socio-political character | Charles Konia, M.D.

People’s Difficulty In Recognizing The Emotional Plague

People’s inability to recognize the existence of the emotional plague as a highly destructive and contagious medical disease is related to the fact that there is currently no scientific knowledge of the bio-emotional forces that govern human social life.

What must be known and understood is that differences in human armor produce differences in the way the emotional plague is misperceived and misunderstood. These differences correspond in a general way to the pattern of armor of people belonging on the left and right of the socio-political spectrum. Those on the left (liberals) live mainly in their superficial layer or facade. For them, the idea of the emotional plague is meaningless because the function of the liberal’s facade is to defend them from being aware of their destructive, middle layer (from where the emotional plague originates) and so the plague does not seem to exist for them. (The liberal’s unawareness of the plague is partly why they are an effective tool that leftist radicals can use at will to carry out their destructive social agendas.) Those on the right (conservatives) have better contact with their middle layer and their core. For conservatives, the idea of the emotional plague is real but it is perceived in a distorted form. They view the plague not as a true medical disease but as a moral human failing. They think of it in terms of “good” and “bad” human behavior and that the illness can be addressed by rational political dialogue. However, the plague is not good or bad. It cannot be stopped by political means. Like any other medical disease, the plague is embedded in the biophysical structure of plague-ridden people. The farther they are to the right of center, the more righteous and irrational are their thoughts about the plague. This view of the plague is worthless from a therapeutic standpoint since a moralistic or righteous approach can never be used to combat a contagious medical condition. (It is reminiscent of the irrationally fearful ways some contagious medical diseases, such as leprosy, syphilis and the bubonic plague, were treated before the modern era in medicine.)

Humanity cannot possibly come to grips with the emotional plague and recognize it as a deadly medical illness because their armor prevents people from seeing and thinking without distortion about problems in their individual and social lives. This is why the disease will remain a mystery and continue to ravage society until a sufficient number of qualified social scientists appear on the scene who can take an honest look at themselves and deal with the emotional plague as a true medical illness.

April 15, 2012
Categories: character structure, emotional plague, Medical Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: conservative, human armor, liberal, medical illness, orgonomic sociology . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 1 Comment

Divide And Conquer: The Emotional Plague At Work

The emotional plague-ridden politician will promise anything that is necessary to gain political power over people. Once in power he will renege on his promises and do whatever he must to carry out his destructive social agenda. Prior to being elected President of the United States in 2008, for example, Barack Obama promised Americans that he would bring about unity of the different factions that were tearing America apart. Since his election, Obama has consistently done exactly the opposite. He has deliberately generated social divisiveness, turning Americans against one another and exacerbating political polarization in every area of social life.

On the top of his list of groups to be alienated in this way are the “Haves” from the “Have-Nots.” Typical of the emotional plague’s way of operating, this way of dividing people is calculated to generate confusion in people’s minds (what groups are we talking about?) and also to provide a rationalization justifying the right of government to legally enter into the free market and shift wealth and power from one group, arbitrarily designated as ” the rich,” to another group, ” the poor” which includes, incidentally, those who are currently in political power. All of this is being covered over in the name of tax fairness, social justice and caring for ” the people.”

These rationalizations are designed to get the political support of an unsuspecting electorate many of whom because of their pre-existing armored perceptual structure honestly believe in the truth of these lofty ideals and mindlessly go along. An ideological alliance is thereby established between the power hungry politician and the masses of well-intentioned people who have no idea what is happening.

April 12, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 11 Comments

It’s The People

All through human history, people have shown to be incapable of governing themselves without an authority figure such as a monarch or a cleric to watch over and care for them. This is true more than ever in today’s anti-authoritarian transformation of Western society with the social breakdown of authoritarian democratic governments.

The underlying reason that people are unable to govern themselves without a leader in authority is because they are emotionally too crippled (armored) and therefore are unable to regulate themselves. Accompanying this need for compulsive regulation, people have always looked outside, never inward, to seek the source of their social problems. This tendency to externalize their personal problems is now greater than ever in today’s highly politicized anti-authoritarian society where people are looking for political solutions for almost every social problem. Because of differences in their socio-political character structures, (differences in armoring), people are divided into two ideological camps: the political left or the right. Now, they end up blaming each other for social problems.

With the breakdown of the authoritarian social order and the disappearance of authority figures on the local level for people to rely on, many are unable to responsibly take care of their lives. This is the reason for the breakthrough of socially destructive impulses such as criminal impulsivity and helplessness in today’s anti-authoritarian social order. This social situation results in the need for a high level leader in government to watch over and care for people. This situation is ripe for a secular “savior” to appear on the social scene. At this point a clever political figure with nothing else to offer as his credentials but a blank slate upon which the crippled masses can project their mystical longing to be cared for and given “hope,” appears on the political stage. Barack Obama promises to do exactly that.

