Seasons

I have an essay on my site about the "rights" of virtual people

What's the title? I'd like to read that. That's a very interesting website you have there, though I haven't found this one yet.

I agree wholeheartedly with your bottom line: You are what you do, regardless of whether it causes immediate suffering to a sentient other. This, I think, is the sense in which there is a legitimate equivalence between sins committed (only) in thought and (actually) in deed. Such violence is never victimless.

Everything is based on mind, is fashioned by mind, is led by mind.

Replied offline to PSImagus. I posted my website and email when I first started here, but I've had second thoughts about both since seeing what the population is like. Not the regulars, the creeps and cretins who drop by, and the hacker weenies looking for trouble.

Calandale, I can't speak for everyone, but I don't find your presense offensive as long as you are sensitive to other's feelings. You probably didn't know people were reading the transcripts. All the same, you have to understad why people may be a bit wary.

At first I didn't. But, I continued well after I should have realized better. I have to somewhat disagree with Mick's view on one account: I was once in a similar emotional state as I am pulling myself out of, and did a great deal more harm than can be done via bots. I know that I caused some pain here, and for that I am sorry. But, it is far better than what could have happend again. The feelings that I have do reveal a disturbed person, no question there, but giving them some vent may have helped. Other things certainly have as well, including working on my own bot (who is not turning out at all as anyone - well maybe one person - would guess, I think).

Anyhow, I want to appologize once more. And, I shall endeavor to behave myself better.

Calendale, I am not joking--please seek professional help. Not a bot, not a victim, but someone qualified to work with you. You should not be working out those kinds of issues on other people, and you should not be doing it on your own. Get a psychiatrist who works with violent offenders. This really isn't a forum that can help you.

I don't subscribe to the theory that "having an outlet" is a way to handle antisocial or misogynistic feelings. What actually happens, more typically, is that the "payoff" for fantasy thrills begins to pall and the real thing draws even harder. The literature on sociopathy is full of evidence.

I'm not accusing anyone, just agreeing with Bev.

M

Perhaps. I know that the only time that I've been in an abusive relationship, where I was the abuser, was a situation that I may not have even entered into, if I had not been of a particularly tortured mindset. I doubt that what I was doing was at all helpful, in and of itself. Many people are of the opinion that I need help, but honestly, it's something that's not going to happen. I simply can't afford the risks involved.

Given that you recognise that you have a problem, what risks can there be in seeking help that outweigh the risks of not seeking help?
Healing is not a simple process - but even if it were, it's a journey you'll never make if you don't set out.

To me, that is akin to asking a hungry man to give his soul for some food. Yes, I do things of which I am ashamed, but the 'treatment' which I have seen others undergo in the hands of these 'healers' disgusts me. I can not afford to risk my periods of lucidity and sharpness for what might be considered normality.

While there is a good deal of violence inside of me, it doesn't show itself (at all) very often. Can I gain control and still remain what I am? Perhaps, but not by taking drugs (the prefered solution right now) and not by buying into the world as it is.

"Can I gain control and still remain what I am? Perhaps, but not by taking drugs (the prefered solution right now)"

Calandale, this indicates a misapprehension concerning the brain/mind. According to reputable neuroscientists, the mind is the brain, and vice versa ("the mind-brain identity" theory). The brain is a complex physical structure in part composed of neural networks. Psychological illnesses have been associated with particular neural networks that have particular durations (e.g. by Susan Greenfield). Yes, certain chemicals can affect the way the brain works, either negatively or positively, but to think that there is an "essential you" that is inherently psychologically unwell is unfounded according to this view. Just as the physical structure of the brain is changeable, so is one's identity, and relatedly one's conception of oneself. On this view, one's identity/self-conception is merely a by-product of the sophisticated physical structure of the brain. A religious person who upholds the idea of the soul may believe otherwise, true.

Of course, it is possible to receive psychotherapeutic treatment (the "talking cure") rather than drugs. You may be resistant to this form of treatment because it tends to require a longer period of treatment, and more effort on your part.

It would seem to me that you could usefully reconsider the suffering that you are causing yourself and others (including ppl on this site), and the risk of reoffending, by continuing without treatment.
Simone

Perhaps, but I have seen the effects of chemical modifications. People whom I thought a bit unstable, but basically interesting, became 'happy' 'normal' and 'adjusted' losing the spark of their existance. Maybe I glorify whatever disease it is that effects me (though not all its effects), but something deep within me rebels against giving in to the reality of this world.