http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_re_us/toddler_booted

ATLANTA – A woman said she and her toddler son were kicked off a plane after she refused a flight attendant’s request to medicate her son to get him to quiet down and stop saying “Bye bye, plane.”

Kate Penland, of suburban Atlanta, said she and her 19-month-old son, Garren, were flying from Atlanta to Oklahoma last month on a Continental Express flight that made a stop in Houston.

As the plane was taxiing in Houston en route to Oklahoma, “he started saying ‘Bye, bye plane,’ Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta. The flight attendant objected, she said.

“At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, ‘It’s not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up,’” Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta.

When Penland asked the woman if she was joking, she said the stewardess replied, “You know, it’s called baby Benadryl.”

“And I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight,’” Penland told the TV station.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/02/earlyshow/
On Aug. 15, Burcham was sentenced to eight years in prison for giving a 3½-month-old girl a lethal dose of Benadryl. And since Grace Olivia Fields’ death in December 2001, her parents have found they are not alone in their loss.

In the last three years, at least 10 other cases of day care workers allegedly sedating children with cold medicines and cough syrups have been investigated nationwide. Four babies died in those cases. At least four people were charged, with one acquittal, and some cases are still pending.

Grace’s mother, Tracy Fields, and other parents are now pushing for new laws that would make it a felony for day care workers to give a child medicine without written permission from a parent or a doctor’s order. One state has already passed such a law.

“I don’t want any other parents to go through this,” Fields said. “It didn’t take a whole lot for this beautiful little baby to die from an over-the-counter medicine.”

There is also a growing movement among medical examiners for greater awareness of the practice, as some pathologists fear babies who died after being drugged were written off as sudden infant death syndrome cases.

Burcham had poured about a tablespoon of children’s Benadryl into a four-ounce bottle of breast milk before feeding it to Grace. The dose was three times more than what would be needed to sedate an adult.

Burcham admitted giving the baby the drug, but denied it was to control behavior. Her critics aren’t swayed.

“She found a way to make those kids sleep half the day,” Fields said, adding her 2½-year-old daughter told her she was given “bubble gum” flavored medicine before nap time at Burcham’s.

Drug makers are adamant that their medicines aren’t intended for infants and put warnings on containers that doctors should be consulted for use in any child younger than age 6.

Dr. William Sears, a pediatrician and author of books on infant sleep, said it is an “old school” practice to use cold and allergy medications to sedate babies, but even using a small amount of drugs is dangerous.

“Categorically, sedative medications have no place in day care,” he said.

Young babies need to awake easily to protect themselves from dangers like choking when they spit up. The sedative interferes with that natural waking mechanism, Sears said.

Sharon Dabrow, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of South Florida, said some pediatricians do advise parents to use appropriate doses of Benadryl to sedate children who are at least 12 months old. Dabrow doesn’t recommend it.

“Our society is so wrapped up around medications being a fix for anything,” she said. “To be using it (Benadryl) on a 3-month-old is just horrible

http://www.answers.com/topic/diagnostic-and-statistical-manual-of-mental-disorders 

The DSM has seen criticisms through the years. A Columbia University team headed by Robert Spitzer, an editor of the DSM, acknowledges a concern about the DSM in their annual report of 2001, “Problems with the current DSM-IV categorical (present vs. absent) approach to the classification of personality disorders have long been recognized by clinicians and researchers.” Among the problems, they list “arbitrary distinction between normal personality, personality traits and personality disorder” and point out the fact that the most commonly diagnosed personality disorder is 301.9, Personality Disorder not Otherwise Specified. ^[5]

There have also been questions of potential bias of DSM authors who define psychiatric disorders. According to The Washington Post, an analysis published in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics^[6] pointed out that “every psychiatric expert involved in writing the standard diagnostic criteria for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia has had financial ties to drug companies that sell medications for those illnesses.”^[7] However, an important limitation of this study was that the analysis did not reveal the extent of their relationships with industry or whether those ties preceded or followed their work on the manual.

