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Sat 1 Dec, 2012 02:57 am
Does it mean "dealing with the emotional disturbances"?
Context:
The explanations developed so far can be used to start answering the questions surrounding the serial killer’s enigmatic behaviour. We know, from the absence of ideological framework, that he suffers from acute psychological disturbances which prevent him from socialising his violence, unlike political criminals, such as the Nazi leaders. These intense difficulties constitute the first level of a serial killer’s mental structure. On the second level, organising the chaos, is a rigid authoritarian personality which enables him to find emotional compensation for his internal disorders through
violence. It is easy to understand that such a mental structure, in itself complex, would take years to develop, in most cases from childhood, as FBI agent Robert Ressler remarked: “Let me state unequivocally that there is no such thing as the person who at age thirty-five suddenly changes from being perfectly normal and erupts into totally evil, disruptive, murderous behaviour. The behaviours that are precursors to murder have
been present and developing in that person’s life for a long, long time - since childhood.”
( Ressler and Schachtman, 1992, p. 116).
@oristarA,
Quote: "The behaviours that are precursors to murder have
been present and developing in that person’s life for a long, long time - since childhood.”
Clearly false if only on the basis of the general rule that nothing is entirely anything while everything is partly something else
In particular, an actual "physical" disease of the brain
@oristarA,
The author makes a reference to "chaos" as being an "internal disorder" that is the internal reality which is caused from the "absence of ideological framework" or the absence of a framework of belief system grounded in reality.
"organizing" simply means to arrange something according to a system. (The system or organization being a "rigid authoritarian personality" that create the rules governing the "chaos")
Put it together and you get that "organising the chaos" means:
to arrange the "chaos" or internal disorder (which is caused from the absence of ideological framework of normalcy) according to a system (framework of belief system that is grounded in abnormality, which emotionally offsets this mental disorder through violence).
In other words: a system distorting the internal reality to justify the internal disorder.
"On the second level, organising the chaos, is a rigid authoritarian personality which enables him to find emotional compensation for his internal disorders through . . "
First level is the mental confusion/structure, which is the chaos.
Second level is where the authoritarian personality is organizing the chaos.
It might be relevant to mention that there is an informal English phrase, "organised chaos". This might seem contradictory, since a truly chaotic situation is by definition disorganised. However, the phrase actually means a situation which appears to an observer to be chaotic and disorganised but which is actually (to some degree) organised and productive.
They went into the sitting room and she watched Rosie take in the organized chaos : charts, lists, sketches, road maps, photographs.
All excellent answers.
Thank you.
organising the chaos, is a rigid authoritarian personality
Is "organising the chaos" the subject of the sentence?
I don't think so. I see this sentence having the same structure as:
Then, turning in his seat, there's Billy, who is always causing trouble.
The original sentence is worded awkwardly, IMHO.
@PUNKEY,
I would suggest reading the entire paper
here to have a fuller context. The small passage, which can be easily taken out of context, doesn't do justice to convey an accurate meaning intended by the author.
Just after this section is the following:
Quote:In this second section, I shall examine the authoritarian syndrome which, combined with psychopathic traits and psychological disturbances, makes it possible for offenders to turn to extreme violence.
Followed by:
Quote:At this stage it is possible to organise our analysis of the inner world of the psychopathic aggressor in chronological sequence. The development of the authoritarian syndrome is as follows:
1) Appearance of emotional disturbances.
2) The psychopathic aggressor offsets his emotional conflicts with the authoritarian syndrome. A position of objective inferiority in everyday life is thus transformed into a position of power. (the system, rigid authoritarian personality, a denial mechanism that kicks in, "justifying" the emotional disturbances "into a position of power," and enable the person to declare the benefits of his violence.)
3) Authoritarianism causes a process of mental degeneration in the psychopathic aggressor which will be analysed in the next section.
4) When the development of the authoritarian syndrome is complete, the psychopathic aggressor implodes under the powerful dynamics created and loses touch with reality (see next section).
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