It is not only the power hungry politician that is responsible for bringing about the destruction of our great nation. Equally important are the emotionally sick masses who are unable to work productively. These people either unconsciously or consciously confer power to the politician. The criminal group confers power to the politician by creating the need for federal regulations which interferes with the market while the helpless group does so by mystically believing in the savior’s miraculous goodness and his ability to care for and save them. The criminally irresponsible and helpless masses of armored humanity who are incapable of doing an honest days work are the ones largely responsible for bringing about the enslavement of an entire society that is happening in front of our eyes and creating a socialist state.

April 2, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama, social breakdown . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 11 Comments

Not Seeing The Forest For The Trees

Armored people see and think about the world in bits and pieces. No matter what subject they are studying, they are incapable of seeing the whole picture. They have been taught to view the world mechanistically, as if it were nothing but a machine that is made up of a number of replaceable parts. A manifestation of ocular armor, this distorted way of viewing things is endemic in every branch of science including sociology.

As an example, consider people’s view of the generalized deterioration in the quality of American life that began around 1960 and is accelerating at an increasing rate. Some people focus on the signs and symptoms of the deterioration such as the breakdown of the traditional family, the increase in teen age pregnancies, the degradation in acceptable forms of social behavior and so on. Others look at the reasons for the decline. Liberals focus on shifts in governmental policy and economic factors. Conservatives look at the decline in cultural values. These opposing views result in ideological conflicts between the left and the right. Things remain the same. Still others are not even aware that anything at all important is happening.

There is no comprehensive picture of the reasons for the destructiveness that is happening to our society. What still remains to be generally recognized and functionally understood are the biological determinants that govern social life. Around 1960, the structure of Western society was fundamentally transformed from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian. The anti-authoritarian society that we are currently living in was the result of the breakthrough of powerful impulses of sexual yearning of the younger generation which came through to the social surface with a destructive force. The reason that they surfaced in this way at this particular time was that these impulses could no longer be held back (repressed) because of the failure of the two opposing forces of social armor: on the one hand there was the increasing pressure behind the sexual urges of the younger generation and on the other there was the weakening of the repressive forces contained in the authoritarian social armor. This resulted in the so-called sexual revolution.

The anti-authoritarian transformation accounts for every one of the destructive social changes that we are currently witnessing. Now, all forms of authority, rational as well as irrational have been largely thrown overboard. Authority in general and parental authority in particular, are viewed by many with suspicion and hostility. Many of the younger generation today have no respect for their elders and reject learning anything that they and tradition have to offer. This includes being personally responsible for one’s life through the ability to earn a living. As a result, not only has the authoritarian family structure largely fallen apart but also what remained of their biological work function. (Just 48% of working-class whites in America were married in 2010 down from 84% in 1960).

With the breakdown of the authoritarian family and having no other authorities to blame for their problems, many children of the baby boomers who grew up in the 60s are unable to earn a living, and now depend on their families or on the government to care for them.

As in the case of medical diseases, only with a clear, functional understanding of the social disease can there be a true course of treatment.

March 24, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: anti-authoritarian transformation of society, ocular armor, social armor . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 3 Comments

America And Russia In The 21st Century

In 1991, the Communist Party was outlawed in Russia and the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Since that time, Russia has been struggling to shed its communist past after the horrors of 70 years of totalitarian rule. With the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States and of numerous high ranking leftist political leaders to Congress in 2008 posing as genuine liberals, America is in the process of descending headlong into becoming a communist state. The situation is even more frightening if one considers that America, under Ronald Reagan as president, was the country that largely brought down the Soviet regime only two decades before. Today, America is not only completely defenseless against the communist threat but moreover, is in danger of becoming a communist state itself similar to the past Soviet Union. Why is this happening?

It is not possible, according to conventional thinking, to understand why these opposing currents in the two countries are happening. The phenomenon has to do with the highly infectious nature of the emotional plague; the emotional plague individuals on the one hand and the emotional sickness of people that the plague individuals can take hold of politically on the other. The emotional sickness of people involves the segment of the American population who are unable to work and be responsible for their economic survival. That their inability to work is a real sickness is shown by the fact that in America the opportunity to work and succeed is readily available to anyone who is willing to make the necessary effort. Emotional plague individuals, in the person of leftist politicians, promise that they are the ones to care for people. Through socialistic legislation they take wealth from those who are able to work productively in the private sector and transfer it to those who are not. Nothing is done to address people’s emotionally based work disturbance as the descent into a socialist state continues unchecked.

February 24, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama, communism, socialism . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 3 Comments

What’s Wrong With The Teenage Mind?