In the United States, health insurance typically will not pay for psychological or psychiatric services unless a DSM-IV mental disease diagnosis accompanies the insurance claim. The website of the DSM-V Prelude Project^[8] covers shortcomings of the DSM-IV that may be subject for improvements for the DSM-V.

http://dsm5.org/ 

Welcome to the DSM-V Prelude Project. Although the DSM-V revision process will not formally begin until 2006 or 2007 (see timeline), the American Psychiatric Association has created this web site in order to keep the public and professionals informed about the plans for DSM-V as well as the ongoing effort to enrich the research base in advance of starting formal work on DSM-V. In addition, this web site provides an opportunity for you to alert us to problems in the DSM-IV that you may have encountered and to provide your suggestions for DSM-V.

Oh  boy, do I ever have suggestions?

Ken Ward is a Southern Baptist pastor and teacher in East Texas, who has admitted to molesting more than 40 boys. He said that being a teacher and minister is the perfect job for a child molester, because it puts the molester in direct contact with young people. “I [was] attracted to a certain child, and in my case, it was primarily prepubescent boys,” he said.

Ward is now under house arrest, after serving five years in state prison. He wears a GPS monitor so that he can be tracked by the sheriff’s department, and he cannot be around children anywhere, even in public.

Ward agreed to talk to “20/20″ to give insight to parents on how to spot a predator. He said that parents aren’t worrying about the right things. “The idea of a guy in the park with a trench coat on or driving by slowly trying to get a child … I’ve never even dreamed of doing that. … I’ve never touched a stranger,” he said.

Right. So here’s an opportunity to inform parents on how to protect their children from pedophiles, graciously provided by Ken Ward who should know, given that he’s molested so many children. But that’s the only bit from Ken Ward that they’re posting.  If you want to know more, you have to either purchase a transcript, or been fortunate enough to have taped it. And I missed that opportunity.

So let’s see if my memory serves me correctly. There was also something about predators looking for the vulnerable child, the one who looks lonely and needs someone. Come to think of it, this is the sort of child who gets targeted by bullies as well. The one who’s easy to pick on because he’s all alone and has no one to defend him.

I used to wonder why I was always picked on when I went to the park, alone. But what did I expect? I thought the reason was that there was something inherently wrong with me – something that they sensed – and like dogs attacking the weak and injured, they hounded me for that reason. I believed this was the reason the sadist in my family started sexually abusing me when I was 7. He saw that I wasn’t deserving of the sort of respect and consideration you give a normal person.  People who aren’t normal you can abuse and mistreat, you can also exploit and cull for sexual treats. You’re nothing but an object for their own amusement. One time when he was asked ’How many people were in the car with you?’ He responded ‘Three’, and then noticing he’d forgotten me, added ‘ and a half’.

People laugh when I tell them. I wonder if they know what it’s like to be pursued by a sadist when you’re 7 years old in a shed. To spend part of your childhood worrying about your life and safety with someone who’s in a position of authority over you. To almost be drowned by him at the age of 9. And then to have this person refer to you disparagingly as a half.

But this was the way he saw me, as something not worthy of regard. He made me low and dirty in his estimation, so he could do the horrid dirty things he used to do with me. And the therapists go – ‘but he was the one with a problem. Not you. You realize that, don’t you?’ And what are you supposed to say?

The idea of the man in the trench coat in parks, or driving along slowly – I’M SORRY – but it’s not just an idea. Just because Ken Ward didn’t do it doesn’t mean others haven’t tried. Although it’s good of him to warn parents to be more vigilant with the people they may overlook, like preachers and teachers.   

But strangers (not necessarily in trenchcoats, of course) did pursue me on more than one occasion when I was young and alone in the park. There was ‘Come into my car, it’s nice and dry inside.’  ‘ I’ll take you to where you want to go’ and ‘I have something really nice for you inside. A big surprise’. It made me feel weird and bad that I couldn’t go anywhere without being stalked and pursued, even at home. Didn’t know it was happening to others as well.

I’m beginning to think that perhaps the act of pursuing a minor in itself is a turn on. Much as it is for the many predators online these days. Even if nothing comes of it, there may be a thrill in the chase, especially when it’s illegal.

It’s funny how pedophiles do that, downplay what they did and its effects. Oh, it’s nothing, they say. You’re making too much of it. Just get over it. That’s what I used to hear too, not when I confronted family members who had abused me, because they’ve all since passed on, and I never did manage to confront them about it while they were alive.

