Sunday, March 9, 2014

The Female Psychosis part 1: Egocentrism

Written for Going Your Own Way forum. 
Reviewed by GabrielKnight Mar 13 2014 



Nothing has moved me so deeply than that moment when I finally got it; why women think differently from men (or as the Hamster would define it, why men think differently from women). During those instances when I notice but could not explain this disparity it would often result in confusion and bewilderment. I was confused why women often contradict themselves and when caught in their own contradiction, they deflect, rationalize and falsely accuse. Their finger points to all but themselves and society accepts this as part and parcel of “values” that must be upheld.

“Eating Grass” since a child, I always knew that something was utterly amiss and unlike other Blue Pill Men, I did not dismiss or ignore that something was vehemently wrong with women. In my research for this article I came across Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatrist from Harvard and a self-confessed feminist who wrote a book called The Female Brain which Robin Marantz Henig (2006) of the New York Times call a “women’s magazine article” and that “Brizendine did not do a good enough job presenting scientific evidence.” What Brizendine did was to sprinkle her writing with cutesy (read neotenous) language – estrogen as the Queen, testosterone the Forceful Seducer and oxytocin as the Fluffy, Purring Kitten.

Fuck No.

I had planned to write one article regarding one specific dementia but now I decided that I would write a series of pieces under a parent title which I am calling The Female Psychosis detailing the mental conditions in women specifically Egocentrism, Narcissism, Solipsism as well as my take on the mythical and immortal Rationalization Hamster. Two caveats before we begin

  • I am neither a Psychiatrist nor Psychologist.
  • Psychology is crock.
Okay, what is all this apparent hypocrisy about psychology being balderdash when I am using psychology to ascertain the mental state of our beautiful retards? Believe it or don’t but I am quite versed in psychology and I am able to discern between psychobabble and the scientific study of mental functions and behavior. And while one half of psychology is credible, the other half is indeed a load of crock as Dr. Louann Brizendine exemplifies.

Okay, let’s get it on.

Hang On To Your Ego
To understand the Female Psychosis, we need to begin from the very beginning. Evolutionists agree that humans are neotenic and women are highly neotenous. Females share many commonalities with children both physically and psychologically therefore, by observing the cognitive development of children; we can form a basis for a reasonable deduction from their behavioral traits. One naturally occurring trait that exists in all children is Egocentrism which means being self-absorbed or that they are preoccupied with their own internal world. But it can also be defined as ”a tendency of thoughts about the self and about self-relevant information to carry more weight in shaping comparative and likelihood judgments than do thoughts about others and other-relevant information” (Chambers & Windschitl, 2008: 253). For the self-absorbed, they can only see their point of view and hence are often unable to accost or acquiesce with the facts of reality.

Simply put, Egocentrism is all about ‘Me’.

Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget (1923) observed that children were at a stage he calls Morality of Constraints in which right and wrong is viewed as absolutes with one exception. Children of this stage believe in this despotism of rules except when those rules hinder their individual benefit (Crosser 2014). This hypocritical selfishness is called Relativistic Hedonism and can be observed when a child monopolizes toys, citing “I can’t share them because I want them!”  However, the same child would be furious when another child hoards the toys. Relativistic Hedonism allows the child to plunder without guilt or shame “because I want them!” Egocentrism prevents the child from empathizing with others emotionally and cognitively. Thus the child who is blinded with her own viewpoint has difficulty taking on other views. This can also manifest in a child’s faulty reasoning of cause and effect. The proverb ‘step on a crack and you break your mother’s back’ is a good analogy of how a child relates to her world (Crosser 2014). Often a child assumes that unrelated good and bad events occur because of her, for example she feels guilty for her parents’ divorce, or feels special when her birthday wish is granted after supplicating to whomever and whatever.

Egocentrism is also apparent in adolescence. Professor David Elkind expanded Piaget’s theory and proposed that adolescents fail to differentiate the cognitive concerns of others and those of the self and this gave rise to two mental conditions known as the Imaginary Audience and Personal Fable (Lerner & Jovanovic 1999: 13). The Imaginary Audience is the teenagers’ belief of the constant feeling that they are being observed and judged (Oda 2007). They envision how friends would react to their every action and thought (Whitbourne 2012). Personal Fable is the belief adolescents hold that they are special and unique to the extent that none of the difficulties of life will affect them irrespective of their behavior. It is a sense of invulnerability and specialty commonly associated with risk-taking (Alberts, Elkind and Ginsberg 2006). An example of these 2 mental condition is the story of Dana Adiva, the 22 year old star of MTV’s ‘True Life: I’m Too Beautiful’ who thinks everyone either hates or lusts for her because she thinks she is too pretty (Murray 2013). She is quoted to say “people stare at me no matter what and it’s the most irritating thing in the world” (Imaginary Audience) as well as “I get anything I want basically. I get treated like a princess” (Personal Fable).   


