Authoritarian is not a personality type it is a leadership style. Though it is tied to having to heard at a certain level, and also tied to mental health patterns that are consistent with many personality disorders. One thing the authoratarian does not see people below them as people, instead they only see people below them as subordinates to be used for their own success. To explain, an authoritarian style leader has a big ego, and someone with a big ego needs to have someone to separate themselves from to distinguish who they are. Kind of explains identity politics. Carl Rogers explains, that this false self is comparable to the road to hell, and that this is seen as an ideal not a genuine self. The difference Erik Erikson would explain as we all will come to in identity crises where you will do one of two things; keep living up to others expectations of you, but it does not have to end this way. The road of false externally validated self, one that uses defense mechanisms to distort reality and lacks a solid core identity. The contrast is to decide to look within by tuning into one’s rapidly evolving intuition, cognition, and emotion and to self-improve through life like a piece of art. The difference is to make meaning of that which ails us and this is to be engaged empathically with our social emotional learning experiences, in fact they call it learning for a reason because this is neural development and moral reasoning is a counterpart of and a contributor of the development of working memory. This process of making meaning of our suffering through the experiences of others is actually training our brain to think, which in the human development is the equivalent to process information intuitively. For example, the difference between semantic encoding or struggling to think due to experiencing sematic barriers.
This inability to think, due to a lack of development by tuning out (apathy) rather than tuning in (empathy) by making meaning of that what challenges you instead leads to a compromised form of neural development and at the core of this is the inability to look within to make meaning. We are in a meaning crisis and the difference is to be engaged in your suffering is to control fear through finding rational outcomes and this teaches the brain. This is the functionality of how we are able to be aligned with self in the response to incoming environmental releasing stimuli, that is coherent to our identity and a contributing factor to the development of neural structures, circuitry and pathways so that your brain is working for you and not against you. If these components are set in a positive way that will be consistent with homeostasis of the human organism one then the person will experience positive growth and well-being over time. Like a fine wine that develops better over time. The authoritarian may be in stasis instead a response of negative emotional development (lackluster neural development) experiencing stagnation in a fixed rather than a growth mindset. Driven by negative emotions like fear, disgust, anxiety aggression, which are factored in by a lack of compassion and an overly stimulated sympathetic nervous system as result. It is no wonder that authoritarian style leaders (synonymous with brain development) are hyper focused and see through a symbolic lens of fear and threat. Semantic barriers to the degree of silencing others that do not agree with them. In reality they are usually highly disagreeable, due to not looking within to make meaning, therefore a cognitive objective response to seek truth and reality is not available, instead logic and reason gets sidetracked at the mercy of an emotionally reactive response.
The benefit of looking within at identity crises and being strong allows functioning in a way that Carl Jung calls the process of individuation. This is to function as a whole to have reason and order in your life, to have a strong will due to being disciplined and having self-control. All components of the human organism (a biological system) functioning at the conscious level at its best. To get on track in your life and to stay on track is synonymous with taking the right path at identity crises by choosing to look within to develop an internal locus of control rather than an external locus of control. The validation type and reinforcement style of each will be drastically different and it is all congruent with the neural development that will take place based on the path (functional state) that you chose at identity crises.
Making deeper meaning and having compassion regulates sympathetic arousal, surely a product of healthy coping skills. Nonetheless, the context is the meaning of the internal dialogue which opens the mind and creates synapsis between more localized brain areas. Preventing the cognitive strain associated with deindividuation the contrast of the process of internalization is critical. A false self lacks the solid core identity and self-awareness (i.e., perception, interpretation cognition/emotion, and volition), therefore without a genuine self it becomes “me” against “thems” in an externally based, (superficial meaning), opinion, attitude, deluded state of being extremely competitive subjective basis of perceiving social hierarchies, constructs, and issues through an aggravated antagonistic lens. All about me or retribution, and it goes against the grain of a growth mindset to the degree of manipulation and coercion in a way that fits; the way it is and the way it has to be. Selfish, greedy, apathetic, non-acceptance you must fit their view of you, and/or deal with all the negative emotions of a hate fest that has no genuine aim, nor purpose from deeper meaning. A closed-minded and cannot see the big picture scenario of inequity and stagnation that is synonymous with categorical thinking, and exclusionary practices are compensatory mechanisms as a way to serve the dispositional factors of pathology that deem there way from personality disorders from functioning maladaptively for way too long. This deindividuated state of stagnation from a cascade of lackluster development is a form of not adapting well to stressors over one's lifetime is one reason why in life we need to be kind and share our strengths to help those that struggle to find their ways to the higher form of human development. In the stage 8 of Erikson model of development Stagnation vs. generativity is similar to the differences of deindividuation vs. individuation. I can attest that experiencing generativity is self-actualization and an experience of being in harmony with self is gratitude and I experience seeing all people as the same as me and I naturally wish for the success of all people as if it were my own. I find it important for many reasons some listed here to share ideologies of the behavioral neurosciences with others. To bring awareness so that every person can reap the benefits (positive emotion, intuition, sematic encoding) of making meaning to stay attuned to self and in harmony with the higher optimal functional state of the human organism.
keywords:
Erikson's 8 stages of development, maladaptive stress response, field of neural networking, George Kelly "cognitive psychology", process of individuation vs. deindividuation, internal vs. external control- validation, reinforcement, sematic barriers vs. semantic encoding.
a psychologists take on the false self, NPD, and external validation
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