QAnon, Negative 48, Michael Protzman, Proselytizing, Podcast, Narcissism, Trauma, Daniel Shaw, Book, Academic Research, Australia
" ... Using Gematria, a type of numerology that allocates words to numbers, Protzman, known to his followers as Negative 48, explained how he had stayed up late in order to decode the message he believed was for his group.
Il Donaldo Trumpo's tweet was not lost on other followers associated with Protzman, with one linking the post to a real-life Batman-themed emergency message that was sent out in Missouri earlier this month.
Speaking in a January 23 live stream on a Dallas QAnon faction-affiliated Telegram channel, the follower said: "I live in Missouri and after President Trump did say he was Batman what did we get on our alerts - the Batman signal EBS and who talks about Batman sometimes? Negative 48."
In response to a question about what he had been doing, Protzman said: "Pretty much sat around doing some coding, stayed up late yesterday. Trump, he was back talking to us and said 'I am Batman,' 'cause Batman's 51 which is 'Michael.'"
In December, the group wrongly celebrated Trump's birthday, as part of its unfounded belief the former president was adopted into the Trump family."
" ... Proselytizing goes to the very core of someone's identity. The person attempting to convert someone else to their religion does so because they believe that their religion is superior (which may be combined with a sincere concern that those who refuse to convert will be eternally tortured). Proselytizing also involves appeal to divine authority, which means the ordinary rules for evidence are not in play.
A related issue that evangelical-turned-humanist Bart Campolo and I have argued about on his HumanizeMe podcast is whether it's ethical to form relationships with other people on the basis of hoping to change them—an example of which is the manipulative evangelical practice of "friendship evangelism." I was surprised to learn that there are some, like Campolo, who believe this isn't much of an issue. As Campolo sees things, vying for influence is one of the most fundamental aspects of any human relationship, which is a point of view on relating that I frankly find troubling.
By contrast, I believe that friendships need to be forged around some organic connection, some aspect of common ground and that shared values are essential for a close friendship, whereas befriending someone who's different so you can deliberately try to change them–particularly if you plan to try to change something central to their identity–is objectification, and therefore unethical. In any case, no matter how you slice it, proselytizing is not the same as me telling a friend they should try my favorite sushi place."
NARM Training Institute: Transforming Trauma Episode 028: Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation with Daniel Shaw
"In this episode of Transforming Trauma, our host Sarah Buino is joined by therapist, social worker, and author Daniel Shaw to discuss his seminal book Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Daniel explores the theme of traumatic narcissism from a developmental and trauma-informed perspective. In his work, he connects the challenging symptoms and behaviors of clients diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder to the deeper understanding that they were raised in a highly traumatic environment by narcissistic caregivers. His underlying message for listeners is that, "It's important to understand what's going on in the mind of the narcissistic traumatizer in order to help patients free themselves from those relationships, in order for therapists to help the patient, and in order for the patients to help themselves."
Daniel began his research in social work after leaving a religious group that he participated in for thirteen years, and which he later came to identify as a cult. In this group, Daniel experienced traumatic abuse through the cult leader, who "needed to inflate their own narcissism by controlling others." This dynamic is exactly what he came to see represented in the relational system of the traumatizing narcissist, which he identified as a "system of subjugation."
Unlike perspectives that can ostracize or vilify narcissistic tendencies, Daniel's perspective on narcissism is very similar to that of the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM). Narcissism is understood to be a common trait that all personalities experience to some degree. While Daniel acknowledges that this trait can be quite harmless, for example "sometimes people are just a little more self centered", his work focuses on the narcissistic person who is predatory in their behavior, and who seeks to establish relational dynamics in which they can control others "through belittling and intimidating and humiliating." Daniel describes these individuals as highly seductive at first, and then after their initial phase of seduction others become subjugated to the narcissist. "So that person actually … comes to believe that they are bad and the narcissist is good. And the reason the narcissist is cruel to them is because of their badness." He goes on to explain that the victim of traumatic narcissism is so affected by this relational system, that it is incredibly difficult to stop blaming themselves or feeling alienated from themselves.
In a healthy parent-child relationship, the parent honors and understands a child's natural dependency, and allows them to gradually grow more independent over time through healthy individuation. This healthy individuation celebrates the child's growing independence, while also allowing the child to come back and check in to re-establish safety as they slowly venture farther and farther into the world. Daniel and Sarah come together with Daniel's statement that "We are born completely dependent and there's… no reason on earth why a child should grow up ashamed of that dependency." However, the narcissist is not brought up in this healthy environment. Narcissistic parents resent the child's dependency, shame them for it, and create a traumatizing environment in which the child's dependency on their parent becomes the source of pain and suffering. These children often grow up with one of two outcomes: to become profoundly depressed with low self-esteem, or to take on aspects of this narcissism themselves and recreate relationships with this relational system of power-over and control through humiliation. As Daniel states, the traumatized child can then become the narcissist, who begins "disavowing and denying any kind of dependency, any kind of need, and associating [need] with shame. And then the person that they choose to relate to has to carry that neediness and that shame for them."
Sarah and Daniel discuss the common thread in Daniel's work and NARM. Much like in NARM, in which the therapists support clients to reconnect with their own agency, Daniel's intention in working with people that have experienced narcissistic abuse is to help them "retrieve a faith in themselves that has been taken from them by the narcissistic abuser." In both NARM and Daniel's work, the therapist supports the client to raise their awareness of what has become internalized from their childhood abuse, including the vicious ways that these clients often degenerate and belittle themselves throughout their lives. This is a "powerful moment" in the therapeutic process, as the client begins to recognize that they themselves have taken on the role of their abuser through their own self-objectification.