When I bring it up with other people in my family now, it’s – But he was so nice to me. He always gave me money and gifts. I tell them he was so nice to me too, but I don’t tell them the word for it is grooming, and they should just be grateful that it didn’t go any furthur.

I never confronted the men who’d abused me, but I did confront someone in my family about what my best friend reported he’d done to her. Ah – it’s nothing, he said. She’s making it sound bigger than it actually was.

It’s a bit like someone kills your favourite pet, let’s say a puppy, cold-blooded, then tells you that it’s nothing. Your puppy would have died anyway You should just get over it. Don’t make it into such a big story. The policemen say, yes, he killed your puppy, but was there actually any blood. Did he use a gun or knife. If there wasn’t any blood, we don’t want to hear about it.

But the point is he took away the life of my puppy. Doesn’t that count for anything? Apparently not. So you go into derealization mode – for awhile. Or you get Kabbalah religious, not the true Kabbalah (a beautiful religion), but the new-age version, because the idea of parallel worlds starts to make sense, and you wonder if you just happened to wake up into some parallel darker version of the world you used to live in. A world where exploiting you sexually when you’re innocent, or killing your puppy without remorse or consequence, is ok.

A few people understand and care.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-82106617.html

Lay Catholics should demand more openness from the institutional Church. Dioceses should open their books to laymen as a matter of accountability and oversight. Doyle, who as counselor to many victims is privy to settlement details, says the people in the pews “would be absolutely shocked to discover how much of their money was being paid out on these settlements.”

Similarly, given how poorly the institutional Church has policed itself, there should be lay boards to review diocesan personnel files to make sure sex abusers aren’t being concealed. “I don’t want to hear about another new policy until someone says to me that someone other than the fox guarding the henhouse has examined the files,” says lawyer Steve Rubino, a leading victims’ attorney.

Restoring the Church’s credibility also depends on the bishops’ being less lawyerly and more Christian. Johnnie Cochrane didn’t come to save the world, Jesus Christ did. This means seeing those who have been raped or molested by priests as suffering souls in need of pastoral care, not moneygrubbing plaintiffs who deserve the brass-knuckles routine.

One parish priest says he will never forget the day he realized his former boss, an East Coast bishop (now retired), was a true man of God. “We had to meet with a family whose child had been abused by one of our priests. When we sat down face to face with them and the lawyers, we told them that the bishop had said his first priority was to do the right thing. We told them our investigation had found that the priest was guilty, but that he had never been in this kind of situation before. We had removed him from any further parish involvement. We told them that we didn’t believe we had been neglectful, but we wanted to help the family in any way we could, because we recognized lives had been damaged, and we were profoundly sorry. And that was the bishop’s position.

“I looked across the table, and the family was crying,” the priest recalled. “The father said, ‘Thank you. We never wanted to persecute anybody. That was all we wanted to hear.’”

http://www.infoforhealth.org/pr/l11/l11chap3_3.shtml

Image from Info for Health and the Hesperian Foundation http://www.hesperian.org/

I’ve been reading how some claim incest was a positive or neutral experience for them. Of course, there are those who claim corporal punishment was a good thing for them too. So they see nothing wrong in meting out physical punishment to their own children when they misbehave, or otherwise. 

Why sure, and doesn’t it look that way in the image above. Doesn’t it look like it could be a positive experience for the girl.

That’s why many priests caught doing the naughty with children didn’t apologize to the children. Heck no. They’d broken their vow of chastity, hadn’t they. That was their sin. Their sin had nothing to do with the child, who probably got something positive from it. Well, weren’t these children sanctified by experiencing something so intimate with a man of the cloth?

Gosh darn – am I offending anyone … yet? How about that father who kept his adopted daughter on a protein-less diet so she wouldn’t lose her ‘girlish’ figure as she got older. Well, he brought her to Disney World, didn’t he? OK, so she never got to see it cause she spent most of her time being photographed and filmed in a hotel room having incest. But this was to show the men who were paying to see what a positive experience incest could be.

OK – I’ll cut out the sarcasm. Just understand that there are plenty of pedophiles out there who would love to jump on that idea to trivialize the effects of sexual abuse. There are sex addicts and predators for whom children are nothing more than objects for their sexual gratification, and sometimes for profit.

