Looks Familiar

[Paul Mawdsley]

Hello to those who remember me being here before and to those who don't. It's been awhile. It's good to see some familiar names. Looking forward to hanging out here every once in a while again.

[Guyau]

Hey there. Hope life is good.

[Robert Campbell]

Hey Paul,

Good to hear from you.

Robert Campbell

[william.scherk]

Paul, I hope you stick around and put your oar back in the water. In your last post, in 2008, there were tantalizing hints of what was next to come from you.

[Paul Mawdsley]

Life is good. It's nothing like I planned but exactly what I need.

I joined the divorce club, decided to excavate my inner and outer world down to its roots and am rebuilding in a new, more insightful and healthier way. My eyes have been opened to see the insides of both the dark side and the good side of people and relationships. And, as I tend to do, I questioned and mapped everything I witnessed. I now am using these insights in my life and I'm curious to see how they take shape in my writing.

I can't promise anything "tantalizing"..lol...but I do hope to contribute some substance to discussions and the occasional article worthy of provoking thought.

I have developed a definite interest in studying the narcissistic side of each of us, its inner dynamics, how it grows and how we seem to be living in a culture that is fertile for the psyche to either skew toward narcissism in some or skew towards blindness and acceptance of its shadowy operations in others. I am figuring out how to understand and deal with narcissism and its roots in everyday life as I am discovering how prevalent and how destructive it is. Narcissists seem to operate and grow in the dark of blind spots in our culture. It strikes me as epidemic today. I sense its roots are connected to what Barbara called "Objectivist Rage". This is one of the subjects I would like to discuss as I put my "oar back in the water".

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Paul,

It's great to see you again.

Sorry to hear about your divorce.

Here's a Richard Pryor quote about stuff like that, "Life's a bitch... and then you die!"

Michael

[Paul Mawdsley]

Thanks Michael...more of a "life is what you make of it" kinda guy myself.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Paul,

LOL...

That was a quip, of course.

Incidentally, I saw you were interested in understanding narcissism. Here is a documentary I just watched.

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The link is to part 1 of a 9 part series on YouTube. You can catch the other parts once you are on YouTube. I suppose I could embed them all here, but I'm feeling lazy.

Although the title does not say narcissism, but psychopath instead, it most definitely is about narcissism. It is a film about Sam Vaknin. They did brain scans on him and everything else.

It's not a great documentary, mildly entertaining, but it does show interesting information on how narcissists have different brain patterns than other folks and how narcissists target their victims. (They are cunning little suckers.) Also some stuff on people who fall in love with narcissists, which I imagine you might be interested in--if I read you correctly.

Michael

[Paul Mawdsley]

Michael,

I will definitely give it a watch. I've been fortunate enough to fall in love with a couple of women on my journey who have some pretty extreme defense mechanisms and control systems lurking in the shadows. Borderline and Narcissistic personalities make for pretty intense learning opportunities on the dark side of life. It was a journey through my own insides. Two things I've learned: I am strong enough to let anything and anyone all the way inside and still hold onto me; and nothing inside can scare me now. I sense the 12 steps has some similar lessons.

Paul