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal (Jan. 28-29, 2012) entitled, What’s Wrong With The Teenage Mind?, professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, Alison Gopnik ascribes much of the troubles modern teenagers have in coping with the world to the teenager’s brain. Ms. Gopnik attempts to understand teenage behavior by way of localized pathways in the brain such as “reward centers” and ” control systems” that underlie certain behavioral functions.

That the brain is involved with the teenager’s behavior or that the interaction between the teenager with the environment is important in the kind of behavior that is exhibited goes without saying. These statements about the brain are insufficient to explain the erratic, dysfunctional behavior of many teenagers today.

What is left unsaid is the effect that the dramatic changes that have occurred with the transformation of Western society from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian and the mechanistic-mystical world view that accompanies it has had on the lives of everyone, including and especially teenagers. The breakup of the past authoritarian social order and its underpinning, the authoritarian family based on sexual repression, has been replaced by a social order that is even more inimical to life than its predecessor. To make matters worse, all that was painstakingly gained in psychiatry in the past, including the knowledge of human psycho-sexual development (the disturbances in which account for much of what is troubling teenagers today) has been completely thrown out in the practice of psychiatry.

In fact, the practice of psychiatry today has regressed to where it was over 100 years ago when the subjective workings of the mind was equated in a one-to-one fashion with the objective operation of localized brain functions. Modern psychiatry is as far away from understanding the problems of teenagers as it was then. Meanwhile, thanks to our anti-authoritarian social order, the level of social pathology manifested by everyone including teenagers has escalated to a far greater extent compared to where it was then. These social developments can only be understood as a direct manifestation of higher levels of emotional plague activity in today’s world.

February 12, 2012
Categories: accurate diagnosis, Biological Sciences, character structure, Child Rearing, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 1 Comment

The Portrait Of A Political Demigod

According to The Random House Dictionary, a demigod is more than human. He is a deified mortal. Many politicians appear to be demigods when they are campaigning for public office, but once the election is over, they stop acting like that, whether they have won or lost. The true political demigod, on the other hand, has a constellation of permanent characteristics that is unique. 1) He has no history of a stable, consistent work function prior to entering politics. 2) Politics is a substitute for genuine work. 3) His political mission is entirely self-serving to fit his preexisting ideological world view. 4) He has an overriding hatred of and a need to change the established world order with grandiose schemes of a heaven on earth. 5) He is convinced of the infallibility of his belief system. 6) The success of his campaign strategy is based on promising the electorate anything and everything for the sole purpose of gaining power over them.

This strategy is designed to cement a powerful identification of the demigod with the electorate. Once he has succeeded in this strategy, the demigod has attained a godlike stature. He can do no wrong in the eyes of the populace. Demigods can appear on both sides of the political spectrum. In today’s anti-authoritarian society with the marked shift of the political mainstream to the left of center, demigods are likely to appear from the political left. Barack Obama is a recent example of the appearance of a demigod from the political left.

Obama’s choice of work before entering politics was that of a political activist. According to his wife Michelle, Obama was a community activist exploring the viability of politics to make [social] change. ” The solution to every problem,” according to a reporter who studied Obama’s projects, ” was a distribution of government funds.” Until he became a full time legislator in 1996, Obama’s primary focus of work was Acorn, the largest radical organization in the United States. The infallibility of his belief system originates entirely from his highly developed intellect. At the height of his election campaign, he announced: “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Just prior to his entering the White House, in a moment of candor he said: ” We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” In his election campaign he appealed to the entire electorate and promised that if he were elected president he would finally put an end to the political divisiveness that was tearing America apart. Once elected, however, he did exactly the opposite. He immediately proceeded to ram his socialistic medical agenda (ObamaCare) down the throat of the American people (which he later said will be for the good of everyone) and dramatically increased the authority and spending power of the Federal Government at the expense of the private sector.

Personally, he exhibits overt contempt for American policies internationally and for hard working, decent American people in general. The effect of this attitude is to chastise Americans. An emotional plague tactic, it is an attempt to induce an unconscious sense of guilt and paralysis and to make Americans feel that whatever they are doing is somehow wrong. According to him, Americans have to change their ways. If they would only follow him, President Obama is the one capable of redeeming Americans of their evil past deeds. He is also the only one capable of providing all Americans with an illusion of economic security while, at the same time, making them ever more dependent and under the control of the Federal Government with people like him at the top.

The problem that confronts us is not the political demigod. It is the helplessness of armored people that makes it possible for demigods to regularly appear on the social scene. The political interaction of the demigod with helpless, socially dependent people who are emotionally out of touch with themselves is what enables the demigod to exist.

February 2, 2012
Categories: character structure, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 2 Comments