Facebook flog - Jan 6 2014

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: Jan 6 2014, 4:44
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's Facebook. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

One of the joys of editing small stuff for mass market is I get to reread the parts that make me smile. Still one of my favorite bits of dialogue from Affliction. "What part of sociopath didn't you understand?"

Comments

[nightmer.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a line some teenager would have put on their Myspace profile in a really annoying font. Yikes.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

...oh, goodie, she's fucking with mental conditions that I'm pretty sure she doesn't actually have any grasp of. There's a lot more to sociopathy than "I don't have to be nice" and "I don't have friends".

Also, I love how the look is eloquent but we don't get told what it says. Just that it says it eloquently.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

"I can feel that you are mad at him. That's because I am a sociopath. Other people don't experience things in this way so I am going to tell you that I feel your anger so that you know, and your readers know, that I am strange and unusual. Isn't this a fantastic example of showing, not telling! Huh? Right?"

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

No kidding. We're pretty sure my uncle had Antipersonality Disorder (aka "sociopathy") since he had all but one of the "markers" and he was NOTHING like Nicky.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the other thing. Almost nobody *in the mental health field uses the terms "sociopath" or "psychopath" anymore because they're way too broad and not medically helpful. Antisocial Personality Disorder probably doesn't sound as ~edgy~.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Hah omg I meant to write Antisocial Personality disorder and I totally messed up. :P Now I feel like a moron.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

XD I figured it was a typo.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Haha good. I even wrote a paper on it in my abnormal psychology class. I blame the winter apocalypse weather. :P

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

I know folks in the MH field, and the only ones I do know that still use that terminology are either close to retirement, or use it when they are talking to laypeople because they don't want to bother explaining what APD is. Mom still uses it but in her experience, she has noticed a difference between APD and layman's terms sociopathy, so uses whichever she feels is correct given the situation. (Not saying this is the best practice, but it's what I've seen her use.)

But with LKH... yeah, I'd definitely agree with ~edgy.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

Oh, there'll be some people who still use it, yeah, and people who don't know much about mental illness will get a "better" picture from "sociopathy" than "antisocial personality disorder", it just bugs me because I'm a bit special about mental health issues >_>

[deadsong.livejournal.com]

He's right about one thing.

She doesn't understand a single thing about sociopathy.

...or self-awareness, especially on that particular topic.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I'm not sure, is it possible to be more ignorant and less self-aware about this than she is about everything else?

[elialshadowpine.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Sadly. From personal experience. Yes.

[plastraa.livejournal.com]

Hey but at least we get to see the "water and something thicker" description again, cuz that one never gets old. :)

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Wonder if the 'and something thicker' made something 'go tight in lower places'.

Also...did you notice that the water and thicker things didn't 'spill'?

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I go back and forth between thinking she's too squeamish to use the right words and thinking she doesn't know the right words.

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Wow...that almost sounded like a bit of a...PLOT.

Bet that's all there is, though. Le sigh.

Don't know why I bother.

[duamuteffe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, trust me, I sporked it, there was no real plot. Just endless whining and posturing and the actual confrontation was wrapped up in two paragraphs, like usual.

[ramlatch.livejournal.com]

I am always so bothered by this thing. LKH doesn't seem to understand that a sociopath does not love a person like an equal. A sociopath MIGHT love you the way someone fondly glances at a pretty bookshelf ornament, but that's about as much as you're going to get. That she has Anita loving this guy like he's a real person just ... no. Sociopathy (easier to type than the official terms) makes you broken, and there isn't anything that will change my mind about that. That sense of morality that says hey, throwing that puppy in the garbage bin is bad? They don't have that. A person like that isn't a person. I really don't care what any bleeding heart says. That is half of a person, and someone to run the hell away from. That LKH thinks it's cute and funny or something, to have Anita being some "lol lol awww lol lol look at Anita with her ickle snuggle bunny sociopath" just gives me the creeps. It's not cute. It's not funny. It's cuddling a shark and then going "hey it likes me! we're totally besties!".

Also, I would almost bet money that actual sociopaths don't really care about labeling themselves. They are too busy being sociopaths to be all like "omg I'm a sociopath! Hi! I'm a sociopath! Did I mention I'm a sociopath?!"

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

But Anita is SPECIAL. So special that she can HANDLE a sociopath. Other women, especially blonder, thinner ones, can't, of course.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Anita doesn't love anyone as an equal, and doesn't understand even being polite to someone you don't want to fuck, let alone "loving" them. People talk about how she defeated the MOAD with the power of love, but she didn't; she defeated the MOAD with the power of enjoying sex with her various walking dildos. Since the MOAD did not understand enjoying sex, Anita won through that. It wasn't love. And she's very clear about thinking "love" is based purely on appearance.

This is LKH's self-insert.

[wanderingworlds.livejournal.com]

No, sociopaths have that morality. Because they've more than likely learned "throwing this puppy in the garbage bin will get me in trouble, and that is not good in terms of me getting to do what I want". But you're right in that they don't have the empathetic morality. They won't put the puppy in the garbage bin and walk away, hearing the puppy cry, and FEEL BAD about it. Unless by acting as if they feel bad they can get something they want out of another person.

Then again, the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath (as taught by my professor who studies them in prison on a regular basis), is that sociopaths can be corrected. Their behavior is learned, and they can be re-taught to feel empathy for the puppy that's crying. A psychopath's lack of empathy is a genetic disability. He will never be taught, and any attempt to try and rehabilitate the psychopath will not only do no good what-so-ever, but will make things worse. It will give him (or her) more tools to use against other people. Because that's what they do.

At least Laurell has stopped switching terms for the most part. I get tired of them flip-flopping. Are you calling him a sociopath, or a psychopath? Which is it? And you're right, a sociopath calling himself that is just as likely as someone with narcissism saying he's a narcissist. 0%. (Although the sociopath might to get something out of you.)

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

I get the feeling that LKH watched a lot of Dexter, and thus Nicky was created.