The Amygdala and Aberrant Behavior

A reader emailed this link. It is a web board discussion which begins with a bunch of guys posting pictures of their workshops in their garages. On the second page of the discussion, one guy posts a picture of a massive shop with lots of benches and tools, which for a moment has other guys commenting on how amazing it is.

But then one poster discovers that it is an image of a professional shop, grabbed off of google. That thread eventually leads to a fascinating series of revelations about how everything this guy posted was like that. The picture of him, with a massive chest and biceps was his head photoshopped onto another body, from another source picture they found. The picture of him at an awards dinner was his head photoshopped onto another body as well. They found posts from him on other sites similarly trying to claim he owned things he didn’t own and lived a life he couldn’t have lived.

Then they found that his entire business as an oil consultant/Petroleum Engineer was a fraud as well, as he wasn’t actually a certified or degreed Petroleum Engineer. Then they found he had been sued for $500,000 by an oil company for screwing up a well they hired him on. Then they found that he had set up a gofundme campaign for some girl who lost everything in a fire. Then they found an extensive criminal history for fraud and theft, including prison time.

I find it noteworthy because people like that don’t do those things out of a desire for something more. They do not aspire. They do those things because if they don’t, their amygdala will haunt them with aversive stimulus. Maybe they look at themselves, and think they are worthless, and the only way to alleviate the agony that produces is to lie, and see other people deceived about their worthlessness. Maybe they look at other people’s lives with such envy, that they will do anything to make them feel inferior, even if just for a moment and based on a lie. Whatever the mechanism, once somebody is running from amygdala, there is nothing they will not do to escape it. Since most people cannot imagine that type of motivational force, their behavior can rapidly become wholly unpredictable.

The problem with them in personal relationships is that sooner or later they look at the people around them, and decide that if they can’t artificially inflate their own worth, they will have to actually deflate the worth of those around them, or their amygdala will haunt them, and they will be miserable. That can become a very slippery slope, and the victims can suddenly find themselves poisoned, injured by booby-traps, or even killed.

View all actions as an outgrowth of the driving force of aversive stimulus. It can be difficult, because those who are not haunted by their amygdala tend to be driven by aspiration. The idea of a life wholly driven by an almost banal desperation can be difficult to visualize. But once you make that jump, things ranging from how people spend their discretionary income to how history unfolds can all suddenly make much more sense.

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Phelps
9 years ago

I think there is another angle to this. If they are lying, it makes it easier to convince themselves that everyone is lying. Sure, his photos are fake — but that is because all the other photos he sees online are fake too. To him, all of the garages are fake. The people who are actually certified engineers cheated to get there. All of the gofundme campaigns are frauds.

By lying about everything, he can convince himself that everything is a lie, and he’s not so bad off compared to everyone else.

Max Wylde
Max Wylde
9 years ago

You mention that they don’t aspire. Do you suppose that laziness has something to do with this?

I see a lot of Wallys around. Wally is a character in Dilbert Comics, who makes it a point never to do anything at work, to get away with doing as little as possible, because he’s afraid that if he’s found to be useful, that the Pointy-Haired Boss will give him more work to do than he wants. I can see some logic to this, that the more capable that you are, the more managers will look to you to get things done. But I’ve never really considered this a negative. I’ve gotten promoted into management myself and I can see the need to rely on the capable to get things done, as well as a tendency to leave light and less important jobs to the Wallys, except, that when I show I’m willing to impart greater responsibility and important tasks to some people, they will move mountains to perform and excel, especially if they seek to get a raise.

But there are some who just don’t respond to this and they do expect a raise anyway. So I wonder if it’s just laziness or a fear of being burdened, or inconvenienced, and if this relates to the amygdalae?

Geoarrge
Geoarrge
Reply to  Anonymous Conservative
9 years ago

This series of articles might be an interesting springboard for examining office politics: http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/
The later parts go into the different ‘languages’ the groups use amongst and between each other.

Craig
Craig
9 years ago

Lying and the internet always bothered me. I use to post with my full real name at the beginning LOL. How ignorant I was of the internet.

Have a lying ex-con who lives down the road, his de-facto wife is also a con artist. Horrible people.

The local town has 50% of the public school children coming from single mother homes.

When it falls to shit farm labour is going to be real cheap, if the r selected goodies are taken away.

Seriously I had a conversation with a mate, having to give advice on his niece, who turns 15 years next week, and she’s contemplating pregnancy with any Joe blow to get the single mothers pay check… She’s a beautiful girl too, she could set her sights on getting a husband with decent assets. Yet she perceives herself as not worth it, which is probably true to as she started rooting around at 13 years, she also comes from a single mothers house hold. Following in her single mothers foot steps.

The next 5 to 20 years is really going to hurt the post western countries…