What is New?

WHAT IS NEWEST ON THIS BLOG?

March 2 New Post: A Psychologist Speaks Out About People Estranged From Their Family, and Narcissistic Abuse Survivors Speak Out About Suicidal Thoughts, Scapegoating, and Losing Their Entire Family of Origin
February 4 New Post: Part I: Some of How Trauma Bonds Are Formed with Narcissists
January 15 New Post: Do Scapegoats of Narcissistic Parents Get an Inheritance? Are There Any Statistics on This Phenomenon?
December 15 New Post: For Scapegoats of Narcissistic Parents: "I'm being invited back into my family after being estranged, and I'm pretty sure my parents are narcissists. Have they changed? Is this an apology or something else?"
November 3 New Post: The Difference Between Narcissists and Those with Antisocial Personality Disorder: Narcissists Feel Shame and Regret for Hurting Other People Even When it Doesn't Have to Do With Empathy, and Antisocial Personality Disordered Do Not
October 16 New Post: Why Shaming Your Children is Not Effective, How Narcissists Respond to Feelings of Shame, What You Can Do if You Are an Adult Child and Your Narcissistic Parents are Still Playing the Shame Game, and How to Start Healing from a Lifetime of Parental Shaming
September 28 New Post: Series Review: Wilderness (Amazon Prime Version in Six Episodes, 2023)
September 18 New Post: How Shame is the Core Struggle of Most Narcissists. How It Gets Dumped Onto You, and How They Try to Harvest Regrets and Shame From You. Does it Work For Them?
PERTINENT POST: ** Hurting or Punishing Others to Teach Them a Lesson - Does it Work?
PETITION: the first petition I have seen of its kind: Protection for Victims of Narcissistic Sociopath Abuse (such as the laws the UK has, and is being proposed for the USA): story here and here or sign the actual petition here
Note: After seeing my images on social media unattributed, I find it necessary to post some rules about sharing my images
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Tuesday, June 21, 2016

taunting and goading is bullying (and bullying is abuse)!

name of cartoon: "Taunting and Goading is Bullying
and Bullying is Abuse"
image is © 2016 by Lise Winne
(for questions regarding use of images contact LilacGroveGraphics (att) yahoo.com)

The definition of taunting (from Google) is:
noun
1. a remark made in order to anger, wound, or provoke someone.
synonyms: jeer, jibe, sneer, insult, barb, catcall; informal dig, put-down; teasing, provocation, goading, derision, mockery

verb
1. provoke or challenge (someone) with insulting remarks.
synonyms: jeer at, sneer at, scoff at, poke fun at, make fun of, get at, insult, tease, chaff, torment, goad, ridicule deride, mock, heckle, ride; informal rib, needle

The definition of goading (from Google) as far as abuse is concerned is:
verb
1. provoke or annoy (someone) so as to stimulate some action or reaction.
synonyms: provoke, spur, prod, egg on, hound, badger, incite, rouse, pressure

The noun of "goad" probably has something to do with the origin of the word:
1. a spiked stick used for driving cattle
synonyms: prod, spike, staff, crook, rod
"he applied his goad to the cows"


Usually both taunting and goading are used in tandem in abusive situations, along with verbal abuse and smear campaigns. Taunting and goading is usually where abuse starts (after making a laughing stock or derisive jokes). It is usually also the beginning of non-empathetic, cruel responses, and it usually escalates from there into a whole arsenal of other kinds of abuses.

Why is taunting and goading abuse? The purpose of taunting and goading for bullies is the same as in all abusive relationships: to find a scapegoat who will absorb a person's or a group's rage, anger and blame, and to gain power and control over the scapegoat and others within the social sphere.

If a person seems different, to have a different perspective and philosophy than the group, to be alone in some manner, taunting and goading that person separates that person from the group further mentally and emotionally for both the perpetrators and the victim. The perpetrator looks upon the victim as "not one of us" and the victim looks upon the perpetrators as "different from me."

Taunting and goading is contempt with a challenge. It is to provoke or annoy in order to stimulate some action or reaction from the target.

Most taunting and goading in bullying situations is filled with insulting remarks or derision, or it can be passive aggressive too (a lot of silent treatments, stonewalling attempts to discuss and resolve, chiding, targeted jokes, saying under-handed things which imply a threat, or communicating an "I don't care what you are going through" kind of message that abusers are famous for, particularly when "they should care"). Taunting and bullying is used to incite someone into an emotional state. The bullies want their target to feel anger, or depression, or sad, or alone, or to have feelings of inferiority. They want you to have feelings that you are different from others (a "freak" not worthy of their company or respect). It is all an isolation tactic.

Bullies want you to believe that fairness and justice are not meant for you, that they exclude you, and are only meant for others. They hope that this will incite you to fight back. They hope also that you will be so enraged as to not be rational. Ultimately, taunting, goading, injustice and bullying are used to provoke you into defending yourself, displaying emotion, or debating with them, or to compete with them, or to go away, or to go on the attack. The bullies want a reaction, and count on it, so that they can continue with more taunting, goading and bullying. They rationalize in their minds that any reaction you have is justification for more bullying.

If you defend yourself, the defense often comes with revealing something. The bullies might get emotional information about you so that they know what weaknesses you have so that those weaknesses can be used for more bullying. Any information they can get is what is used for more derision and put-downs. Labels such as "stupid", "crazy" and "twisted" may be used too. These are verbal abuses with gaslighting (all of it is likely to escalate to psychological abuses, emotional abuses and physical abuses).

At any rate, kindness is not part of the vocabulary. That is the point of goading, taunting and bullying: it is to get you to understand that no one will be kind to you, no one has compassion or empathy for your issues or perspectives. In the end what it really communicates is that no one in the social circle cares about you, or your well-being, i.e. no one cares about you physically, mentally or emotionally.

Taunting, goading and bullying are meant to diminish the target's self esteem. Bullies hope that if they drill into a target that he is not wanted or liked, that he will feel unworthy of being wanted or liked himself (i.e. poor self esteem). But it is a falsehood, a campaign that was manufactured by the bullies.

In a social context, taunting and goading's purpose is to get others to see the victim as "less than", i.e. inferior to others in the social circle he belongs to. It is a type of vilification and scapegoating.

Most tauntings and goadings are used to disable a victim from feeling he can "win an argument". In other words, it is meant to instill in a target that he cannot win respect, dignity, regard, or a voice in issues which effect him.

The bullies also usually try to make it known to the target, that the target is overwhelmed by a lot of opposition, such as "no one likes you" or "no one agrees with you" or "You're not important" or "you're not an important member." It is used to isolate someone from the social circle. The target is usually also told there may be ever more bully recruits on the way who will go against him. The target feels like an outcast, and the bullies teach him that he is an outcast only deserving of derision from the group. Mocking, gossip and scorn are almost always used in tandem with goading and taunting. These other types of abuses are designed to wear a victim down further into some kind of reaction.

And it is natural to react to bullying and injustice, except reactions often get victims of bullying into a deeper hole with ever more abuse hurled at them. Any reaction at all from the victim, even silence, is usually used in some way by the bullies to dish out more abuse (incidentally, silence and shutting down are symptoms of PTSD). These are some instances of how bullies sometimes react to the targets who have PTSD and who have gone silent:
"What-sa matta? Cat got your tongue? You really are a wimp! And stupid too! You know you are, otherwise you'd have something to say!"
"Ha! Ha! Good you're silent! That means you know we are right!"
"Good! We like it when you're silent! Who wants to hear what you have to say, anyway!?"
"Good! I'm glad to see that you know that what you have to say isn't important!"
"Come on! Talk, talk, talk, talk!" -- with chanting.
"If you don't friggin' talk, then you know what the consequences are!"

Even defending yourself from a physical attack can result in a bully or bullies telling authorities that you un-provokingly hurt one of their brethren (see my post on Abusers Often Accuse their Victims of What They are Guilty Of coming soon -- or check out a similar topic: Projection).

Bullying is abuse and almost all abuse escalates no matter what a victim does, how a victim acts, what he says, how he dresses, who his friends are, who he tries to please, no matter how much he tries to fit in, no matter how ingratiating he appears to be. Bullying and abuse are aberrant reactions, and the fault of the abuse lies entirely with the perpetrators of abuse. To understand more about who abusers are (mostly people with Cluster B personality disorders), why they perpetrate abuse, and who they tend to target for abuse, go to my post HERE.

In family situations, taunting and goading is most often expressed as playing "favorites" with children. The parent(s) thinks that by playing favorites, it will spur all children to work harder (and especially to work hard for parental approval and love). If the child cries over the injustice, the abusive parent is sometimes known to get a little skip in their step, and be unmoved by the child's pain.

It is no different than bullies on the playground: they like upsetting their targets.

In the end, most children who are scapegoated by bullying parent(s) or bullying sibling(s) end up abandoning their family. Most children know that "real" parental love is not abuse with taunting and goading, or conditional upon unrealistic and hair-trigger expectations of "perfectionism" (see my post on perfectionism for better understanding). If bullying is carried on for any length of time, especially into teenage years, children can become highly rebellious. If it is carried into adulthood, estrangement from parents is more the norm. See my post on Favoritism in the Family for more information.

Alternatively, many parents reject children outright, hoping it will spur those children to want to be accepted. The problem with this thinking is that it negates feelings in a child of wanting to be accepted by abusive parents. The child cannot respect his parents, because his parents are abusive. So in the end, you may have parents who give up on a child who won't bend under pressure no matter how many "punishments" (i.e. abuse) are hurled at them. And you also have a child or children who will not bend under pressure because he has no respect for bullying hypocritical parents.

So, what is a person to do about taunting and goading?

What victims of bullying often find is that having a loner status is a detriment. So they often form their own group (perhaps other victims are part of that group) and defend each other from the attacks and isolation tactics of the bullies, much as a tribe defends its members against another tribe out in the jungle. The other analogy is to keep the "good people" together in a unit, a herd, so that the bullies (predators) cannot isolate out one victim at a time to feed on (i.e,. to get narcissistic supply from). Often the best offense and defense is associating with a group of fair-minded, ethical, peaceful people with a common goal. It is always important to find others outside of the sphere of influence of the bullies. These people should also have your best interests at heart.

Taunting and goading is only effective if you value the opinions of bullies.

Remember that empaths out-number bullies at least 96 percent to 4 percent in the general population, so empaths can overwhelm bullies if they choose to do so.

