The Real Compulsives get rid of the anxiety attendent with the thought of sin by consenting to the sin.

San Juan de la Cruz: Avisos Espirituales

"Las condiciones del pájaro solitario son cinco. La primera, que se va a lo más alto; la segunda, que no sufre compañía, aunque sea de su naturaleza; la tercera, que pone el pico al aire; la cuarta, que no tiene determinado color; la quinta, que canta suavemente. Las cuales ha de tener el alma contemplativa: que se ha de subir sobre las cosas transitorias, no haciendo más caso de ellas que si no fuesen; y ha de ser tan amiga de la soledad y silencio, que no sufra compañía de otra criatura; ha de poner el pico al aire del Espíritu Santo, correspondiendo a sus inspiraciones, para que, haciéndolo así, se haga más digna de su compañía; no ha de tener determinado color, no teniendo determinación en ninguna cosa, sino en lo que es voluntad de Dios; ha de cantar suavemente en la contemplación y amor de su Esposo."

William Golding Lord of the Flies Literary Criticism

"Golding's own explanation for the breakdown of civilization in Lord of the Flies was delivered in a lecture given in 1962 at the University of California at Los Angeles. He describes the breakdown as resulting from nothing more complex than the inherent evil of man: "So the boys try to construct a civilization on the island; but it breaks down in blood and terror because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human""

"[A]ll of the clashes can be explained in Golding's view; they are the result of the beast inherent in both boys. The clash that arises from the discussion of the beast does not result from Ralph's extreme rationalism, but rather from the murmurings of the beast within him: "Something he had not known was there rose in him and compelled him to make the point, loudly and again" (Golding 34). Motivated by that inherent evil, that original sin of pride, both boys assert their power."

Human Defensiveness: the Third Way

"Let us be ruthless to root out theoretical structures that view people as psychological or socio-psychological abstractions: the phenomena observed are not “ego defense mechanisms” but are pride’s offensive, defensive, and deceptive strategies. And let us also forswear the therapeutic assumptions that are consequent to the theory: they are poor and deceptive substitutes for the gospel of Jesus Christ."

Ordinary Evil

"In this seminar, Candace Vogler (right) addresses this sense of mute incomprehension in the face of wrongdoing as one root of an old philosophical question about whether it is irrational to be immoral. It is closely linked to another root of that question, the conviction that people who do spectacularly bad things, or routinely engage in bad acts on a lesser scale, are making some kind of a mistake. In philosophy, the problem that emerges from such convictions involves trying to say what sort of mistake they are making. Vogler will not answer that question. What she does instead is discuss viciousness, drawing heavily on work by Thomas Aquinas (and offering a reading of a short story by Edgar Allan Poe), with an eye toward giving an account of some kinds of immorality. Once that account is in place, it becomes possible to understand why it is very hard to give a compelling answer to the deeper question."

The third paragraph begins with: "Aquinas begins his disputation on evil. . . "

PTypes - Pride

"Pride is the excessive love of one's own excellence. It is ordinarily accounted one of the seven capital sins. St. Thomas, however, endorsing the appreciation of St. Gregory, considers it the queen of all vices, and puts vainglory in its place as one of the deadly sins" (Joseph F. Delany).

As "the queen of all vices" pride engenders personality disorder and the Personality Disorders

Summa Theologica Ia IIae, q. 2 a. 1-8

St. Thomas Aquinas
The Summa Theologica
Of Those Things In Which Man's Happiness Consists (Eight Articles)


We have now to consider happiness: and (1) in what it consists; (2) what it is; (3) how we can obtain it.


Concerning the first there are eight points of inquiry:

(1) Whether happiness consists in wealth?

(2) Whether in honor?

(3) Whether in fame or glory?

(4) Whether in power?

(5) Whether in any good of the body?

(6) Whether in pleasure?

(7) Whether in any good of the soul?

(8) Whether in any created good?

PTypes and Thomas Aquinas

PTypes' "Basic Passions" are analogous to Thomas Aquinas's "ends" which can not "quarantee human completion" (60).

One can see as a result of this discussion that the one good that corresponds to the universality of human striving is capable of achieving the completion of the person [Ia IIae, q. 2, a. 8]. At this point, Thomas concludes that only God can be the end of all humanity (60).

George Wieland. "Happiness (Ia IIae, qq. 1-5)." The Ethics of Aquinas. Ed. Stephen J. Pope. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2002.

Pathological Personality Types

Tears In Rain makes a good point:

"Okay, THAT is me. PLUS, down at the bottom of the 'antisocial' page, there's a link to the non-pathological "Adventurous" type, which is also much more appropriate. So why aren't those links at the top of the page? Sheesh."

I'm going to try to do that.

Stoic Faith

"I had the thought today that faith in the rationality and goodness of
Nature is the very essence of Stoicism.

"Secure knowledge of the rationality, and goodness of Nature is the
highest attainment of the Stoic Sage.

"Since the qualities of the Whole, like intelligence, rationality, and
goodness are unavailable to and unprovable by science,

"making progress in Stoicism requires faith in the rationality and
goodness of Nature."

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