Sarah then turns the conversation to the complexity of narcissism in a family system. Oftentimes, there is not only the traumatic narcissist who is creating relationships of subjectation, but there is also the covert narcissist, who is often the one that is standing by and watching what is unfolding, and not protecting the children from the abuse that is taking place. This person is essentially sacrificing the child to the relationship, which is a form of narcissistic abuse. Though there are common gender dynamics in these family configurations, both Sarah and Daniel are careful to note that these forms of narcissistic abuse are truly 'gender blind,' and can happen in any family system.
Daniel describes the healing from these forms of traumatic narcissism he sees when the client is able to look at themselves without judgment, and with compassion for their own experience. This form of self-inquiry is about re-discovering their own relationship to themselves through compassionate understanding. Sarah and Daniel close by discussing the role of the therapist, and how therapists can support the client in this process of self-reflection through being fully attuned and letting them know that we are "in their corner." If the therapist is able to do this, the therapeutic relationship then becomes a place where the client can begin to feel this unconditional, fully present relationship from another, so that they can begin to feel it for themselves."
"In this episode of Transforming Trauma, we've invited Daniel Shaw back to have a conversation with our host Emily to further discuss his work and his most recent book, Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear. Daniel Shaw LCSW is an author, private practice psychoanalyst, faculty and supervisor at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies. He has provided professional counseling for former cultic group members, and their friends and loved ones since 1994.
Daniel shares that he wants listeners to understand the ways that we become alienated from ourselves because of trauma and the internal antagonism between the part that wants to live, and the part that wants to shut down life. He also shares, "We within ourselves, have healing capacities, we have healing energy. That's innate."
Throughout the episode, we hear from Daniel about his influences such as Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Internal Family Systems, and EMDR, and how these models have supported his understanding of Trauma and the Self. "The benefit of subsequent training in trauma theories has been to understand that within us is always an energy trying to survive and trying to LIVE. We're not just trying to survive. I think we're trying to live," he shares. "
Daniel Shaw LCSW: Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery, Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear
"This book looks at the trauma suffered by those in relationships with narcissists, covering topics such as surviving a cult, dysfunctional families, political dysfunction, and imbalances of power in places of work and education.
This new volume by author and psychoanalyst Daniel Shaw revisits themes from his first book, Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Shaw offers further reflections on the character and behavior of the traumatizing narcissist, the impact such persons have on those they abuse and exploit and the specific ways in which they instill shame and fear in those they seek to control. In addition, this volume explores, with detailed clinical material, many of the challenges mental health professionals face in finding effective ways of helping those who have suffered narcissistic abuse. From within a trauma informed, relational psychoanalytic perspective, Shaw explores themes of attachment to internalized perpetrators, self-alienation, internalized aggression, and loss of faith in the value and meaning of being alive.
This book will be especially illuminating and rewarding for mental health professionals engaged in helping patients heal and recover from complex relational trauma, and equally valuable to those individuals who have struggled with the tenacious, often crippling shame and fear that can be the result of relational trauma."
Daniel Shaw LCSW: Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation
"In this volume, Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, Daniel Shaw presents a way of understanding the traumatic impact of narcissism as it is engendered developmentally, and as it is enacted relationally. Focusing on the dynamics of narcissism in interpersonal relations, Shaw describes the relational system of what he terms the 'traumatizing narcissist' as a system of subjugation – the objectification of one person in a relationship as the means of enforcing the dominance of the subjectivity of the other.
Daniel Shaw illustrates the workings of this relational system of subjugation in a variety of contexts: theorizing traumatic narcissism as an intergenerationally transmitted relational/developmental trauma; and exploring the clinician's experience working with the adult children of traumatizing narcissists. He explores the relationship of cult leaders and their followers, and examines how traumatic narcissism has lingered vestigially in some aspects of the psychoanalytic profession.
Bringing together theories of trauma and attachment, intersubjectivity and complementarity, and the rich clinical sensibility of the Relational Psychoanalysis tradition, Shaw demonstrates how narcissism can best be understood not merely as character, but as the result of the specific trauma of subjugation, in which one person is required to become the object for a significant other who demands hegemonic subjectivity. Traumatic Narcissism presents therapeutic clinical opportunities not only for psychoanalysts of different schools, but for all mental health professionals working with a wide variety of modalities. Although primarily intended for the professional psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, this is also a book that therapy patients and lay readers will find highly readable and illuminating."
"Unlike many other countries, Australia has no national office for research integrity."" ... [The work of a Australian whistleblower] has included spending hundreds of hours reviewing scientific papers in the field of construction engineering, an academic discipline not typically known for drama or intrigue.
What the whistleblower has uncovered is shocking: Hundreds of published scientific papers dating back a decade based on dodgy science involving multiple researchers working at Australian universities."
A Little Bit Culty: SEASON 3 EPISODE 2: Silver Fox: Mark Vicente Part 2
"It sure is good to see Mark Vicente back in the saddle again. In Part 2, he shares what happened during his last conversation with Keith Raniere, how he's defragged his brain since he helped burn ol' Dead Eyes' playhouse down, and what the bleep he's working on next. Oh, and there is bountiful ass-chapping."
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