If you think incest is nothing more than a transgression of physical boundaries, and shouldn’t matter if there isn’t actually intercourse going on, then you might want to read the following - Christianity and Incest, written by Annie Imbens and Ineke Jonker. Incest is an abuse of power. Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. (Lord Acton, British historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.)

 - http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/incest.html

“The dominant group in society uses contradictory commands or messages with a double content. Thus, the oppressed person is always wrong and the powerful person is always right. The interviews and follow-up sessions show that these messages increase these women’s confusion and insecurity. The following list has been compiled from the nineteen interviews.

      1. All women are bad because of Eve. But you are bad, because this doesn’t happen to other women.
      2. You must obey your elders, but sexual abuse is your own fault: you should have said: “No.”
      3. Women are very special, beautiful creatures; you must particularly honor your mother. Nevertheless, the woman’s body is a temptation to men and it is unclean, Therefore, women are forbidden to serve at the altar.
      4. You must resist sex outside of marriage, but you may not resist incest because you must always be protected. Moreover, you are not allowed to stand up for yourself because then you are a castrating bitch.
      5. The eyes of the punishing God always sees you. He will punish you. On the other hand, you must forgive your offender seventy times seventy.
      6. Father and brother are authoritative, but they are also pathetic; they get too little love, so you have to help them.
      7. You have learned to think of others first. But with sexual advances, you have to think of your own interests first, And what’s in your interests? If you refuse, you are not a good girl. A woman must be good, always radiant, the sunshine in everyone’s life.
      8. Offenders have the tendency to minimize what happened: “You’re making a big deal out of it; it’s not that serious.” But you have learned that sex outside of marriage is bad, that a woman who commits adultery should be stoned, and that she must keep her body pure, like Mary. Therefore, you have sinned.
      9. You are not allowed to lie, but you are not allowed to tell this to Mother – ever.
      10. You learn for the Bible: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” and from Father: “Honor thy father and deceive thy mother.”
      11. You learn to love your neighbor and be your mother’s rival.
      12. You are not allowed to talk to strange men, but if you show and resistance toward family members and friends, you have no sense of humor.
      13. You learn that you are not allowed to overstep the personal boundaries of others, and you experience that men are allowed to overstep yours.
      14. You must do your best in school and learn a profession so that you can stand on your own in case you are “left over” or become a widow, but your purpose in life is running the household and motherhood. Which career are you supposed to choose?
      15. A prostitute is bad, but the offender rewards you with all sorts of extras, such as attention and gifts.
      16. A prostitute is bad, but Mother allows herself to be paid too.
      17. I must be a big girl, do not carry on. Do not cry when you are hit. But I must also be sweet, insignificant, weak, and womanly. Look up to men, let them protect you.
      18. You are not supposed to be eager with boys, but you also have to see to it that you are not “left over.” 

Malignant narcissists have an inferiority complex. So, their narcissism is a COMPENSATORY egomania. It is caused by shame and is low esteem in disguise. Quite the opposite of someone who just has a big head…

That underlying shame and self loathing is what makes a malignant narcissist malignant. Whereas narcissistic-but-normal people have big heads, malignant narcissists actually think little of themselves. They have no self confidence. They don’t think they can win fair and square. They don’t think they can achieve anything or live up to moral standards. They have no self respect, despite their elaborate play-acting to the contrary. In fact, the thicker they put it on, the less they think of themselves.

Consider the consequences of these attitudes.

• Form birth, the malignant narcissist has had indelibly stamped into his brain the impression that he is somehow defective, a reject, a kind of Quasimodo. So, throughout his life he finds himself surrounded in a world of people who aren’t. 
• Since narcissists don’t think they can measure-up the legitimate way — through effort and excellence — they must cheat. That is, to be greater than others, they don’t strive to be: they must tear their betters down.  
• Their lack of self respect is even more damning. Because of it, nothing is beneath them. No lie is too mean to tell. No trick is too lowdown, dirty and rotten to play. Things you or I couldn’t stoop to, because sinking to that level would make us feel like we are wallowing naked on our bellies in sewage, narcissists glory in like mud-wallowing hogs. Ironic, isn’t it? that such deep, unbearable shame makes one shameless? But it does.  
• This is why every malignant narcissist has two middle names: one is “Abuser” and the other is “Slanderer.”  

