on that list. There's self-conscious and then there's painfully self-conscious. There's self-reflection and then there's self-rumination. There's a healthy awareness of feelings and a hyper-awareness of feelings. There's keeping score and then there's keeping obsessive score.

Indeed, I would say there's a profound difference between 'looking within' and 'getting lost within.' In all things, moderation, including extreme-sounding advice.

 

[Nixie]

Darn! @TheDaringHatTrick beat me too it!

I also would like to point out that it is as idiotic to claim an INTJ is a sociopath as it is to say that an INFJ is a passive aggressive emotional wreck. There is no doubt that there are fundamental differences is overal personality types that tend to cause friction but sweeping negative generalizations aren't very productive.

As the TDHT points out, most of the advice is speaking about individuals who engage in behavior that borders/crosses the line into unhealthy.

 

[latte]

Really?

Who knows? D :

It was in question form because I could not be certain if you were serious or not. Plenty of people fall into the common trap that is "X is what fills Y function in my mind. I assume this be universal. Thus it must be that people without X don't have anything to fill Y".


Good for you and the rest of the world if in this case you don't.

 

[AKM]

I initially thought that you meant that people who create self-improvement creeds for themselves are sociopaths (solely from the title.) I often have lists of things that I want to improve about myself, and I've also been called a sociopath before (though not by someone in the psychology field...they are happy to tell me that I'm not crazy, etc.)