A proposition: no one actually falls in love with a serious narcissist; they fall in love with whatever lies the narcissist is telling about themselves to themselves at the time.

Black and white twins who raise all sorts of identity issues. About a mixed race couple who produced two sets of black and white twin daughters. More links.

Moral bankruptcy in the academic jungle: the case of historian Orlando Figes.

About (not) respecting the law:
1. What is the worst law you think people are still morally obliged to obey ( Read more... )

Was taken out to dinner by a dear writer-friend for her birthday. She is looking so much healthier, which is good to report. She reminisced about being carried by his father on his shoulders until she got too big, "I was never so tall as on my father's shoulders ( Read more... )

Discussed here.

I am deeply sceptical about counselling and "talk therapy". Partly, it dates backs to having read Jeffrey Masson's Against Therapy years ago. Partly, it is based on observing counselling that seems to have either being extremely ineffectual, or made things worse ( Read more... )

Wimbledon has had the longest match in tennis history.

The threatened life of a World Cup matches winner picking “psychic” octopus.

A C16th air mattress, with bellows.

Placing countries so as to “map” cultures.

Japan attempts to regulate waistlines.

We are much more likely to die as the result of the consequences of personal decisions than our ( Read more... )

"I'm sorry": a phrase ( Read more... )

What follows is an email from PrettyMeBoy-an emotional disaster from my past-with my comments. I offer it as an educational experience.

He begins, responding to a terse email from me that he had failed to live up to his promise to get back to me:
I guess my silence is making you tetchy. Please understand that this is a delicate issue and that the ( Read more... )

At its core, narcissism is very simple. It operates on the principle: my convenience comes first.

This may look like simple selfishness and, of course, it is profoundly selfish. But the key feature of narcissism is that the principle goes all the way down. That is, it goes right down to what they tell themselves about what happens. The principle ( Read more... )

Journalist Ron Rosenbaum’s Explaining Hitler: the Search for the Origins of His Evil is a fine exploration of what scholars have written about Hitler and the Holocaust. Rosenbaum talks to the scholars (those that were still alive at the time) and reads their works, taking the reader steadily through the range of approaches to explaining Hitler and ( Read more... )