A mere (non-malignant) narcissist isn’t like that. He is just someone with a big head. Fame and fortune have probably gone to his head. So, he may be arrogant and haughty, but he doesn’t go around tearing people down off pedestals by slandering and calumniating others to make himself look better than them. Or by raping them for being purer than him. A mere narcissist may be obnoxious and disappointing, but he is not a predator hostile to the happiness, well being, and success of others. Hurting people doesn’t make him feel good. He has human feelings and can form human relationships. He loves his own children at least and wouldn’t dream of hurting them. A malignant narcissist is a far different animal.

So, don’t confuse NPD (malignant narcissism) with what people usually mean when they say someone is “narcissistic.” Despite the superficial similarities, there’s a world of difference! One is benign; the other is malignant.

• The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love, and Family
• In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People
• Why Is It Always About You? : Saving Yourself from the Narcissists in Your Life

Think I’ll be buying the books. Became very interested in an excerpt from Why Is It Always About You?, which I read on Amazon’s Look Inside feature, about how narcissism is really shame-based, even if narcissists themselves seem shameless. Also described in the book are the Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism: Shamelessness, Magical Thinking, Arrogance, Envy, Entitlement, Exploitation and Bad Boundaries. (Although personally, I don’t see magical thinking as such a deadly sin.)

An Amazon reviewer commented that the granddaddy of all traits is missing – Lack of Empathy. But the author, Sandy Hotchkiss, does describe this lack of empathy, along with an explanation of where it might be coming from – shame in early childhood without consolation.

That’s one thing I would not do with my daughter, leave her feeling ashamed without coming to her aid. I would always try to console, and oftentimes even apologize when I thought I might have overreacted. I just didn’t want to leave her alone in bed feeling as ashamed and bad as I used to feel, even when the only thing I’d done wrong was dare to ask someone molesting me to please stop. Childhood is so confusing when you’re being molested, and then made to feel bad and ashamed for going along with it  (you like it, don’t you) or punished, shunned, threatened for resisting. When the person doing this to you is your parent or caretaker, you can imagine how it can mess up your mind, your relationships and your life. Have you seen Forrest Gump?  - Watch  Forrest Gump.

I have to admit that I am somewhat of a narcissist. I don’t think I could have survived what I did without picking up some narcissistic traits. I needed to find some way to boost my ravaged ego after my uncle had abused, shamed and degraded me in the shed. 

There was – “I’m really a star” “I’m brilliant” “Yes I’m hurting now, but one day it will make me really smart, rich and famous” “I’m so much smarter than they are” ”I’m like a rat, picked on and hated, but clever for it.” ”I can’t stand people for judging me when they don’t have to go through what I’m going through. It’s not fair. One of these days, I’ll get powerful and judge them.”

In fact, we all have narcissistic traits, but some have narcissism to a healthy degree, and some others don’t. I’m probably on the border, veering more to the unhealthy side. But I’ve met people who are far worse than I am, like the pedophiles who abused and molested me, but they’ve since passed on. There are some people in my family right now who are more narcissistic than I am. In their presence, you feel like nothing more than a minor character in some film they’re starring in. But I only see them during the holidays, if at all.

Met another true blue narcissist. And we became so close, so fast. Too close. He managed to find out such intimate details about me, but only later did I realize it was only so he could find out which weaknesses to manipulate to exploit me to his advantage. And he was such a work bully. I was lucky to extricate myself from his clutches. And yet, I still miss him in some ways. He was so charming. Have you seen The Devil Wears Prada? That was his work philosophy too.

But they’re the obvious narcissists. And my God, they’re smart. It’s like when you’re missing the empathy connection, your mind is free to become really sharp.  

But then there are some who don’t seem like narcissists when you first get to know them. They can be so sweet and kind and very politically correct. For me, that’s the first tip-off. Political correctness to try to camouflage their lack of empathy. And they know how to play the game of You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. So you’re thinking that they can’t possibly be narcissists.

But then they get ticked off over such minor things, the slightest slights. And you want to explain to them that they have it all wrong. That this is where you were coming from, they’re taking it the wrong way, but they don’t care. They simply cannot or refuse to see anything from your side. All that matters to them is their side, the way they see things, and what they’re entitled to. Even if what they think they’re entitled to infringes on your rights. Their needs and rights matter more than yours. Get that straight!