Where this might not work is in a "bullying family", i.e. families where the bullies outnumber the empaths. Most "bullying families" are headed by a bully, who condones bullying, who often favors and trains a child or children to be co-bullies. These co-bullies then try to get other family members to comply with the vision of the head bully, who then gangs up on a family member, usually one member, an assigned family scapegoat. Alcoholic families and narcissistic families tend to be bullying families.

Many targets go "no contact" with the social network of the bullies altogether and do any of the following: avoid, circumvent, move away, disguise themselves, disguise their location, disguise their ambitions, disguise their emotions, disguise their plans, disguise their status, and lie to the bullies to throw them off base or to get them going after a phantom.

If you are in a family and being bullied and taunted by a member or members, and you are an adult, my advice is to go to a counselor who specializes in abuse and domestic violence. If you are under-age, go to the school psychologist and tell him of the situation or seek help by walking into a domestic violence center. Being with other survivors can help (CoDA or group therapy), and connections you make can help you to stay on track from going back into abusive situations. It might be good to start building a psychological wall between you and the bullies, perhaps go grey rock, or divert their attention to uncharged discussions, until you can go "no contact" or "extremely low contact". I would make every effort to keep your feelings, thoughts and movements in your life (career, friends, interests, whereabouts, etc) to yourself until you can escape the abuse. Bullying is not "natural" and should not be thought of as tolerable.

If you are being bullied by a spouse or live-in partner, I would say the first place to start in ameliorating your situation is to go to counseling. Counselors who specialize in domestic violence and/or abuse are best. A therapist can help you gauge how dangerous your situation is (there are signs to watch out for in the escalation process -- and briefly they include any unwanted touch, close range raging, intimidating body language such as making a fist when the abuser is talking, a scolding type of finger in close range, or threats to isolate you from your family or your social circle) -- more on the signs of when emotional abuse is transitioning and escalating to physical abuse, in another post.

If you are in school and being bullied and taunted, I would suggest going to the school psychologist and telling them of the incidences. If you are in college, colleges often have counselors on hand. Perhaps ask parents to intervene and find a therapist who specifically specializes in abuse. Separate yourself as much as you can from bullies. Also remember that self sabotage and "suicidal thoughts" can be a typical reaction to bullying and abuse: it is part of the "flight" reaction, i.e. your body and mind telling you to get out of the toxic, stressful situation (often when victims get free of abuse, and their abusers, their self esteem recovers and suicidal feelings begin to subside).

If you are abused at work by a bully boss or a bully co-worker, I would suggest reading these following books and websites as it can be a complicated matter. It may be better to leave, it may be better to stay, or it may be better to hire an attorney. It all depends on the mind-set and attitudes of superiors in the situation. Some superiors are educated and evolved when it comes to bullying in the workplace, and some are not.

The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job -- by Gary Namie, PhD and Ruth Namie, PhD


Surviving Bullies, Queen Bees & Psychopaths in the Workplace -- by Patricia G. Barnes, J.D. (told from an attorney's point of view)


The Complete Guide to Understanding, Controlling, and Stopping Bullies & Bullying at Work: A Complete Guide for Managers, Supervisors, and Co-Workers -- by  Margaret R Kohut

Overcoming Mobbing: A Recovery Guide for Workplace Aggression and Bullying -- by Maureen Duffy and Len Spery

Bullyonline -- one of the first resources on the web about workplace bullying

What NOT TO DO When Being Bullied at Work -- an article by Sharilee Swaity for HubPages

Also see info-graphic at the end of this post.

If the abuser in your life expresses a desire to make up with you, realize that making up with you, saying I'm sorry or saying they realize you were important to them after all, is not real change. Warning: their overtures can be what is termed as hoovering, and often are. Real change comes from a commitment to on-going rehabilitation (i.e. giving up on bullying to solve interpersonal relationship problems altogether). This has to be done over many years with a counselor who specializes in abuse. The reason is: abuse is a habit, a very, very ingrained habit, and habits are hard to break. Putting into practice those things the therapist recommends, respecting every single one of your boundaries and respecting the boundaries of people in your life is the only "sign" you should consider as change when they are acting like they "can't live without you." Also learn about triangulation (as abusers are known to slip back into "abuse mode" by triangulating).

Begin to keep a record of abusive incidents by writing those incidents down, or recording those incidents. Keep another copy in a bank deposit box. If there are threats, contact the police, and ask them either to intervene or to keep a record.

Once victims get over the bullies in their lives, there is often a growth spurt, and better awareness of what is important in relationships.

The point is that we are all social animals and some of us are more evolved socially than others. We all need a voice, to feel that we belong, and live a life free of oppression, threat and abuse from others. Bullies, by nature, are not socially evolved people. They also are the most resistant to change. So it is important to find other socially evolved people who are on the same wave-length that you are on.

In this article Dr. Karen Siris, school principal and adjunct professor at Adelphi University weighs in on what bullying is:

We say behavior is bullying if it is repeated, continues over time, and is used to harass the same target. Teasing, name-calling, and exclusion are all bullying behaviors ...

She also has some advice on how to handle bullying:

Everyone must be aware that "kindness is cool; cruelty is not." This has to be taught in kindergarten and continue with a common vocabulary through high school.

In this Psych Central articleErika Krull, MS, LMHP states that it is in homes that bullying starts first and is allowed to grow and fester, spilling over into the school environment. She also hypothesizes that blended families (step-families) may have more issues with bullying behaviors than biological families:  

Most of the news we hear about bullying is in the school setting. This absolutely needs to be addressed, no doubt. However, I wonder if many people generally accept some level of bullying as a part of regular family life. What some people get away with in their own homes may not be tolerated if their child was reporting the problem as coming from school.

I know that family bullying is more difficult to deal with because the situations often occur in private homes. Physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse – it’s all bullying ...


Bullying attitudes and actions often originate, or are allowed to develop, in the family. In many cases, a step-family has more opportunities for tension and competition between siblings for attention and acceptance. This certainly isn’t the case in all step-families, but the risk does exist because some sort of loss, pain, or displacement frequently comes with the deal. A family member who doesn’t handle this well may turn to bullying to feel some sense of control or power.

Just focusing on school bullying gets you about two or three steps past a more impactful starting point. However, this point is also far less accessible ...


... Every family needs to be watchful of potential bullying under their roof – 100% biological, adoptive, foster, half-siblings, whatever ...

Bullying is often perpetrated on children who are different, whether physically, emotionally, intellectually or verbally challenged. In addition, insecure children who are brought up in abusive homes who exhibit PTSD, can also be targets of bullies (because PTSD creates the urge to isolate, to protect oneself by "keeping low", and also produces depression and amygdala hijacking, making learning, concentrating and memorization extremely difficult resulting in an intellectually challenged child).

So how do you help your challenged or disabled child handle bullying and bullies?

In this Psych Central article about the intellectually challenged child, Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D. has some words to say about what to expect when your child goes off to school as well as some tips on how to inoculate your child against bullying and low self esteem:

Such verbal abuse is what kids with disabilities live with day after day. “Re-tard.” “What are you – retarded?” “That’s a retarded thing to say – do – be.” The R-word has become part of the teen vocabulary. It’s in rap songs. It’s on TV. Search YouTube for “retardation” and most of what you’ll find is people doing idiotic things that result in injury. It’s so prevalent in the culture that kids use it nonchalantly to mean anything they find beneath them. Even adults fail to hear it for what it is – the ultimate putdown, the statement that people with cognitive challenges are somehow less, somehow deserving of disrespect.

In professional circles, the official label has changed in the last few years from “mentally retarded” to “intellectually disabled” (ID). It’s an improvement. It speaks more clearly to what the challenge truly is. But it’s only the latest in centuries of attempts to come up with a neutral term. “Cretin.” “Feeble-minded.” “Idiot.” “Moron.” “Imbecile.” Each began as simply a descriptor and became an insult. Each in turn was used first by adults, then by their children, as a way to say “I’m better than you are.”

Kids with intellectual disability are particularly vulnerable to being victimized. They tend to be gullible and don’t understand when they are being manipulated ... 

... Don’t fool yourself. If your child is different, he is going to be the butt of taunts, jokes, looks and eye-rolls.

Part of solving the bullying problem is to educate as many people as possible about what bullying looks like, what it sounds like, why it doesn't work in any relationship over the long run, what it does to victims, what it does to perpetrators, and what it does to by-standers. Bullying reduces the quality of life for both perpetrators and victims, and also shortens lives. There is no good that comes of it. Teaching kids how to co-operate instead of bully should start early, before it starts to be ingrained in a child's personality.

Don't play favorites with your children (if you are a parent) or your pupils (if you are a teacher). Favoritized children run more of a risk of becoming a bully (or even a criminal) than children who are treated with fair and equal treatment (for more on this subject see my post on favoritism in the family).

Bullying is debased. We can do better as a species.

From Innovative Teaching Ideasthe info-graphic I talked about in this post:






Source unknown (found on Pinterest under Etsy)
quote by H. Milne P:





Wednesday, June 15, 2016

do abusers project their thoughts and feelings onto others?

name of cartoon: "Abusers Project Their Feelings
and Thoughts Onto Others"
image is © 2016 by Lise Winne
(for questions regarding use of images contact LilacGroveGraphics (att) yahoo.com)

The answer to "Do abusers project their thoughts and feelings onto you?" is yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes (and what is more, just about ALWAYS, especially when they are being abusive or when they are thinking about abusing).

In fact, their accusations are usually so drastically different to what you actually feel and think, that how they read you can almost assuredly be their projecting their feelings and thoughts onto you, especially when they accuse you of something.

Projecting their feelings on to you, is just another part of erroneous blaming, which I go into detail about in this post (recommended).

Because I have written so much about projection in the Erroneous blaming post, the
Perfection in Abusive Relationships post and the Why Punishers and Abusers Use the Ungrateful Phrase post, this post will be a little more brief than those posts.

Projection, when used in conjunction with "a punishment" is always, always abuse. It is abuse because they are accusing you of certain personality traits, feelings and thoughts, and trying to make you believe that those traits, feelings and thoughts actually belong to you. If you don't believe it, they often escalate to doing everything in their power to convince you. If that doesn't work, they escalate to gaslighting you (see this post on the gaslighting technique, another form of abuse used in conjunction with their projections).