InformOverload (2013)

The third and almost unknown of Elkind’s teenage ego trifecta is called Apparent Hypocrisy, which is when the adolescent expresses an idea and believes that the expression of that idea is the same as acting on it and achieving it (Bowden & Greenburg 2010: 110). Thus if a teenager believes she is successful even when she is not, then all her endeavors are wins without her need to strive for it. To give you an example, Psychology professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell studied 37,000 college students in 2006 and found 30 per cent of them believed that they should get good grades just by showing up (Taylor 2009). Due to this, the teenagers who subscribe to a certain ideology can act directly contrary to that belief, such as Singaporean girls agreeing that the National Service -- which is mandatory for men -- is a must but only for men and they themselves would not participate in it.


Mikeferdy (2013)

Since we know that women are childish in their behavior because of their neoteny, and that children as well as adolescents are egocentric, we can presuppose that women remain egocentric well into their adulthood. And for my good fellows, do not assume that Egocentrism is a modern day disease. The Women’s Petition Against Coffee of 1674 highlights this childish behavior. Coffee was introduced to Britain in the 1600 and had become a popular drink among the British Intelligentsia where men would gather in coffee-houses to discuss politics and philosophy (Price 2011). Even today’s women will find nothing wrong with this. But the wives of these men apparently did not agree, citing that their men were ‘Frenchified’ who had lost all interest in sex with them. They then describe how talkativeness is the prerogative of women and should only be reserved for women. If we read the petition we can observe the obvious egocentrism in them.

For besides, we have reason to apprehend and grow Jealous, That Men by frequenting these Stygian Tap-houses will usurp on our Prerogative of Tattling, and soon learn to excel us in Talkativeness: a Quality wherein our Sex has ever Claimed pre-eminence.

This paragraph is gold because it contains all of Elkind’s trinite adolescent egocentrism. The women thought that men were being talkative because the men were imitating them (Imaginary Audience). Garbage; even King Charles knew that the men were only concern about the affairs of the state. Next, the women were jealous and apprehensive that men would be better talkers than them (Personal Fable). More garbage; there are no credible evidence to support that women are better talkers than men and men do not care how or what women talk about. Then these women claim that talking is a female quality and that it is their dominion, hence men are not allowed to engage in it (Apparent Hypocrisy). This is idiocy beyond reason and can only be attributed to what can only be described as Paraphrenia or paranoid delusion. It was never about coffee; it has and always has been about women’s irrational and egotistical demands.

Now we look at the positive attribute of egocentrism. In a 2011 study on gender and competition it has been found that in stereotypical-male task, there is consensus that men and women with the same ability do not share the same willingness to compete (Niederle & Vesterlund 2011: 625). The study has found that in the labor market outcomes men prefer to compensate under a tournament scheme but women prefer a noncompetitive piece-rate scheme. According to the study, the best explanation for this is that men have more confidence in their abilities compare to women and their attitudes towards competition are different; men thrive on competition while women shy away. And yet women have the gall to claim that there is a gender gap in pay when they do not want to compete with men and want to do less work (manwomanmyth 2010).

In competition, egocentrism assumes that people tend to have more knowledge about themselves compared to others and that any assessments they make of themselves would tend to be more reliable than assessments they make of others (Windschitl et al., 2008: 254) This means that you know more about you than you do about the other guy and this is perfectly reasonable. Therefore when people need to make a comparison, they have some justification to believe in what they think of themselves than what they think about others and these people then tend to arrive at a better and more accurate judgment in their comparisons and optimism (Chambers & Windschitl, 2004: 270).

