Sigmund Freud, the father of analytical thought, pondered that paranoia was caused by a person's repressed tendency to homosexual love. Noted psychoanalyst and sleep researcher Charles Fisher documented that paranoia lies squarely on heredity, while biological psychiatrist Donald Cameron mused that paranoia levels were dependent on a person's personality.
Of course, Freud thought everything was deeply rooted in sex, Fisher's expertise is in sleep and dream study while Cameron was a leader in experimental studies with LSD - but one thing that can not be disputed is how paranoia is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), an "unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions. Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are out to get them."
But just because Freud was a pervert, Fisher a shameless evolutionist and Cameron a junkie and a pusher doesn't mean that their work is completely without merit, though we are not likely to be inclined to believe that Roger Goodell or any of his cronies in the National Football league Executive offices are frustrated by homosexual thoughts, nor are they predisposed to drop acid on a whim.
They may, however, be insomniacs - so wrought with a combination of power and incessant guilt that they might need some sort of downer just to relax, and maybe a horse tranquilizer to get a few hours of sleep...
This said, are the powers that be within the hierarchy of the National Football League suffering from some manner of paranoia?
Certainly Roger Goodell is, as he expresses delusions of grandeur and suffers from what analysts describe as "Reformatory Paranoia", wherein the patient considers himself a great reformer and looks upon others as having faults that he believes he can cure, while both attorney and noted fiction writer Ted Wells appears to be suffering from Paranoid Personality Disorder, marked by episodes of knee-jerk reactions to criticism - taking questioning of his work as attacks to his person and holding grudges against everyone.
Of course, no one would have questioned the mental health of either commissioner Goodell or of the prominent Manhattan-based Wells were it not for the equally paranoid ownership and management of the Indianapolis Colts, who generated an email to the league offices in regard to their belief that the New England Patriots were tampering with the air pressure in their footballs...
...because as soon as that email hit the in box of league executives, their paranoia began to manifest in the form of the aforementioned Reformatory Paranoia, along with close cousins Persecutory Paranoia, delusions of grandeur and, most seriously, a condition known as "Litigious Paranoia", in which a person "Obsessively engages in persistent and unnecessary litigation.", becoming accusatory and seeking redress against persons that they feel have wronged them in some manner.
That person was Tom Brady and the people in charge of such things with the league feel that he has wronged the integrity of the league - meaning their own personal integrity, in this instance - by somehow knowingly participating on some level in the illegal deflation of footballs for use on game days, an episode that has come to be known as "Deflategate".
Obviously, paranoia is rampant in the NFL offices, and it's just going to get worse as more and more scientists discredit the Wells Report - the document that supports the leagues' accusations - and the more and more that the media are prompted to report on these scientific findings, to the point where the Persecutory Paranoia becomes so pronounced that no one in the offices will trust each other and the entire power structure of the league falls apart.
These people are not well - and it may be time for the longsleeves.
The latest person to manifest symptoms of clinical mental illness is NFL punishment czar Troy Vincent, who seems to have forgotten that the NFL paid Wells a $5 million advance on his fiction novel, known universally as the "Wells Report", when he went on record in an interview with ESPN bemoaning the NFL Player's association for spending too much money on attorney fees for players under their charge...
...not stopping to remember that it is his office that causes the NFLPA and their clients to lawyer up to defend themselves against penalties imposed by him and Goodell - oftentimes excessive and unfair penalties.
Vincent is obviously suffering from feelings of inferiority, the compelling triggers being things like failure, disgust and a profound sense of guilt despite his position of authority - because people who are secure with themselves and actually exude integrity don't go on national television and criticize other people for defending themselves over issues that you created, and for spending the same amount of money defending themselves that you spent accusing them.
Hypocrisy is part of the manifestation, according to Adam Galinsky, co-author of a recent study promoted by the Kellogg school at Northwestern University, and seems to be connected to persons wielding inordinate amounts of power.
"According to our research, power and influence can cause a severe disconnect between public judgment and private behavior," Galinsky writes, "and as a result, the powerful are stricter in their judgment of others while being more lenient toward their own actions."
"Ultimately, patterns of hypocrisy and hypercrisy perpetuate social inequality." he continues, "The powerful impose rules and restraints on others while disregarding these restraints for themselves, whereas the powerless collaborate in reproducing social inequality because they don't feel the same entitlement."
This study explains a great many things in regard to the behavior of the folks who run the National Football League and their never-ending search for absolute power - but why hide behind the obviously fraudulent "Wells Report"? Why all of the contradictory statements by league executives that amount to being caught in lies?
"Is it any wonder politicians cheat, commit fraud and lie once they get in office?" ponders Dr. John Grohol, founder of the Society for Participatory Medicine, who cites a series of experiments conducted by Dutch psychoanalysts seeking the base for the axiom that absolute power corrupts absolutely. "They feel their power is legitimate, and therefore they are entitled to more leeway in their own behaviors."
Power is the birthplace of hypocrisy, and it isn't just the powerless who are subject to this behavior, as Vincent, Wells and any number of Vice Presidents in charge of whatever within the power structure at the NFL offices are eventually going to find out - as commissioner Roger Goodell is going to have to resort to it to save his own skin, and job...
...that is, if he isn't sold out by his underlings first.
Hey, paranoia and power does funny things to a person. All you have to do is look at the Deflategate saga to understand just how disruptive it can really be.
The lack of common sense and intelligence among the commissioner and his staff is staggering. It's embarrassing that the owners of a multi billion dollar business would grant such power and decision making with these people knowing that it negatively reflects upon themselves and only hurts and hinders their own advancement. Why is it so difficult to find qualified persons. Has the dumbing down of America reached this higherarchy. Since much of what the commissioner is decision making, thinking and disciplinary matters why hasn't an attorney been appointed by the owners. This would at least provide the league with credibility and respect.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I'm just wondering if Bob Kraft is really kicking himself for going to bat for the commissioner so many times in the past.
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