After making up things about you, they then use them as an excuse to purposely hurt you (purposely hurting someone else is the definition of abuse: go to my post on what abuse is and who it is perpetrated by to get a better understanding about what I am talking about). Note: abusers most often use the term "punishment" instead of "abuse" (most of them feel that "punishment" is a better term: it sounds more "acceptable" to them. Why? For them "punishment" refers to a child, someone insane or criminal. But make no mistake about it, "punishment" is always abuse and often unlawful unless the person administering the punishment is a court appointed judge or by an official in the US military services to a lower ranking military figure. Incarcerated individuals might also be "punished" with further "time", but this is an official with accreditation. Parents do not have a right to punish children over the age of 16, and even under the age of 16 certain kinds of punishments can cause them to lose their children or to be incarcerated).

From beginning to end, the whole process of projection goes from erroneous blaming, graduating to erroneous convincing, ending in the erroneous punishment.

Also the whole process is being used by them as an excuse to punish and hurt you (most abusers get off on watching their targets suffer).

Basically, if someone is screaming at you things that you are not feeling or thinking, such as that you are ungrateful, or that you are evil and have evil motives, or insulting you (usually with animal names: snake, serpent, rat, ass, pig, vulture, or the "it" label may be used, as David Pelzer was called in his years as a severely abused child), their observations are almost assuredly to be about them, or their plans about you. If you were a child who got smacked around or ostracized because of a look on your face, or for something equally erroneous, do not look at why you are being seen as villainous (do not make the mistake of thinking you have a target on your back), see it as their personality/feelings/thoughts projections onto you.

Why? Abusers do not generally ask you what you think and feel, instead they tell you what you think or feel. They want to be in charge of how you think and feel and supersede any of your own perceptions with their perceptions. Not asking you what you feel and think, and attributing qualities to what you think, is also one sign of an abusive person, before you get any deeper into a relationship with them. They are not psychic, not even a little, though they like to pretend they are (they are as far from being psychic or understanding as anyone can be -- their perceptions are almost assuredly paranoid and off-the-wall and about what they want to see).

You are being groomed to think that you are too stupid to know your own mind and feelings (most abusers label their victims as crazy, over-reactive and too sensitive, another gaslighting technique).

Why is it likely they are projecting when they accuse you?

1. Abusers do not take time to know their victims, except in ways where they can use information for the purpose of terrorizing, exploiting, backstabbing, arm-twisting, blackmailing and abusing ("punishing"). There is a phrase that Ram Dass is noted for: "If a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees are his pockets" (a phrase he learned from a spiritual teacher). Abusers know their targets about as well as a pickpocket knows a saint, i.e. not very well, only as well as to notice he has pockets, nothing more, nothing less. He does not know him well enough to judge (and certainly not well enough to accuse). In other words, abusers are noted for filing away tidbits of information and using this information at a later date. This information is not at all inclusive: it is only to be useful, a tool for more prying, more labeling, more manipulation, more accusation, and in the end, only to be utilized for the purpose of abuse and gaining control over you; in other words, its purpose is NOT to build intimacy, understanding, mutual love and trust with a person.

2. Abusers spend a lot of time putting their targets through "punishments". Almost all abusers use verbal abuse and the silent treatment, a form of emotional abuse, at one time or another. A different version to the silent treatment is leaving you to be with a new love (triangulation). A person cannot know you when they put up a wall of "silence" between you and them, or when they are actively pursuing a better sycophant. None of these acts are about knowing you. Also, their minions and worshipers (generally referred to as flying monkeys in psychology circles) are not likely to know you either; in fact they know you even less than the abuser. The flying monkeys' main alliance is to the abuser, and they generally only come forward in your life to take pot-shots at you, to look at you suspiciously, to gather enough information where they think it will incriminate you, to help run smear campaigns against you and to help the abuser with bullying activities.

3. Most abusers have personality disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder. People with these personality disorders tend to be self-involved and self absorbed. The least self involved and self absorbed is the Borderline, and the most self involved and self absorbed is the Sociopath (Antisocial). People with these personality disorders tend to attack wildly if they feel that others are viewing them critically, or less than perfect. Borderlines can control the impulse to attack and abuse best; whereas narcissists and sociopaths have extreme difficulty in controlling these impulses. Sociopaths do not even want to try to control this impulse, nor do they tend to respect the boundaries of others. While narcissists can commit crimes, their abuse tends to be non-physical (silent treatment, smear campaigns, gaslighting, goading, chiding, insulting, name-calling, vilifying, financial abuse, triangulating, emotional blackmail, terrorizing you when you are going through traumatizing life events, ignoring your special events such as graduations, birthdays, etc), whereas sociopaths are willing to take chances at physically abusing you, hoping they won't get caught.

4.  Since abusers are so self absorbed, self-admiring, labeling their targets feelings and thoughts without inquiring (as well as telling their targets what to think and feel about situations), they cannot know their targets in the slightest. The abuser, then, is projecting.

Please note: if an abuser tells you that you are evil and that you are planning evil deeds, run like hell. It usually means that the abuser is planning evil deeds against you, nine times out of ten.

When you train your mind to think of what they are saying as projection, this is an excellent way to keep safe from abuse.

Abuse almost always escalates, no matter how much you are explaining your side of things to them, no matter how much you try to defend yourself, no matter how much you try to get the abuser to understand your perspectives, no matter how kind you are to your abuser, no matter how much understanding and love you express to your abuser, no matter how much you do for your abuser, no matter how steadfast you are to your abuser, no matter how many orders you follow from your abuser. Abuse has nothing to do with you. And it's escalation has nothing to do with you either (again, it is like their drug, their high, and a high needs a bigger dose). Abuse has everything to do with them, period, never you, end of story.

The empath as the target for abuse and projection:

Empaths are usually the targets for abuse.

If you are an empath, you were chosen for abuse. Why? Because abuse is simply easier to instigate against people who care about the feelings, thoughts and needs of others. The abuser uses your concern for others for guilt trips to incite you to stay and work for them, caring for all of their needs, concerned with their judgments and thoughts about you, and keeping you thinking about them all of the time. You are also groomed to be unselfish at all times, to put their agendas always first.

Abusers also tend to use the lazy term to describe you (and their other targets), in order to keep you guilt-ridden if you take a time-out for self-care. The reason they want you to see yourself as lazy, is to guilt-trip you, and then thereby inspire you to work harder at what they demand of you. But if you notice their own actions in regards to laziness, they are almost always assured to take a lot of time for self care. Their time is spent delegating.

It is a form of slavery, or if they are giving you a little money, indentured servitude. Abuse is the whip to keep you complying with their needs and agendas.

And abuse in exchange for compliance can work for the abuser for awhile, especially if they use gaslighting to keep you in a state of confusion about their real intentions.

But once empaths realize they are being used, played for fools, deliberately gaslighted, receiving undeserved treatment, lied to, tricked, used in love triangles, slandered, abused, taken for granted, with nothing reciprocated, the agenda for the empath then changes too. Instead of complying, they think about escaping instead.

One reason why empaths make poor narcissistic supply more quickly than other types of personalities for narcissists and sociopaths is that empaths care about honorable actions like real love, real caring, real kindness, real peaceful conflict resolution, real team-work, and they realize that the narcissist or sociopath was fake about these things the whole time.

When empaths catch narcissists and sociopaths at dishonorable deeds, the abusers come under suspicion. Suspicion is not something narcs and sociopaths like, and it scares them, so they usually do a pre-emptive strike and reject the empath before the empath can reject them.

In some ways, empaths project too: they project good honest qualities on to others (sometimes before doing enough research into the person), though when empaths are lied to so much, it really isn't projecting after all, is it? It is being tricked and fooled and mind-fucked, thus the reason why therapists often refer to narcissistic and sociopathic abuse as emotional rape. Like rape, the empath is lured in by a sweet-talking impostor, someone who tells them they are loved and valued, but does not really mean it. They use the empath for narcissistic supply, and then dump the empath like so much garbage when the empath is not pleasing them. Being dumped is also referred to as the silent treatment (or ostracism if a family member did this to you). See my post on the silent treatment for more information.

Empaths value honesty, integrity, self reflection, responsibility for one's role in events, hard work, altruism, kindness, depth, enlightenment -- qualities that abusers generally do not have. Narcissists and sociopaths cannot keep their masks on forever (the masks tend to slip). So once they are caught at a lie, or some other nefarious act, an empath will feel shocked, and then eventually disgust.

Disgust is something narcs and sociopaths cannot deal with. Their usual way of dealing with being found out is to say, "I wish you hadn't done that", i.e. listened to someone else, investigated what they said, accused them of being duplicitous, and so on. Once they realize that you are investigating them and suspicious of them, they will usually go into a rage (over-react), and either do a disappearing act (the silent treatment), or they scheme at how to get rid of the suspicion much as a criminal tries to get rid of evidence.

Some of the other things they say at being found out is:

* "If that is the way you see me (or feel about me, or think about me), we're done."
* "There are consequences for that, and now you will have to pay."
* "I can't fathom why you would believe in that shoddy evidence over my own words! Why wouldn't you ask me first and let me explain?" -- and watch them explain away all of their misdeeds.
* "How could you do this? How could you do this to our wonderful life and to our home?"
* "How can you love me, and yet believe in these accusations at the same time? Don't you hold me in higher regard than that?!"
* "How can you not believe me? I am tired of being accused! This is so unwarranted! I need a break from you and all of your accusations!"
* "You actually believe what you are told? I can't believe you would do this to me! Accuse me like this! You need to sit down and get a hold of yourself! You need to get calm and take your mind off of this, or you might end up in an insane asylum. I'm worried about you."
* "You would do this to me, and to us? All of the love-making gone out the window because you believe in this tripe? If you think I am such a creep, then you should leave."
* "You wouldn't know the truth if it looked you in the eye! You're too crazy, and that is the end of this discussion!"
* "Look at what you have done! You have destroyed our relationship with this information!"
* "You shouldn't believe everything you are told. If you had listened to me, then we wouldn't be in such a pickle and I wouldn't be trying to get away from you."
* "You need to get a grip! There are some people who are out to get me! Don't be one of them! Support me! Stop believing in everything or you'll go crazy with all of this misinformation (poor thing), this witch hunt against us! They are seeking to break us up and destroy us! Just relax and believe in my intentions. Don't join those evil minions." -- downright creepy -- in fact, it is probably better to be rejected; this kind of phrasing at being caught can be a sign of a dangerous psychopath

Note: in the above statements, the abuser is trying to push responsibility on to you: for listening to and believing in evidence. The hallmark of abusers is that they do a teflon-like blame-shift to make others seem accountable in some way, even if they have to split hairs to do so. They then try to do elaborate cover-ups. Their first response is about how not to be accountable for what they have done. They try to make you accountable instead: for ruining the dream life you were supposedly trying to build together before you found out evidence which crushed your so-called mutual dream.

