#pathology

Among [Applewhite's] other teachings was the classic cult specialty of developing disdain for anyone outside of the Heaven's Gate commune. Applewhite flattered his would-be alien flock that they were an elite elect far superior to the non-initiated humans whom he considered to be deluded zombies.[...]Applewhite effectively fed his paranoid persecution complex to his followers to ensure blind loyalty to the group and himself while fostering alienation from the mundane world. This paradoxical superior/fearful attitude towards “Them” (i.e., anyone who is not one of “Us”) is one of the simplest means of hooking even the most skeptical curiosity seeker into the solipsistic netherworld of a [mentally unbalanced] leader's insecure and threatened worldview. ↗

— Zeena Schreck

#mass-suicides #psychopathology #religious-science-fiction #sects #sociology

You cannot separate passion from pathology any more than you can separate a person's spirit from his body. ↗

— Richard Selzer

#medical #medicine #passion #pathology #science

Whether I or anyone else accepted the concept of alcoholism as a disease didn't matter; what mattered was that when treated as a disease, those who suffered from it were most likely to recover. ↗

— Craig Ferguson

#disease #pathology #recovery #rehab #recovery

Why is it, my shadow-striding friend, that we don't fear dreams? We lose consciousness, lose control, things happen with no apparent logic and abiding by no apparent rules.... We don't fear dreams, but we do fear madness, and death terrifies us. ↗

— Brent Weeks

#psychopathology #death

Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#liars #manipulation #men-and-women #narcissism #narcissists

The level of shyness has gone up dramatically in the last decade. I think shyness is an index of social pathology rather than a pathology of the individual. ↗

— Philip Zimbardo

#dramatically #gone #i #i think #index

There was an opening in the ER program at King Drew, so I spent the next month there, fascinated with the range of pathology that I observed, the diversity of skill that the ER physicians had to acquire, the variety of cases, and the ability to interact closely with people. ↗

— Samuel Wilson

#acquire #cases #closely #diversity #drew

Cancer is like a cockroach. It just comes back stronger. I'm tearing apart the immune system of the cockroach and seeing how it ticks. I've opened up my own pathology center. ↗

— Eddie Van Halen

#back #cancer #center #cockroach #comes

It is my opinion that the isolated mind loses its purchase on reality all too easily and becomes prone to fantasy. ↗

— Frank Tallis

#imagination #insanity #isolation #mind #pathology

Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health; everything absolute belongs to pathology. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#absolution #agnosticism #distrust #evasion #health