In your article on Win Scott, you mentioned his belief that a good agent had schizoid character traits. In the article above, you seem to be referencing something similar:
"Keehner concluded based on these assessments: 'There are some very warm people in the CIA, but they block off their feelings…they compartmentalize their own work in their minds. They can do horrible things all day and then go home and forget about it. It was amazing to see how well they functioned considering the amount of tension their tests displayed.'"
This certainly describes a schizoid-like split in the mind, which functions in this instance as a means of protecting the self against superego attack for doing nefarious or evil things. Robert Jay Lifton, who knew many MK-ULTRA Agency psychologists and psychiatrists, wrote a book called "The Nazi Doctors." His hypothesis of a "doubling" in their personality functioning also seems schizoid-like. (For non-psychological readers, schizoid refers to split in the mind, not to schizophrenia.)
Someday a fuller treatment of this particular subject would be worth undertaking. I personally am of a similar opinion to W.R.D. Fairbairn, who saw the schizoid type as the exemplar personality disorder of our era. Interestingly, the quite radical R.D. Laing had similar ideas, as did Melanie Klein. (In the US, fascination turned to the narcissistic personality disorders, which were worked through under a different theoretical approach, though one could see that perhaps the latter were more a subgroup of the schizoid types.)
Thanks for your well-written and fascinating essays!
And we wonder why the World seems so topsy-turvy? If outfits were experimenting with social engineering to this extent back in the 60's, where are they now? One person I follow spoke of how they destroyed Australia's beef exporting to South Korea through nudging a teenage social influencer with a large following of fellow young girls. All it takes is a few pushes of the lead cow and the herd follows.
In your article on Win Scott, you mentioned his belief that a good agent had schizoid character traits. In the article above, you seem to be referencing something similar:
"Keehner concluded based on these assessments: 'There are some very warm people in the CIA, but they block off their feelings…they compartmentalize their own work in their minds. They can do horrible things all day and then go home and forget about it. It was amazing to see how well they functioned considering the amount of tension their tests displayed.'"
This certainly describes a schizoid-like split in the mind, which functions in this instance as a means of protecting the self against superego attack for doing nefarious or evil things. Robert Jay Lifton, who knew many MK-ULTRA Agency psychologists and psychiatrists, wrote a book called "The Nazi Doctors." His hypothesis of a "doubling" in their personality functioning also seems schizoid-like. (For non-psychological readers, schizoid refers to split in the mind, not to schizophrenia.)
Someday a fuller treatment of this particular subject would be worth undertaking. I personally am of a similar opinion to W.R.D. Fairbairn, who saw the schizoid type as the exemplar personality disorder of our era. Interestingly, the quite radical R.D. Laing had similar ideas, as did Melanie Klein. (In the US, fascination turned to the narcissistic personality disorders, which were worked through under a different theoretical approach, though one could see that perhaps the latter were more a subgroup of the schizoid types.)
Thanks for your well-written and fascinating essays!
Another fascinating piece! Thank you! (Is there an address where I may contact you privately?)
And we wonder why the World seems so topsy-turvy? If outfits were experimenting with social engineering to this extent back in the 60's, where are they now? One person I follow spoke of how they destroyed Australia's beef exporting to South Korea through nudging a teenage social influencer with a large following of fellow young girls. All it takes is a few pushes of the lead cow and the herd follows.