But you don’t give up, you keep trying, hoping to enlighten them, but to no avail. And they may let it slide, but then find some way to get even. Something passive-aggressive.  They might play games – like keeping you in the dark, off-kilter and wondering. 

And you might continue to email them or try to contact them, but they stop answering your messages or only answer infrequently. They usually won’t cut you off altogether, because when you keep trying and wondering, it becomes their narcissistic supply. They like to think that you’re doing it because you love them or want and need them, and refusing or ignoring you becomes a way to hurt you. But you only keep contacting because you want closure, or at least some explanation. Don’t know if the authors describe narcissists like that in their books.  

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070207/national/cda_child_porn

By Sue Bailey

OTTAWA (CP) – News of a Canadian link to a major international child-pornography ring is the latest in a growing number of horrific homegrown cases, says a top investigator.

“We’re up to our knees in evil,” said RCMP Supt. Earla-Kim McColl, officer in charge of the National Child Exploitation Co-ordination Centre.

“I think it’s important for Canadians to understand that we get a file like this about every two weeks now.”

I can’t for the life of me understand child sexual abuse. I can understand some other evils, not that I’d ever condone the behavior, but sexual abuse makes absolutely no sense to me. Think if it made some sense, it would have made it easier for me to understand the pedophiles who abused me as a child, and why they abused me. Although it’s very possible that those predators were themselves exploited and abused as children.

When you’re a child and you don’t understand, and especially if you’ve been raped or mistreated, you’re likely to take the abuse as  a comment on who you are and to blame yourself for it. And the abusers don’t generally help either. If they don’t tell you outright that you’re the dirty one, they treat you like you’re the dirty one. Like you’re the reason for their shameful act.

When you’re abused, you’re marked.  It’s not just a transgression of boundaries, it’s not just a violation of trust and abuse of authority, it’s not just underage sex when physically the body is too immature. It’s that these children, if they don’t get help, will believe that somehow they deserved to be abused and to have their bodies violated. That they just weren’t good enough as children to get the love, attention and nurturing they were seeking. Sexual abuse is what happens when adults tell you that they just can’t love you. I know, I’m still looking for that love, in all the wrong places.

That it’s becoming so prevalent is, I believe, a sign that we live in a very sick society. A society where women are prodded and shamed into getting mammographies, not for improved health, but because it’s a profit-driven technology. Where many children are forced to be on Ritalin, not for any health reasons, but for behavior control in classrooms. A society where capitalism and the pursuit of profit seems to be all that really matters, and where children are seen by some as nothing more than objects for sexual gratification. Considering the kind of selfish and narcissistic world we live in, is it any wonder?  

Found this by Dr. Sanity (Weblog awards finalist 2006) – Repression and the Mirror of Insight – about evil and the need to look in the mirror:

http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2006/04/repression-and-mirror-of-insight.html

There is an inner courage required to look at one’s self in the mirror of insight and truly know the person looking back. All of us are capable of the most horrible behavior; just as we are capable of finding ways to rationalize it and cover it up or blame others for it. Psychological health requires that we look into that mirror frequently and understand our own motivations and behaviors and not flinch in recognizing the truth about ourselves.

That is the only way we can begin the process of change that leads to solving problems and personal growth. Recognizing the problem by looking at ourselves in the mirror is the first hurdle that must be overcome. Admittedly, it is not the only hurdle; but without it individuals and societies go off careening off in all the wrong directions–directions that will never lead to the recognition or acceptance of reality, and so can never lead to effective solutions. In psychiatry we refer to this abiiity to look in the mirror and see what and who is reflected back at us truly as “insight”. Ultimately, the development of self-awareness and psychological insight are the keys to solving most human dilemmas that lead to our own unhappiness and misery–both in individuals and societies.

It is likely that true evil never looks into that mirror; never questions their own motivations and always sinks to using the most immature and infantile coping mechanisms. That inability to acknowledge any degree of responsibility for their behavior; or to see clearly into their own souls–particularly on a societal level is responsible for much of the human misery, genocide, and brutal behavior we witness all around the world.

And that is the ultimate purpose of, and necessity for, Justice — to impose insight on the blind; force awareness of the consequences of behavior; and to reflect reality for those who refuse to look in the mirror.