How would sublimination be used? Could you give an interesting example? 2 is a reference to spirituality yeah, including family, law, race (so something greater than yourself). guess I see the idea of being special as having a spiritual component? But perhaps I'm confusing myself there. So I should focus on understanding the ins and outs of 3 & 4 more then, and you agree overall?
4
posts
"How would sublimination be used? Could you give an interesting example?"
From the Wiki page on sublimation: "In psychology, sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are unconsciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse." A concrete example of manipulation of this would be criticism of a person's behavior which causes the person to internalize that the behavior is "bad," and thus impulses become sublimated and redirected.
"2 is a reference to spirituality yeah, including family, law, race (so something greater than yourself). guess I see the idea of being special as having a spiritual component? But perhaps I'm confusing myself there."
You were right about 2...I just remembered about televangelist scammers.
Yeah, I agree.
"For a specific example, making somebody feel special would be an example of perhaps 2, and 3, so stimulating that or attacking it would be a useful manipulative tool. So what do you think, is this the essence of manipulation?"
I think manipulation would involve 3 & 4...isn't 2 a reference to spirituality?
I read an interesting book recently called the conspiracy against the human race by Thomas Ligotti. Essentially, its about nihilism and human suffering, and the coping mechanisms by which all people try in vain to escape its inevitability. He lists those as follows:
1) Isolation of the facts of existence from our mind
2) anchoring our lives to the metaphysical
3) Distraction
4) Sublimination - false intellectual confrontation with the facts of life
All these act as bandaids to the human condition, my speculation then is that the essence of manipulation is both the stimulation of these band-aids and the destruction of them. For a specific example, making somebody feel special would be an example of perhaps 2, and 3, so stimulating that or attacking it would be a useful manipulative tool. So what do you think, is this the essence of manipulation?
4
posts