Fellow empaths will not act this way or treat you this way.

Alternately, some abusers cry rivers to convince you that they have changed and that you should stick by them despite the evidence you have uncovered. This is usually an act. Unless they are voluntarily going through a lot of therapy, or going through a long, difficult spiritual or karmic process, and not blaming you for any of it, they are not really sincere, or to be trusted. Also note: rehabilitation takes a long time, with advances and setbacks, and should be on-going.

Uncovering evidence is often when narcissists and sociopaths become dangerous, so be aware.

Some empaths may stay with abusers because of Stockholm Syndome, or because they believe they deserve it for something they did in the past (karma), or because of financial dependence, but the great majority of empaths do not stay with abusers, and know they did not deserve the abuse.

Empaths most often feel that they deserve reciprocity for being a good person. Most people walking around on the planet have good intentions, as well, so when empaths leave abusers, they will not have a hard time finding others who are as good as they are.

Narcissists and sociopaths do not have good intentions, but they pretend to for the sake of seeming normal in society. In order to feel above others, they usually dictate to others, and that means dictating what others feel and think, even. Since they have no real information, and cannot understand people regardless of whether they have information or not, they project onto people who they are.

They convince themselves that others are scheming ways to take them down, use them, lie to them, and abuse them ... all because that is the way they are. That is one reason why they play the victim after they have abused someone, and erroneously accuse you of motivations which don't exist, and why they punish so severely when you do not agree with their assessments of your thoughts and motivations. They are also so self-involved, where scheming to get something or arm-twisting their way through life is all that they focus on. If they cannot see others for who they really are, then they have to project to fill in the enormous blanks in their perceptions.

When empaths are out of abusive relationships, they are almost assured to be able to dust off their feet, and find other empaths who they can be in a reciprocal relationship with ... unless their self esteem is so shattered and shot that they find themselves in one abusive relationship after another, trying to figure out what they did wrong, which unfortunately happens to many of them.

When abusers are out of relationships with empaths, they are almost assured, over time, to be with other abusers (whether that be with a golden child-turned-narc, or a conniving spouse who won them in one of their super sick love triangle games, or another "suitor" who wants to surreptitiously get into their lives to get rid of the narc's circle of influence -- in other words, narcs tend to attract people just like themselves). According to psychologist Ramani Durvasula over half of favored golden children end up as bullies, and these are the children who tend to be in charge of the narc's finances and health issues when the narc abuser is old. One abuser is not going to care about how another abuser acts, so will endure the relationship with his own nefarious motives to get what ever goodies the abuser has.

Studies show that abusers never get over the relationships with the empaths they have sacrificed, whereas empaths usually get over their abusers, even if not right away, after separation (unless the empath is still stuck on ruminating about what they might have done wrong that made them a target for abuse). Also, with empaths living away from them, with histories, stories and evidence, abusers can become completely unhinged by paranoia. Their smear campaigns can become desperate and non-believable. They can also become jealous, because the empath will have what they don't have: a healthy life with healthy people, real love with other empaths, and real integrity.

Empaths can out-smart abusers (abusers tend to be personality disordered: borderlines, narcissists and sociopaths; the last two are not self reflecting types of people or willing to change except when they have no other choice at all: like when there are no more enablers, or they are destitute, or utterly alone, or sick with no one to help them, or a victim of war or violence, or the victim of a life-altering tragedy). Sometimes even homelessness doesn't change them (they can somewhat resemble The Lady in the Van if they can't find anyone to admire them).

The reason empaths can out-smart abusers is because they are not projecting. Since you know abusers almost always are projecting, abusers become pretty darned predictable. It is this predictability that makes it easy to guess their next move with accuracy.

They also generally only regard other people in terms of whether they can manipulate them (or not). They want to be able to talk people into things; it is what they live for. However, if it looks too hard for them, or they are dealing with someone who challenges them, who is onto their game, they tend to move onto an easier target. They like really insecure innocent people to pick on, and they can't stand smart, successful people. They are so enraged with jealousy most of the time, over someone, that they can barely think straight other than to be scheming retaliations and triangulations that they think will relieve them of feeling jealous. That is a huge vulnerability of theirs, it is their achilles heel.

The other area where they are vulnerable is in their paranoia. They tell so many lies and gaslight so much that they can barely keep anything straight. Having their lies and abuses exposed is their greatest fear, their biggest vulnerability. They can't even stand the possibility, so they try to bury one lie under another lie, or a bunch of lies. If they feel they haven't lied effectively enough, or deflected it, reworded it, played innocent and dumb, pretended they didn't hear right, blamed you for having to make them lie, used their lie to get into word salad arguments, or split hairs, or any of their other foolish and known strategies, they tell themselves 1. they managed to fool people somehow or 2. that the lie was no big deal  or 3. they count on people to be more empathetic than they are, and less punishing.

If you listen to narcissists' and sociopaths' opinions about your career or ambitions, they are always trying to give you advice that will set you up for failure, or they will come right out and say, "You really don't need to be working so hard. Success isn't all that important for you right now." Knowing they want you to fail (unless it makes them look good, is their other vulnerability -- and there are good strategies for bringing shame upon them for it, and shame is the last thing they want to feel; they do everything they can to run away from it).

When you know these predictables, it is always to your advantage. Since they are always trying to find some way, some little teeny tiny way to manipulate and tell people what to do, they can also be challenged in ways they could never dream up because they aren't creative in their thinking; they spend an inordinate amount of time in the attack/defend, controlling mode instead, another vulnerability of theirs.

I will talk about strategies in another post, but the real question is whether you want to even bother with it. Most people do not. Here is why:

They are sadists and they feel they have to win (sometimes at all costs). If you win anything at all they will always want to get back in the ring with you.

One analogy I have for this is this:

First ... let me preface the analogy by saying that most people regard abuse as disgusting. We don't like it when we hear people have been abusive to their child, or spouse, or to a co-worker. We tend to feel let down. When we find that a self-righteous holier-than-thou preacher has been cheating his whole life, we feel disgust at what he has done. When we find that a politician has been trying to cut back on funding social programs for the poor, but is caught at embezzling money from the government, we feel disgust. Let's face it: abusive people are disgusting: all of the gaslighting (disgusting), all of the triangulation (disgusting), all of the cheating (disgusting), all of the bullying, threatening, controlling maneuvers and trying to find narcissistic supply (disgusting), all of their erroneous punishments and blaming (disgusting), use of the silent treatment as a weapon (disgusting), feeling so puny and small that they have to insult other people in order to feel validated as a living being (disgusting); indeed it is a potpourri of unhealthy toxic pastimes, that it will leave any one of us who comes into contact with these people feeling sick, either mentally, emotionally or physically. It especially makes us sick because they feel good being abusers, and don't want to change. It reminds me somewhat of Pig-Pen of the Charlie Brown series in that Pig-Pen is oblivious to how he effects others with his cloud of dust. Abuse is right up there with porn movies featuring children. Ew! Just brushing past known toxic people on a street can make you feel sick to your stomach or give you a headache for a few seconds if you are highly tuned to your environment. So let us imagine a boxer that really, really stinks of the worst possible odor imaginable. Imagine all of these following toxic smells exuding from this person: vomit, poop, skunk, rotting garbage, dead animal, stale smoke, next-day alcohol, sulfur, decaying cabbage, and urine. Imagine that it is the strongest odor you have ever come into contact with. You are another boxer in the ring. You can barely stand his stench when you are on the opposite side of the ring. He is so disgusting that you immediately feel sick to your stomach, and then vomit when you have to proceed with the match by getting close to him. The stench is so overwhelming and noxious that you don't want to box. All you want to do is to leave him there in the ring by himself. The fight doesn't seem to matter any more; getting away from him is what really matters.

When you have dealt with enough toxic people, you eventually come to the conclusion that it is best to leave them alone.

The exceptions are these:
Are they causing harm to others?
Do they have access to children?
Are they in your workplace messing with your work, your career and your reputation?
Are they dangerous?

Posts on these 4 concerns will be forthcoming. In the meantime, listen to their projections to see where they stand in terms of these 4 issues.
          
For more information on what is abuse, who instigates abuse, and who tends to be the targets of abusers, go HERE.

further reading:

Why Abusers Who Punish Use the Ungrateful Phrase -- my own post which covers why the phrase is so common among abusers, and why it is often projection

The Surprising Reason You Become Deeply Upset With Your Partner -- discusses projection from the Hearts in Harmony website
a great little video-lecture on projection by Sacha Slone:

a video from Spartan Life Coach, Richard Grannon
(There is one thing he says that many therapists disagree with: that scapegoating and mobbing
one member of the family is common. It is only common in highly abusive families and alcoholic families. Most families do not come under that definition ... the rest of the video is worthwhile):
   
From Tom "Narcissism Survivor" (screen name), a survivor of narcissistic abuse
also talks about projection
(he makes special mention as to why many abusive parents who were sexually abused
as children, do not try to stop their own child from being sexually abused,
or to seek justice via police involvement, arrests and lawsuits --
it is to hurt them in the way they were hurt):
edit on 6/21/16:
This is someone I have been following on You Tube for a long time.
I have seen every video he has ever made. He is the first survivor to go public,
so he is a trailblazer in that regard.
When I announced on twitter about this post (and his video being part of it),
he wrote me back the following (I was so thrilled!):


from SimpleReminders.com:

from healingfromcomplextraumaandptsd.wordpress.com:




Tuesday, June 7, 2016

competition baiting with abusive co-workers or siblings

name of art: "Stop Workplace Bullying"
image is © 2016 by Lise Winne
watercolor and graphics
(for questions regarding use of images contact LilacGroveGraphics (att) yahoo.com)
poster dedicated to Joyce Decker

Please note: bullying is not a "relationship issue" or "relationship problem". It is an aggressive campaign against another person to disable them or destroy them. Disabling can mean disabling their self esteem, socially through bigotry or ostracism, emotionally by making them feel sad and isolated, and so much more. Please refer to this blog post to learn more.