Therefore in competition, egocentrism is beneficial and crucial for men because it helps the man to make better decisions and to be more optimistic. But this has nothing to do with competition in relationships i.e. not victim against oppressor, not wife against husband, nor women against coffee. As men, we need to have confidence in ourselves if we are to compete with others for food and shelter. Egocentrism is good for competition and since men are naturally competitive, egocentrism is good for men. Women have no use for egocentrism and when they are egocentric, it is not for the purpose of getting food or shelter but for competing on looking attractive (Cashdan 1998).

Garbage

To be continued in The Female Psychosis Part 2: Narcissism

Reference
Alberts, A. Elkind, D. Ginsberg, S. (2006) The Personal Fable and Risk-Taking in Early Adolescence. [Online] Dec 19, 2006 available at http://homepages.wmich.edu/~rmckinn2/3500/Risk%20Taking%20in%20Adolescence.pdf [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

Bowden, V.R. & Greenburg, C.S., (2010) Children and Their Families: The Continuum of Care. Wolters Kluwer Health, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia pp. 110

Cashdan, E. (1998) Are Men More Competitive Than Women. The British Journal of Social Psychology, 37(2): 213-229 available online at PubMed.gov http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9639863 [accessed Mar 9, 2014]

Chambers, J.R. & Windschitl, P.D. (2004) Biases in Comparative Social Judgments: The Role of Non-Motivationed Factors in Above-Average and Comparative-Optimism Effects. Psychological Bulletin, vol. 130, no. 5, 813-838, University of Iowa.

Crosser, S. (2014), Emerging Morality: How Children Think About Right and Wrong. [Online] available at Earlychildhood News http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=118 [accessed Mar 6, 2014]

Henig, R.M. (2006) How Women Think. [Online] Sep 10, 2006 available at The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Henig.t.html?_r=2& [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

InformOverload, (2013), Woman Says Being Too Pretty Ruined Her Life – Dana Adiva. [online] Jun 4, 2013 available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wps1OHs459M [accessed Mar 7, 2013]

Lerner, R.M. Jovanovic, J. (1999) Cognitive and moral development and academic achievement in adolescence. Taylor & Francis, U.S.A. pp. 13

Manwomanmyth (2010) Equality – The Pay Gap 2/3. [online] Feb 15, 2010 available at Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RscKyvgw-Y4 [accessed Mar 9, 2014]

Mikeferdy (2013), Singapore’s most hypocritical girl. [online] Dec 7, 2013 available at Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDto2JLbzoA [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

Murray, R (2013) Meet the women who complain they’re too beautiful for their own good on MTV’s True Life. [online] Jun 3, 2013 available at The Daily News http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/women-complain-beautiful-article-1.1361968 [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

Niederle, M. & Vesterlund, L. (2011), Gender and Competition. Annual Review Economics, 3: 601-630 doi 10.1146/annurev-economics-111809-125122 pp. 625 available at www.annualreviews.org http://www.stanford.edu/~niederle/NV.AnnualReview.Print.pdf [accessed Mar 9, 2014]

Oda, A.Y. (2007) David Elkind and the Crisis of Adolescence: Review, Critique and Application. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 251-256 available at http://www.zvitoren.com/files/david%20elkind%20about%20teenagers.pdf [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

Piaget, J. (2002), The Language and Thought of a Child. 3rd Edition, Routledge Classics, New York 1959 pp. 9-10

Price, W.F. (2011), The 1674 Women’s Campaign Against Coffee. [online] Apr 15, 2011 available at Spearhead http://www.the-spearhead.com/2011/04/15/the-1674-womens-campaign-against-coffee/ [accessed Mar 8, 2014]

Taylor, L. (2009) The Ego Epidemic: How more and more of us women have an inflated sense of our own fabulousness. [Online] Sep 14, 2009 available at The Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1213212/The-ego-epidemic-more-inflated-sense-fabulousness.html [accessed Mar 6, 2014]

Whitborne, S.K. (2012) It’s a Fine Line Between Narcissim and Egocentrism. [Online] April 7, 2012 available at Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201204/it-s-fine-line-between-narcissism-and-egocentrism [accessed Mar 7, 2014]

Windschitl, P.D. Rose, J.P. Stalkfleet, M.T. and Smith, A.R. (2008), Are People Excessive or Judicious in their Egocentrism? A Modelling Approach to Understanding Bias and Accuracy in People’s Optimism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 95, No.2, 253-273, University of Iowa pp. 253, 254 available online at http://www2.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/windschitl/PDFs/JPSP%202008%20(WRSS).pdf [accessed Mar 6, 2014]

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