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Originally Posted by Suave
I strongly disagree. Most of the relevant scientific community (meaning not natural sciences) would disagree as well. The "number of beatings received as a child", or simply the upbringing of a person has an enormous impact on who they become.
And as far as depressives not being cured by "thinking happy thoughts", well maybe not that exact oversimplification, but therapy is significantly more effective in treating most conditions than drugs are. And therapy, even though it is facilitated by another, is equivalent to "thinking happy thoughts."
*Note: I didn't say "self confidence" I said "self-esteem". Esteem being worth or value, confidence being faith in one's abilities. Now, obviously with our conceptual framework, we attribute a certain amount of value to other people in general. At the same time, we assign a level of value to ourselves (self-esteem); what do you suppose happens when the value assigned to ourselves vastly surpasses that assigned to others? <- aimed both at Martian and Tecoyah
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Chronic depression is not cured by therapy, it's treated by therapy. And medications, such as Xanax, the ever-popular Prozac or other mood stabilizers. Same goes for bipolar disorder, which is related. Neither one of these is curable, at this point.
As for your other point, you're mistaking the symptom for the cause. Sociopathic tendencies are generally caused by a deep-seated rage combined with a lack of ability to feel guilt or remorse. The over-inflated ego is a manifestation of the rage; the sociopath believes himself to be above the human swill, because he hates them so much.
Again, life is not a contest and if you're talking about value as related to others you're missing my point. My sense of self-worth has nothing to do with anyone else; I don't put myself on a ladder with the rest of the entire human race. It comes from knowing that I do have talents and abilities and I am valuable in my own right. It's not an issue of 'more' or 'less', it's simply recognizing that I have worth as a human being. Stemming from that is my acknowledgement of what I can and cannot do. I have valuable technical skills and a high aptitude for such. This makes me well suited to be an engineer, mechanic or technician. I have Crohn's disease, which makes me poorly suited for the military, police forces or other emergency services. So rather than beat my head against a brick wall trying to get into the police force, I do the best I can at being a technician. Unsurprisingly, I excel.