Competition baiting" is one person (usually a bully) baiting someone else (usually a target/victim) to compete with him. Instances of competition baiting include:
* "I always do more than you; you hardly do anything."
* "They like me better than they like you"
* "They agree with me more than they agree with you"
* "They think I work harder than you work"
* "I have sweated on this project while you have done nothing, nothing at all, to make this a better project"
* taking your "project" or "assignment" over as a way to compete with you
* "I'd like you to write down all you have done, and I'll do the same and we'll see who has done more!"
* attempting to take control of a project so that you won't
* attempting to look superior to others by aggrandizing what they do and discounting what their target does
* pointing a finger at the "competition" in order to make the target "seem at fault"
* always lowering their prices compared to their target's prices to get an economic advantage over their targets
* making or selling the same products without creative input to differentiate
* taking ideas and claiming them as their own

Competition baiting is often bullying and abuse when it happens between siblings or between co-workers, particularly if there is verbal abuse and berating going on in tandem with it. See my post on verbal abuse to get a better understanding or check the links at the end of this post to get a better understanding of what verbal abuse is in a workplace setting (basically anything that is raging and berating).

Most competition baiting is also full of erroneous blaming where discounting or devaluing a target's contributions come from made up allegations, sometimes with a tiny bit of truth to them.

People who abuse and bully usually have personality disorders. Most abuse and bullying is perpetrated by people with cluster B personality disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder and Antisocial Personality Disorder. Sometimes active alcoholics have traits like people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I discuss in this post who are the typical perpetrators of abuse and how they act, and who victims tend to be and how they act.

Do not buy into the "You brought this upon yourself" phrasing that bullies are notorious for. You did not "provoke" their rage.

If you have interpersonal issues with a co-worker, please understand that it is not normal for that co-worker to rage at you, swear, insult, devalue you, humiliate you, treat you like a child, or tell you what to do. If they insist on keeping a matter private between you and they have proven that they are rage-a-holics, do not keep it private unless you feel you are in imminent danger (my advice ... if you are in imminent danger call the police). They want you to keep everything between you private because raging is so much easier for them when they can do it in secrecy, with no one watching, without it effecting their reputation. They do NOT respect the sanctity of privacy (bullies will slander you behind your back).

Victims of workplace bullying and sibling abuse tend to have the following characteristics:
* They are more empathetic than the average person (they overwhelmingly are in the "helping professions": nurses, school teachers, yoga instructors, therapists)
* They tend to be whistle blowers and many are involved in causes (civil rights, women's rights, victims of domestic violence rights, getting bullying laws changed, safety issues in the workplace, trying to get workplace laws changed, they tend to be into equality and democracy, they tend to be into calling out inequities in the workplace, and so on)
* Very loyal to their friends; going to bat for them in unjust situations
* They tend to be highly creative individuals with big ideas (many victims have careers in the arts)
* They tend to be polite
* They tend to be highly intelligent
* They tend to be high achievers, many of them out-doing their peers in a work environment in terms of projects, creative ideas and work ethic
* Sometimes scapegoated by other workers, or scapegoated within a family
* Most survivors have a combination of all of these traits

My own personal note here about victims:
I have been a part of survivor groups for years. I have noticed a trend. The women tend to be exceptionally beautiful (probably rated much higher in the "standard" beauty department). They also tend have an innocence about them in their appearance. They tend to look much younger than their years. They tend to be more creative than most people in the way of clothing.

Of course, being beautiful infuriates workplace bullies who tend to be incredibly jealous people, on top of being manipulative.

In fact, all of these qualities of survivors tend to enrage bullies, and they also see survivors as easy marks for bullying (because survivors tend to act polite, with an etiquette of integrity). The reason why bullies are enraged about these qualities is because most bullies are overwhelmed with feelings of jealousy and envy. Borderlines experience jealousy intensely, and express it as outward rage, verbally tearing down their co-worker to anyone who will listen, and going into "berating rages" with people they are "competing against." They often practice slander too, but are not as careful about hiding their tracks as narcissists and the Antisocial Personality Disordered (sociopaths).

Narcissists and sociopaths usually experience jealousy as a simmering unbearable feeling bubbling in their systems, and they feel it almost all of the time. Narcissists are loyalty freaks, and will terrorize anyone who tries to mess with their self image as ideal: perfection personified. The jealousy they feel is so intense that they often make attempts to relieve it through gaslighting and subterfuge. Sociopaths will go the extra mile and steal. They want so badly what their targets have, that they feel entitled to take from them. They then slander their victims to the co-workers around them. The point of their assault is to toy with their victims' reputation in ever more ways, seeing what works and doesn't work, keeping up a campaign of making their victims lives miserable with "secret" reprimanding sessions, competition baiting, gaslighting, slander, insults, swearing and intimidation. The point of the bullies' intentions is to instill doubt in their peers about the target. They work on eroding the integrity, work ethic, sanity and abilities of their victims.

Bullies tend to feel very relieved when they verbally or emotionally attack and eviscerate their targets. You will notice that they look happy, confident, energized and gleeful after they attack their victims. They have a bounce in their step, and they become even more of a social butterfly than they were before, trying to get all eyes on them, and their achievements. Again, this is not normal behavior and points to a Cluster B personality disorder.

All workplace bullies and sibling bullies try to take credit away from their targets and make it seem that they "did everything" while their targets "did nothing". In fact the "I did everything and you did nothing" is very, very typical of workplace bullies and sibling bullies, because these personality disorders are known to possess black and white thinking.

They hope that "negative perceptions" of their victims will allow them to climb the social ladder, or be the family favorite, leaving the victims of their bullying in the dust, isolated, alone and without social support. Their whole work ethic in both the home (sibling abuse), and in the work place (workplace bullying) is to gain the favor of others, particularly authorities, and to isolate their victims, so that their victims (and competition) will be pushed out into the cold and regarded as trouble makers.

The most clever bullies can, and do, manage to isolate their targets pretty well. I will discuss strategies for disabling the isolation tactic from bullies in another post, but primarily it has to do with "exposure" of the bullying (and I don't mean just complaining to authorities). Bullies try to get away with lying, gaslighting and divide and conquer strategies (i.e. through triangulation) and acting commiserating with others, and setting up a kind of confidante rapport where they whisper about their competition (target of bullying) in disparaging ways, and they do it more frequently and with more intensity unless they are stopped in their tracks.

All of this can be disabled. If you can get toxic people out of your life, that is by far the best strategy. Even if you have crippled their ability to bully, they can still make you feel tense and sick.

Bullies want what their targets have. If their target has a certain job, privilege or skill, they want it too, and will try to jockey in position to get it. If their targets have more success, they don't try to get the same success through honest means; they try to do it through sly means and people maneuvering.

They work on other peoples' perceptions continually through ever more slander and ever more rumors and lies. Meanwhile, they are "super sticky sweet" to their other peers, often doing favors for them, trying to impress, and painting themselves as victims. In fact, they tell others that they are victims of their targets. It can be an insidious process (and cause PTSD in their victims) and they even succeed at sabotaging their targets if their targets don't take precautions, counter-manipulate and expose (counter-manipulation does have its drawbacks, though, because you are acting the way they act -- but sometimes it is necessary to get them to back off, of looking at you as easy prey that will serve as a dump-site for their rage).

I have talked about the ways sibling bullies try to compete with their siblings to get an upper advantage in terms of rewards and favoritism from their parents and other family authorities in other posts here and here and here.

One of the ways they do this (which contributes to them ending up with a Cluster B personality disorder) is to:
* try to get their siblings in trouble, to paint their sibling as the aggressor (when they are the aggressor)
* they may kick their sibling and then tell Mom or Dad that they were kicked and watch with glee as their sibling gets punished
* they may compete on chores and tell Mom or Dad that they did all of the chores while their sibling did none of the chores
* they may threaten and terrorize their sibling, but smile like an angel while around Mom or Dad.
* they may say subtle disparaging things about their sibling: "You know how my sister is" (with rolling eyes
* when they want to get their sibling in trouble they may carve their sibling's name in a piece of furniture and say "Why would I ever write her name in the furniture? If I was to do that, I'd write my own name, wouldn't I?"

Without putting a stop to sibling bullying and sibling competition, these "knife in the back" children will continue to bully as adults and end up like the nightmare co-workers I will talk about next.

Nightmare bullies exist in the workplace and do the same kinds of nasty maneuvers that a sibling bully child will do to another sibling. In their minds, they must have the upper hand, they must have control of the perceptions of others in the workplace, they must have what their competition has, and they must compete, even if they feel they have to do it through unfair unethical means.

When it comes to bullies in the work place, always remember the great quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: "Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Bullies in the work place tend to feel inadequate. So they think that in order to relieve that feeling, they must compete with and attack their competition. Their focus is on manipulating people rather than on making a great contribution in their field of expertise.

I have talked about how narcissists do not care about what their targets feel, think or about their perspectives. Borderlines are much the same way, particularly when their agenda is to compete.

Borderlines rage by shouting, swearing and trying to intimidate. They are known for their volume. They maneuver to put you on the defensive, explaining yourself and defending yourself and trying to calm them down and appease them. They count on it. They feel acknowledged, and even loved, by people trying to please them so that they don't go off their rocker again.

It is very much like trying to calm down an unruly child. However, this also has the effect of condoning their behavior. They do not get better, and often get worse. Sometimes they become extremely narcissistic where they expect everyone in their lives to give in to what they want just to keep them from raging.

The difference between narcissistic rage and borderline rage is that narcissistic rage is often schemed and quiet and designed to make the most devastating impact, whereas borderlines "let it all out", with a lot of volume, without a thought as to what they are doing, how it effects others, how it effects their reputations or what the long term consequences are. They are so unconcerned about their reputations when they are in a rage, that they spend days and sometimes weeks afterwards with regrets, feeling paranoid, alone and abandoned. They are very impulsive, and if their bullying gets exposed, they are known to make drastic changes to their lives to avoid accountability.

Narcissists, on the other hand, are as careful about their reputations as they can be, but they rarely have regrets, and they avoid accountability by dodging, diverting, excusing, lying, covering up and playing the victim (narcissists really believe that their targets deserve abuse ... their common phrase is "You bought this upon yourself", whereas borderlines know they have messed up and can feel shame and guilt)

Narcissists and borderlines feel paranoia pretty intensely, and both try as hard as they can to do damage control after their abuses have been exposed. They both try to act overly sweet to others so that they can appeal to as many people as possible, so that those people will doubt their targets.

One reason why narcissists most often use the silent treatment in place of shouting, swearing, and openly challenging their targets, is for the sake of reputation (make no mistake about it, though, the silent treatment is still a nasty form of abuse: see my post on the silent treatment). They can write off their silent treatment to their audience as: "We just don't get along", "We just don't see eye to eye", "We're in two different worlds", "We've never gotten along all that well", "She has her life and I have my life and if we see each other, great, and if we don't see each other, we have our own interests and our own lives". In other words,  they hide their passive aggressive abuses under the guise of "we're just having a normal time apart" -- a hoax.

