Power Freaks

Quotes from the book "Power Freaks Dealing With Them At - The Workplace Or Anyplace" by David Wiener.

"However, the malleability of the behavioral side of the brain gradually begins to harden for most of us as we reach early adolescence. Our personalities and behavioral patterns become relatively fixed. From that point on, most of our personality changes for the better or the worse, are caused by traumas, including traumatic epiphanies or insights, some of them seemingly trivial at the time." 

"It would be hard to explain to an extreme power freak whose outlook has been distorted that all of his arrogance and pomposity has to do with brain cells whose creation at the very least, he had nothing to do with-he was not alive as yet the night of the fateful sexual intercourse that created the basic structure and nature of his body and brain."

"It was psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who suggested that human behavior is largely driven by unconscious and nonrational drives, and then is rationalized and justified in terms of logic and reason."

"Once we become intensely attached or addicted to an authority figure, we will subsequently become attached or addicted to his or her ideas, no matter how peculiar they may be.

The short list of characteristics would include some of those that define a psychopath, whose traits are echoed by power freaks in the business world and elsewhere:

• Glibness/superficial charm: When needed most power freaks can turn it on, to the point they can knock you off your seat with their repartee. Others lack any form of charm. "Me Tarzan, you Jane," might be their typical statement.
• Grandiose sense of self-worth: They think no one else is as smart or innovative as they are.
• Lack of empathy for other human beings: They can get a "high" from watching others suffer under their direction. It can make their day.
• Lack of remorse or guilt: Long after the outburst or episode demeaning others is over, they still feel no remorse or guilt. Nobody is there.
• Cunning, callous, and manipulative: They will do whatever it takes to reach their objectives. Misrepresentation and cunning are mother's milk to them.
• Won't take responsibility for their own actions: Nothing is ever their fault. They will always find ways to blame others for any failure.
• Exploitive attitude toward others: They perceive you as beneath them on their imagined scale of social hierarchy, and so feel free to exploit and demean you.
• Question the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates: When you're with them, you frequently feel that you've done something wrong when you haven't." (from "Power Freaks: Dealing With Them in the Workplace or Anyplace" by David L. Weiner)

Published on

6/9/16, 9:11 PM

India Standard Time