This post is about Team Kimberlin and psychology, that is to say, their crude attempts at the practice of psychology. One of the characteristics that I noticed fairly soon into my coverage of these folks was their continued reference to the alleged mental illnesses of those who wrote about them. This has included such absurd claims as that someone might be dangerously violent because he has ADD. Or that another person has substance abuse problems. I’m supposed to have OCD.

According to the DSM-IV (that’s the psychologists’ diagnostic bible), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a ego dystonic disorder. That means that the sufferer actually suffers because he is distressed by his own behavior. I am pleased to say that I’m not usually bothered by my own behavior, so if I have anything like OCD, it would be Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder which is ego syntonic, meaning that the behavior fits with the person’s self-image and doesn’t cause him distress. Someone with OCPD is not aware of anything abnormal. He explains why his actions are rational, it is usually impossible to convince him otherwise, and he tends to derive pleasure from his obsessions or compulsions. Those around him suffer.

I’m told neither OCD nor OCPD fits me; however, Jerk NOS has been suggested by a friend who is a psychologist. I think she was joking.

But back to Team Kimberlin …

If I remember my Pysch 101 from 1966 (or there about) correctly, Sigmund Freud defined psychological projection as a defence mechanism by which a person unconsciously rejects his own unacceptable attributes by ascribing them to objects or persons in the outside world instead. Projection involves psychically expelling one’s negative qualities onto others. It’s a common psychological process, and I suppose projecting one’s own propensity for violence and lying or one’s own obsessive behaviors onto others makes it easier to live with a corrupt personality.