The point I am trying to make is that both borderlines and narcissists often use rage and personal attacks to solve interpersonal conflicts, problems and issues. It is just that the manner of their attacks are different.

Borderlines see things in black and white terms. They are noted for more black and white thinking than even the most disordered narcissists and sociopaths. They also use always and never phrasing much more too (see my post on always and never phrasing in the verbal abuse post).

My personal experiences:

I have two to talk about.

They both took place in a co-operative gallery. The identities have been changed to protect the guilty largely because I don't want to damage the reputation of the gallery and its other artists.

The first is about two old lady artists and my relationship to them.

The second concerns an artist I recorded in the middle of a bullying session. I am sharing the transcript of that recording for my readers so that they see what it sounds like and how bullies maneuver to take hits on your self esteem.

This first one I will tell briefly. It is a very long story over a twenty year period, and I think that it deserves its own post (which I am working on). It is this story, and a few others, that made me want to research bullying and abuse.

The Gertrude and Janice story:

This story concerns two old ladies who I will refer to as Gertrude and Janice. Both were potters. I was also a potter in those days. The relationship was complicated in that it included working in a co-operative studio environment every day as well as in a co-operative gallery. in other words, we probably saw each other too much.

Gertrude was the bully, and the uninspired one, and often copied Janice's style and types of glazes. She also tried to undercut Janice in price for a comparable piece of pottery, and take the best display spaces for herself while moving Janice's pieces around to lesser locations that would not be so easily seen by customers. Janice would sometimes correct Gertrude's nasty display changes, but because Janice did it out in the open (as compared with Gertrude's doing it covertly), Janice was often blamed and seen as the aggressor. Eventually she was severely scapegoated by most of the membership. As in alcoholic families and families headed by a narcissist, the victim of abuse in a workplace can also be blamed and scapegoated and seen as the villain because no one takes the time to research what is really going on.

This is what happened to Janice and it is a heartbreaking story that took place over two decades. I am still trying to find justice to this story. I think the best way to get it, is to write about it so that it cannot happen to someone else so easily.

Like many survivors, Janice was outspoken. So Janice was often blamed for things just because she was outspoken about being treated so badly.

Gertrude spent an inordinate amount of time pointing the finger at Janice: "Look how hysterical she is! She is always putting me down! Real victims aren't so angry as Janice is!" She was one of the most sly sadistic underhanded bullies I have ever met, and she made every effort to ruin Janice's reputation and career, and to a slightly lesser extent, my career and reputation too. Gertrude was a master at acting, manipulation and "competition baiting", probably the most masterful I have seen. She would perpetrate ACT B, for instance, and then tell the social circle of the membership that Janice perpetrated ACT B instead. Janice was always, always on the defensive, while Gertrude would play this sticky sweet little grandmother role, acting nauseatingly unassuming, doing favors for others just to win their vote of confidence in her "war" against Janice, and coo-ing over members' "life issues". She was constantly maneuvering, using subterfuge, "isolation tactics", sabotage, stealing (which is against the law, but she was ballsy enough to do it, especially to Janice), making both of us "appear crazy" to the membership, playing the innocent and constant victim by calling up the display committee chair saying we were "bullying" her, giving her targets "the silent treatment on steroids", discounting our contributions, taking credit for our work and contributions, making herself appear to have a brilliant college education and to be a reputable teacher (when Janice and I actually had the degrees, and the real teaching experience), feigning concern over display of other members' works, disparaging Janice and me in a very quiet whispering victim voice, constantly lying, constantly acting, constantly stabbing us in the back, constant devaluing us at every turn.

In the studio the situation got so bad that Janice left and set up a studio in her house, and used a kiln in her backyard, while I worked around the ever-unpleasant Gertrude by wearing ear pods and a cassette recorder all day. When she'd give me her evil gloating smile, I tried a lot of creative ways of responding to it, including not responding, until I came upon something that stopped it once and for all.

It was dizzying how well she did her bullying. Janice and I wondered how Gertrude could get away with making us look so bad. I remember many times standing outside the gallery with Janice shaking our heads in dismay and being so utterly amazed at how convincing Gertrude could be. Her lies slid into other people's ears like candy. It seemed to us that everyone should be able to see the sabotage just because of how the gallery looked and was displayed most of the time. Most of the membership, in fact, called it the "pottery wars" because they found it so inconveniently uncomfortable to be reminded that we were unhappy -- even if for a good reason. It showed the two of us how little people care, and how little people research to find the real truth, and how little they are invested in justice and truth. Instead, they wanted to believe in some rhetoric.

We reasoned that it was like how religious cult leaders can persuade. In the Hale Bopp Comet cult, called Heaven's Gate, members were told that if they poisoned themselves, they would be able to take a ride on the comet. Janice and I thought that maybe it was a little like that, where the membership fell in love with words, a perspective and a person, refusing to see what was in plain sight, in front of their noses. They were enjoying the sweet-little-cooing-grandma-from-Hell giving them ego strokes instead.

Gertrude's bullying campaign was so relentless that she took her slandering outside the co-op studio and co-op gallery too. Gertrude took it into every aspect of our local artistic life: into submissions, group shows, openings, parties of invited artists, indeed everywhere in the local art scene. This should never happen, ever, so ever since, I have been active in the cause of stopping workplace bullying through laws and survivor training.

Unfortunately, Janice and I did not have the training then, and complaining made everything worse, though I will tell in the future post why I eventually started speaking up. Seeing so much injustice, group slander and group scapegoating at an early age (I was my twenties when it started), was difficult to witness, and I don't think the human psyche is meant to take relentless injustice anyway; I think our systems won't allow it, even if it takes a long time to make the situation "right" in some way. Since I grew up in a family with members who were invested in "just causes" like the civil rights movement, women's liberation, politics, and education, and assumed that "good people" were also invested in those things, I was ill prepared to know what to do for a long time.

Make no mistake, these people were "good people", but they were the kind of people who "don't want to get involved", who fancy themselves as Switzerland, the kind of people Martin Luther King talked about. His words:

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. -- Martin Luther King

In bullying situations, neutrality and turning away actually escalates bullying. It does not rectify it.

Both Janice and I felt really, really alone in our struggle, even though we had each other.

I want to make one point however, before I go on to the next story. Many years ago, I tried being nice and bending over backwards for Gertrude. I agreed to fire all of Gertrude's pottery, both bisque firings and glaze firings because she feigned helplessness in that department. I wanted to see if she would let up on her bullying. No, she got so much worse. I tell why bullies do not get better, and why they actually escalate bullying, when you do them favors in the If you are good and show altruism and magnanimity, will that keep you from being abused? post.

I will tell how I finally overcame the bullying, and believe me, after twenty years of being on the losing end, I used a stealthy arsenal of unpredictable "surprises" to disable Gertrude's bullying and sabotaging activities for the remaining five years that she was in my life. As I said, I will share what those were at another time because it was a long process of trial and error, and I want to focus on the taped conversation with another bully from the same gallery instead to show what it actually looks like.

The next story is about a lesser bully than Gertrude, but still a bully none the less.

The Morgan and Lise story:

For this next segment, I wanted to show what "competition baiting" actually sounds like. It is a taped conversation of someone who became verbally abusive during a phone call: insults, baiting, swearing, slander, interrupting, reprimanding, devaluing, raging, attempts to isolate, gaslighting, character assassination, trying to control the conversation, and other kinds of inappropriate bullying in a business context.

I call this next bully Morgan (not her real name).

I suspect that Morgan has Borderline Personality Disorder, whereas Gertrude probably had Malignant Narcissism (Malignant Narcissism is considerably more evil, but also a good deal more "charming").

Morgan and I are the only card designers in the gallery. We have, roughly, the same amount of space, the same amount of inventory and we probably have similar sales (she sells more in the Spring, and I sell more during the fall and holidays).

Some differences between us include (and probably have something to do with the conflicts between us, and her competition with me, which I will explain later):
* I am educated in art; she is not
* I am more fine art oriented; she is more crafts oriented
* her art rarely evolves, mine evolves constantly -- probably too much so

I didn't know she had a penchant for bullying until very recently. We had an altercation many years ago when Gertrude was still part of the gallery, where she verbally attacked me, but as the years went by, the relationship between us was uneventful. I thought we were on good terms, and I didn't know that she was jealous of me (which probably has more to do with the differences I stated above than our similarities). I have noticed over the years that she is also insecure about labeling herself as an artist, and that may have something to do with her "competition" with me. Perhaps she doesn't feel on par with me in some way.

Anyway, I considered her to be in the "friendly camp." I don't do things for bullies any more, so seeing as how I hadn't been bullied until this recent incident, I did what friendly co-workers and co-artists do: I did favors for her, filled in work days for her when she had surgery, I made sure she had adequate display space in the center of the gallery (she is a high volume seller compared to many of the artists there), and I came up with ideas of trying to make both of our businesses grow.

Three weeks before this bullying incident, I had recently driven a piece of hers to a gallery show (which I helped to set up, making sure her piece was displayed properly: in the center).

I admit that the relationship I had with her was hard to figure out. It was distant and rather uneventful. She could be friendly, but she could also appear cold and uncaring. We did not talk about personal subjects. She also did not reciprocate with days I needed filled, or anything else other than ringing up sales of my work (I also rang up sales of her work -- it is part of being in a co-operative gallery).

She ran a social media site for our gallery, and she became involved with our brand new website.

Some background:

I had suggested to the gallery last January that we have a website. We had a mail-chimp account, a twitter account and a facebook account. I had discussions with a committee from our gallery about how it should be set up, what it should contain, and I made some mock-ups for the website design. My interest was primarily in promoting its artists, and trying to drum up more traffic. As time went on, Morgan seemed to want to take over the site and I noticed I was being excluded more and more from it. I did not know why, but I also had no particular desire to control the outcome and would just tell others who were working on the site: "Do what is best for the site. I'm just here to help if you need it." I wanted to be part of the blogging for the site, and setting up new member pages and bios.

Morgan told me a month ago that the website had too many differing opinions on its design from 3 members, and did not want my help on it any more because it would just be one more opinion to deal with. So, I backed off and made some birthday card designs instead.

I rewrote my bio for the website at her suggestion and she wrote back a curt, rather cold reply:

May 28:
Morgan: Hi Lise. I got the bio but Molly said you have not paid yet. Only members who have paid will be included.

May 28:
Lise: So I assume it is too late now? Okay. Unfortunately I was too busy with (an art show at the gallery), and forgot, and thought it was under discussion anyway because we had so much money in the account ...

May 28:
Morgan: If you get the money in then you will be included but just hurry. We are probably going live this week ... I am working very hard also and have pur (sic) in long hours on this web site and I don't want to take the time to take members off and then put them back in later when they pay. Just pay now or have Molly deduct it from your next check. Let me know what you are doing so I adjust the bios accordingly. Morgan

May 28.
Lise: Okay, I just e-mailed Molly about taking the fee out of the May sales. You can include me now.

May 28:
Lise: Let me know if you've received my e-mail about Molly deducting it from the paycheck.
Lise

(note: sometimes I am unsure if an e-mail gets through because of the type of e-mail account I have, which is why I sometimes send more than one e-mail)

May 29:
Lise: I told Molly to take it out of May sales. I am out of town until Wed. and a check would take until Fri or Sat. Let me know. I'd like feel I didn't go through all this writing (of the bio) for naught on a rare vacation. Lise

Tuesday May 31:
Lise: Molly, you told me to rush, and I did, and have not heard back from you. What are your plans when it comes to my inclusion on the website? Lise

June 1:
Morgan: If you get the money in then you will be included.

This is the e-mail that let me know that Morgan was most likely playing a game of "arbitrary answers". I felt that she was baiting me, expecting me to get "pissed off" and to approach her about it. In other words I felt that she was trying to bait a negative response from me, so that she could jump all over me (which she did as I will show).

One reason I suspected I was being "baited" is because I know enough about the subject of abuse to know that her response was not a normal response to someone who wants a "clear definitive answer" to the issue and is feeling worried about e-mails getting through (bullies, the Cluster Bs, show lack of empathy for how people feel).

My hunch that she was toying with me made me prepare a counter-offensive, which was recording her response without her knowledge.

Before I took Morgan's "bait" however, I decided to write the entire membership by sharing these same e-mails to see if anyone else was going through what I was going through at not getting answers.

If Morgan had written anyone else during that same 4 day time period, it might also show others that I was being "toyed with".     

Morgan responded back (respond-all, that is), asking me to call her. She also remarked that I was "distorting", even though I wrote the e-mails verbatim.

Following is the conversation I had with her (again, it is from actually taping her).

What may not be obvious, because there is no sound in type-written words, is that Morgan was shouting the whole time of our "conversation", almost always interrupting. Note, it is not normal to solve interpersonal or business issues and conflicts with ranting and attacks (that is definitely a sign of a bully). Most people will try to figure out what went wrong, to ask questions, and are interested in resolution.

My comments about the altercation is in pink type.

Lise: calmly So why didn't you get back to me? What's going on?

Morgan: Because I have a life! One thing I don't need is 50 friggin' e-mails sent over and over again! Note the exaggeration: borderlines typically exaggerate when in a rage. Like your little issue should be the most important thing in my life! It's always about you, isn't it!? I have a life, do you understand me!? Do you UN-DER-STAND!? Notice the repeat here: abusers often talk to targets as though they are small children who have a hearing problem and need to be reprimanded. Obviously you don't! You could have called me!

Lise: You know, we both have a life. I was up in Vermont, and I didn't have your num---

Morganmocking with disdain: Oh, you're in Vermont! Woohoo. Back to shouting: You know something!? This is a waste of MY time! You and your little concerns and your little world of crap! You're a WASTE OF MY TIME! Do you hear me!? I JUST DON'T FRIGGIN' CARE! Do you hear me? I DON'T FRIG-GIN' CARE ABOUT YOUR LIT-TLE WORLD!

Lise: facetiously: Nice. You know how to be polite. sighing with exasperation

Morgan: You don't friggin' do anything! You're too busy! with disgust and disdain: You're too this, you're too that! You make it sound like you're everywhere! goading, taunting, mocking: What IS IT that you DO all of the time anyway? Just who are you, exactly? What is so goddamn important in your life anyway! Huh? Answer me that!  competition baiting: You know I could outpace you at just about everything! I'd like you to write down everything you have done for the gallery and we'll compare notes one on one and just see who comes out ahead! I doubt you have done much of anything! In fact, you've done nothing!! It's about your self centered world, while I actually do things for the gallery! But I don't FRIGGIN' CARE because YOU are a waste of my time!? Do you hear me? I DON"T FRIGGIN' CARE!!!! Abuse has a way of sounding pretty trashy, not intelligent or inspiring, with many repeats. But I can tell she is feeling empowered by all of the shouting. Abusers also feel entitled to shout and berate you, because they feel it is all your fault that they are this way, and they feel they are more important and entitled to rage, so their rage takes precedence over just about every other kind of communication: like it must be listened to. 

Lise: That's interesting. So you don't care about other people's concerns. Okay, then.

Morgan: I care about other people's concerns! But you blow this way out of proportion! I'm certainly not going to take your concerns more seriously than anyone else's! Like your concerns should take precedence over other people's concerns! with disdain and taunting: Your little puny little life of LISE WINNE, the artist of all artists, is much more important than what others do! Or what I do! I worked hours and hours and hours on this website, asking the designers to move one period here and one colon there. And all you can think of is whether you are in it, or not, and all you can think to do (with disgust) is write about the members! Whoop-ee! Like that is all that you can come up with to contribute!

Lise: I can contribute more, but you seemed to want to take over the -----

Morgan: interrupting and sounding defensive: I put in over 20 hours of my time on it, and then when I need a break from it, I get 50,000 e-mails! I'm supposed to drop EVERYTHING for you! I had my (aunt) here! I have a life! Do you hear me!? I HAVE-A-LIFE!!

Lise: All I was asking for is just the word "confirmation" or something like that. You strung me out for 4 days! And then when you finally responded, you didn't acknowledge that I paid. It's not a good way to treat other p ----- .

Morgan: interrupting: When I send e-mails, they are PRIVATE e-mails! I don't want them shared all over the goddamn place! But, no, you can't respect that! You think this is SOOOOO important that it has to be shared with the world! Your little concern has to be broadcast all over the place!! That's what really got me! You have to share MY private e-mails with the entire membership! You are not to do that to me again! Do you hear me?! All of these people DO NOT have to get involved in your little --

Lise: interrupting: That's right. When I can't figure out why my e-mails aren't confirmed, I try to get to the bottom of it. The best way is through the membership, to see if they are going through the same issues that I am going through. And I also felt like I was being toyed with, so I go public when I'm being toyed with and treated like --- note: when I say I was being toyed with it refers to her competition baiting, the feeling that by keeping her responses arbitrary and as confusing as possible, she was hoping to have a chance at taking abusive pot-shots at me: in other words, I smelled a rat in her intentions towards me. My intuition was that she would provoke a response from me through the arbitrary response to make me nervous about being on the website, or taunting through keeping me off the website. If she got a response from me either way, it would be her chance to verbally undress me and abuse me, which is what most abusers salivate over. 

Morgan: interrupting: Why go public? What's the point?

Lise: This conversation and your rants are the reasons why. When things are hidden, and I'm sensing --

Morgan: interrupting: You know what this is? It's one BIG TEMPER TANTRUM! Yup, one big temper tantrum! Because you can't wait! Everything has to be done right now! Right away! Right this minute! You can't be satisfied with waiting, because that's how selfish, self centered people act! If you don't get your way, then you cry to the membership! Wah, wah!

Lise: It was four days. You started it with needing something from me, right away, demanding immediate action, which incidentally wasn't necessary after all, was it? But then when it comes to you, 4 days is right away --

Morgan: interrupts me on the words "right away" Note that interruptions happen because abusers are typically more focused on their next come-back, than their own contributions to what went wrong in the relationship, and their own hypocrisies. Abusers are typically NOT self-reflecting kinds of people and they are generally hypocrites in most of their accusations. They use rage to get what they want, and "I don't care" statements when they are caught at hypocrisies, as a way to divert, because it's the raging and denigrating that gives them that high they desire. For more on that see this post. It's like you haven't grown up! This is how little children act! They can't play nice when they don't get what they want right away! When they don't get what they want, then they go tell the authorities, they scream and cry until they get their needs met. If you don't fulfill a child's needs, they scream and cry more! This is what this is! I figured it out! Yup, it's one big childish temper tantrum! A three year old reaction to ---

Lise: interrupting: These are personal attacks and they are inappropriate to a business discussion. Stop with the personal attacks and get back to the real issues. The only reason I am still on the phone with you is that we have to work togeth --

Morganinterrupting again: You know what your problem is? You don't see any other perspective than your own! One thing about abusers is that they use projection -- this abuser really did not know me beyond my art creations and a few superficial conversations, and so has no other choice than to project (it should be obvious that she does not listen: she uses an attack/defend strategy and is always thinking about her next attack when the other person is talking). She was also not interested in me beyond her own rants and competitive feelings about me. Most abusers in the workplace only think in terms of:  I'm in competition with her. She's too talented, I need to gain some leverage and superiority over her and the only way I know how to do that is to rip her character to shreds, rage at her, diminish her, take over her projects (website), and intimidate her. They compete in dirty ways, instead of inspirational ways. More calm, with a concerned tone: You should hear what people are saying about you! You're not going to believe it. Abusers often use slander, smear campaigns, and then they try to come back at the target with other people's opinions to try to rip apart their targets character some more and intimidate them further through isolating them via community opinion (which is another form of abuse, an emotional abuse). Usually verbal abuse escalates to emotional abuse, or it goes in tandem with emotional abuse.

Lise: I don't care. This has nothing to do with those other people and ---

Morgan: My point is that I wasn't getting the feeling that I did anything wrong! In fact, if anything, they gave me the feeling that I handled this the right way. That's my point! If I was so wrong, I wouldn't be hearing this! I called each and every member up, to make sure they were part of the website, and the conversation, to make sure they were paid up, and they were all very, very thankful for all I had done for them and gave me the feeling that you were ---

Lise: deep, serious, authoritative tone: Like I said, this has nothing to do with the other members. I'm not going to talk about the other members.

Morgan: sounding shaky: But my point is ---

Lise: I'm serious. I don't care. Stop talking to me about th ---
Telling an abuser that you don't care about opinions is actually a good strategy for many reasons. Sociopaths and psychopaths don't care what other people think (and most people are aware of that), so a borderline abuser will get worried that you are a sociopath or psychopath and usually stop ranting with such intensity, which she did. They begin to wonder if you are more dangerous than they are. They begin to wonder whether competing with you is in their best interests after all. They get nervous, like maybe you are one of those kooks with hair-trigger rage, or someone with a family member like that. They really don't know you so they start questioning themselves: like should they really be messing with you after all, should they have gone into a rage when they might be retaliated against? Hmmmm, maybe this isn't such a good idea after all. They begin to be worried and paranoid. Paranoia is the burden that all Cluster Bs carry around with them.
When public opinion as a weapon will not work, they really don't have many other weapons to use. Their rage tends to dissipate.
The other reason why I didn't care about "opinions" so much is because the old guard acted like brainwashed zombies in the days of Gertrude and Janice.

When you are a survivor (which I am), you learn not to be swayed by opinion anyway. You know that there will be other insecure bullies that want to take pot-shots at you too and may join in a team of bullies. You know that the opinions of your past abusers who told you that you were worthless no matter how hard you worked to gain their approval, and that your work and contributions were worthless or insignificant regardless (for instance) were something you had to give up on being concerned about, so you tend to be of an independent mind when it comes to other people's opinions (while still being polite). You understand that abuse escalates no matter what you do or don't do, what you say or don't say, so their opinions of you become pretty insignificant and useless. It is one reason why survivors are some of the most creative, brave, independent, trail blazing people you will ever meet. 

Morgan: sounding slightly more uneasy and less rage-ful: Well there really isn't anything to talk about then. You're just really screwed up. You know what? You're crazy. You're probably mentally ill or disordered or deranged or something. I should feel sorry for you. It must be hard to be in your shoes. It must be hard to live in your little cold world. You have some major problems. You don't care what other people think, that's interesting. You don't care what I think, either. You just live in a bubble of your own opinions and your own making. A bubble only you understand. And you don't care that it makes you alone, and doesn't make sense to anyone else. It's kind of like living in a fantasy world all of the time. That's why you think you're so important because it's a fantasy that you're this big important person that --

Lise: This is gaslighting! I'm not going to be listening to gaslighting statements --
You can read about what gaslighting is to understand what I am talking about.

Morgan: interrupts by hanging up the phone

Some notes about what happened next, with some of my own thoughts about whether I would want to change my reactions to her.

I did call her back to tell her that I recorded our "conversation". This changed the course of things, as I will reveal in a moment.

My main impetus for recording is that there is less likelihood for slander (because of the recording). Slander is usually a part of any bullying process and it can make for an intolerable work environment, and severe symptoms of PTSD for its victims if it goes on for a long period of time. Recording is a counter-manipulation, but it works on people who are out to hinder and hurt you. The best offense and defense against slander is recording someone in a bullying rage. As soon as you hear someone in a rage, record, record, record.

Anyway, she tried to muster up a stance about her being recorded, that she was proud of what she said, and how she acted, and would stand by it, and that people would still judge her to be "the better person".

I said, "Not with this recording. Uninterrupted rage? I think not."

Then she started sounding pitiful, like a little girl, and she was getting very paranoid:
"Don't ever touch my stuff!"
"Don't hurt me!"
"I don't want you to pick up any more of my pieces or display any more of my pieces! Just leave my work alone!"
"I could never work with you again!"
"I could never trust you again!"
"Don't threaten me!"
"I feel betrayed!"
"I just want to be left alone!"
"I can't believe that you don't trust me! I don't trust you!"
Then sounding almost tearful: "I'm feeling really stunned right now. It's like I've been hit with a bolt."

Abusers really do feel like victims when you disarm them. The fact that she felt stunned is a normal response to "possible exposure", especially since so many scapegoats and targets of abuse seem so polite and unassuming, when they seem so reasonable, like they will absorb abuse forever without defense, when they seem so patient in the face of so much rage hurled at them, when they seem so passive, when they seem to be on the defensive all of the time, when they seem like such a perfect target or scapegoat for abuse. Recording them in these tirades makes them feel pretty darn defeated. It's a stealthy move, kind of like a judo or karate move in that you let your opponent wear themselves out taking swings at you, and then you take the force of their blows and put them on the floor in one swift move.

In the following days, she did a lot of "trying to save face." Her e-mails out to the membership were peppy, cheerful, and all about how much work she was doing on the website, and for all of the members. She even came up with little fun games, inviting the membership to play. She was trying to put on this cheerful helpful little goody-two shoes role.

And yes, I was included in on the website, another victory.

She did make it clear that she was taking over the website, and that someone else besides me was going to be part of that effort, but a friend thought it was "perfect" (laughing all the while). This other person thought I should be happy that I'm not saddled with the job. "Just think: you get to make all kinds of birthday cards, and make even more money than she is making, because she's saddled with a website! She'll see all of your new designs popping up, and get ever more jealous and resentful, while she'll be doing everyone else's work." This friend also suggested I use it as a strategy: that I pretend to want to do something very badly, and in her competitiveness she'll make a grab for it and try to take it away from me. "You give her all the unwanted jobs this way!!" *giggles*

It is the same mentality of a person I wrote about in this post. Basically the story is of another "friend" (and I use the "friend" term loosely) used my interest in a man to see if she could seduce him away from me. If she was successful, she would find a way to dump the man, because she couldn't continue to compete with me if she held onto him. So, in order to get her going after a different man than the one I was actually interested in, I found a decoy man 3 hours away, and talked him up as much as I could to her, feigning falling in love with him, over many weeks to get her interested in going after him. And the bait worked: she went after the decoy man, and since decoy man lived so far away, she never saw much of my real love interest. In fact, the real man I was interested in was kept from her as much as I could possibly muster. I had time, finally, to build on a relationship without her intrusions and sabotage. By the time she caught on, it was too late, and I eventually married him. It is a type of gray rock method, in that you are counter-manipulating (most Cluster Bs are very predictable, and you know they are competitive jealous people who want what you want, and are so uncomfortable with the envy they feel that they will do just about anything to relieve themselves of that envy, so it is easy to trick them, and get them going on wild goose chases).

I have also learned to enjoy the feeling of having bullies afraid of me. I like it that this bully is in a box, that she can't mess with me very easily again. I like that this recording exists and that she may be more careful about bullying others too. The gallery, and area art scene, may be a very hard place for her to find targets, to get narcissistic supply.

Narcissistic supply (and bullying) from raging only works in the dark, in the most private of conversations, and she knows I won't protect the sanctity of private conversations between us. She will have to go elsewhere for someone else to dick around with, rage at, and play for a fool, because she knows I'm onto her.

Borderlines sometimes find their lives so ruined by their own regrettable rages that some of them seek help.

Borderlines are the only Cluster B that has a chance at recovery (usually). Very few narcissists and sociopaths care to change their behavior.

As I said in this post, most bullies "don't have a life", as the saying goes. They are usually unhappy in some aspect of their life. If you think about it, anyone who puts time into trying to bait someone so that they can have an outlet for bullying and rage cannot be happy. Anyone who has to "competition bait" someone else must feel inadequate. Most bullies are not careful about whom they bully, and this altercation with Morgan should be proof of that. They are generally not discretionary, and they even "mess with" people who have the potential of having authority, or clout, or knowledge of laws, or psychopaths, or who have spouses or family members with those kinds of traits. They take foolish chances at bullying (kind of the way philanderers take foolish chances at having affairs). Morgan did not know me outside of very limited contact ... not too smart!

Anyway, she may be a lot more careful about bullying now, knowing that recording is being done a lot on cell phones these days.

She may still be able to rage in her own home, and that may give her the perfect excuse not to change her ways. I have a hunch that Morgan is married to a quiet, unassuming, reserved man who walks on eggshells around her explosive rages. I also suspect that she gets away with a lot of rages. It means that she will probably not seek help as long as rages are working for her in that arena. The problem with being recorded is that she will probably feel hampered and in a double bind in telling the whole truth to her husband.  Many Cluster Bs find they have to alter the story to appear as the real victims. But, she would also be paranoid too of the whole story leaking out. So many cluster Bs put lies and excuses on top of more lies and excuses. Oh, dear, the anxiety of it all!

Paranoia and not keeping lies straight is the big reason why borderlines, narcissists and sociopaths become depressed later in life. Their shame has a way of catching up to them, even though they have spent their lives trying to keep it away.

I could have done things differently, and it is never a good idea to sit through someone else's raging and belittling sessions. But since she had probably been taking pot shots at me behind the scenes for quite awhile (jealousy will do that), and slandering my reputation, I saw nothing wrong in holding down the record button.

It was validating. It may work for you too. Since you are the first one to listen to that recording, you can hear right away that the person raging is the selfish one (who won't let you talk), who is the crazy one (who has amnesia about your contributions in the work place), who is threatening (while you are polite), who sounds stupid (because they repeat inane phrases), whose rage and anger are unreasonable (because they rage at just about everything you say). Other people will see them that way too if they hear. Recording is empowering in terms of justice; that is why it is used so much.

I didn't get to this point with Gertrude until Gertrude did a lot of damage. I feel I have made quite a bit of progress. Since Gertrude was part of the co-operative gallery, some of her residual scapegoating of Janice and me were left behind for Morgan to pick up perhaps, and use as a continued mission.

I am thankful that this time I am only dealing with a borderline, instead of a rabid extremely manipulative malignant narcissist. This borderline may still try things here and there to upset me, but she is too hobbled to make an all-out assault now. I would bet that she doesn't rage at me again. If she does, I will put up a link here and let you know how it has played out.

Learning to deal with bullies is a skill like anything else, and I'll touch more on those skills later on.

Further reading:

How to Deal with a Verbally Abusive Coworker by Freddie Silver 
excerpt:
Verbal abuse includes shouting and swearing as well as intimidating gestures and hostile body language. Insults, ridicule and criticism -- whether to your face or secretly to colleagues and supervisors ...

What is Workplace Verbal Abuse and Is It Harmful to You? 
excerpt:
One answer is to tape-record the person doing the verbal abuse at work as he berates you. Sometimes, showing a recorder to the bully and asking him if he minds if you tape the conversation can be enough to prevent the verbal abuse. Or, you can record the abuser without his knowledge which permits you to gather proof just in case you wish to report him.

15 Kinds of Verbal Abuse: The Abuser Feels More Powerful When He Puts Down His Victim by Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D. -- a Psychology Today Article which can give you an over-view on verbal abuse

Verbal Abuse from the Out of the Fog Website, a good resource for all types of abuse