Identity Loss (not the "roll for pick pockets" kind)

[cdrcjsn]

Lashing out at something you don't understand in the midst of great traumatic pain is what I would call misguided and tragic, although quite common and a relatively normal reaction. Doesn't make it right, just makes her human.

But a "monster"...that seems like illogical thinking to me.

People lash out in anger and frustration when confronted with grief, yes.

But this woman actively took an a campaign of misinformation for decades. She held seminars in police stations, schools and other places to promote her literal witch hunt. Not only did she waste money that could've gone towards more useful programs, but if her campaign even misled one detective down a wrong path, then that is one too many.

Thankfully, none of the trials where she stood as an "expert" witness against the occult resulted in any convictions.

Yes, grief and anger can cause people to lash out. But that doesn't excuse actions. Her actions whipped up hysteria in the general population against a bogeyman of her own creation. Instead of rational thought, she promoted fear and distrust. Interviews with her showed that she is unreliable not only about her "research", but also about the details of her son's suicide. That speaks of either connivance, self delusion or a mixture of both.

She might not have murdered anyone. But it is a fact that she fueled irrational thinking in a generation of god fearing americans.

 

[cdrcjsn]

True, and (like Dausuul), I cut her rather more slack due to her being in an obviously traumatised state than I do for the likes of Chick who's in the business of tearing down people with deliberate falsehoods to push his own agenda.

This subject appears to affect me more than I thought possible.

Just the mere mention of Jack Chick gave me a headache.

I'm retiring from this thread. Sorry if I offended anyone or appear to be a heartless bastard. I just see a distinct difference between a grieving mother and the populist opportunist that, in my opinion, Pat Pulling had become.

 

[pawsplay]

Yes, but none of them are dissociative identity disorder.

Perhaps I wasn't clear, but actually, yes, DID is a dissociative disorder.

The references I find show DID being that which we used to call MPD - but the disorder is even more complicated than we used to think of MPD. I recognize MPD is not generally accepted as a diagnosis these days, but since I'm not talking to psychologists, some use of the vernacular seemed appropriate, to give people some handle on the issue that they'd recognize.

Sure, but keep in mind that the principal reason that MPD was dumped was the theoretical assumption, generally born out by clinical practice, that people do not have multiple personalities, but have one personality whose experience is splintered.

Okay, now I guess we have to get picky. I am by no means a mental health professional, but as I understand it, a "feeling that someone was taking over their actions", is not consistent with DID. DID requires that multiple personality states exist (as well as significant lapses in memory - state A not remembering what happened while state B was dominant). The feeling that someone else is in control is consistent with several other disorders.

Clearly, Herman Schmoo believing he is actually Algolon the 11th level ranger, literally believing it, involves multiple personality states if Algolon's behavior is distinct from his own. DID requires amnesia, but of course, if Algolon does not remember that he is actually Herman and lives in Herman's house and should not assault police officers, etc., then he would be suffering from amnesia if he were not simply disorganized. Herman yesterday, Algolon today, does potentially qualify.

 

[Shades of Green]

The strangest thing I've heard about identity (or, rather, reality perception) problems related to role-playing is the opinions I've heard from several mental-health professionals here in Israel about RPGs. While D&D is generally considered by these professionals to be a harmless, even positive pastime, LARPing, for some reason, is considered to include people "who can't distinguish well enough between reality and fantasy". This is quite funny, since I don't think that they have any negative ideas about improvizational theater, which, in practice, is extremely similar to LARPing.

This prejudice goes so far that the IDF (the Israeli military) gives a reduced profile score to people who confess that they are LARPers due to "mental health reasons". This has led to the misconception that the IDF is against RPGs in general, which is incorrect.

 

[Mexal]

Very strange, as a LARPer often has a better grasp of small-group tactics than yer average man-in-the-street! (Says someone who is a veteran & has LARPed upon occasion!)

I wonder if the more 'murky' ends of the IDF - or perhaps Mossad - have considered the similarities between the standard field operative 'building a legend' process and one of us creating a character?

Me, I know I'm not Calatin the wizard or 'Fast Faisal' the snoop (Spycraft 1e), but I enjoy inhabiting the alternate reality where they DO exist on Friday nights round a friend's house. Then I come home to being Megan again!

 

[Shades of Green]

This stigma probably came from the mental health profession and not originally from the military.

Anyhow, other than that stigma for LARPers, the overall public opinion about D&D in Israel is that it is quite normal and insignificant, or, at worst, a bit geeky.

Oh, and some IDF soldiers do play D&D in the barracks and even inside APCs while on long and boring duty nights; this hasn't provoked any negative response (or any response at all) from their commanding officers as far as I know.

 

[Umbran]

She might not have murdered anyone. But it is a fact that she fueled irrational thinking in a generation of god fearing americans.

And, in the process, was a major force in growing our hobby. There's no such thing as bad publicity, especially when you're tryign to get youth to not do something.

It is not all that irrational to think that without Pulling's publicity, EN World would not exist.

Even more - it is possible that Pulling unknowingly saved lives! Think a moment, about how many misunderstood, socially awkward kids may have been driven together by the publicity, and how many friendships were probably formed from that. While there's always a bad example to be found, in my experience, friendship is a stabilizing force in a young person's life.

We shall never know whether her negative influence was overpowered by the positive results, but let's not act like the positive wasn't there.

 

[Dausuul]

And, in the process, was a major force in growing our hobby. There's no such thing as bad publicity, especially when you're trying to get youth to not do something.

This is absolutely true.

Even more - it is possible that Pulling unknowingly saved lives! Think a moment, about how many misunderstood, socially awkward kids may have been driven together by the publicity, and how many friendships were probably formed from that. While there's always a bad example to be found, in my experience, friendship is a stabilizing force in a young person's life.

Errrmmm... more skeptical about this bit. I don't think there were many teenagers whose lives were improved by being harassed and having their books burned.

The hysteria may have provided an indirect benefit by, as you say, promoting the spread of D&D and thereby enriching the lives of more players, but ostracism and hostility are seldom positive things for anybody. While it no doubt did encourage bonding between gamers, that bonding was apt to take the form of an angry, us-against-the-world viewpoint, which still persists to some extent today--I'm seeing it right in this thread.

 

[pawsplay]

I find it appalling that someone could lead an organization, ostensibly to protect teenagers and young people from evil influence, who probably should have been found guilty of something for her treatment of her own child, whose death she chose to blame on a game that offered some glimmer of joy and pleasure for that disturbed young person. I don't think there's any rational defense of Pulling.

As for the "no bad publicity" thing... true. And yet the fact that a hobby united against an evil does not make the evil thing any less lamentable.

At one point, my mother became convinced D&D was "warping" my mind and that it might lead to Satanism. As a result, she ended up confiscating my RPG materials. I was twelve years old, and at that point, I felt fairly adrift with my main imaginative outlet taken away. My parents had been divorced about a year, and I remember that year being the one time in my life where I deliberately acted like a jerk because I wanted people to feel bad. I was lonely, angry, and I felt like my mother considered me a lunatic. After about of year of playing on the sly, and protecting my RPG books by threatening to burn my mother's books if she burned mine as she threatened to do, I finally saw a window of opportunity. My parents offered to pay me to help with the family business, and it was emphasized that I could spend my earnnings on whatever I wanted. After I earned a solid $50, the first thing I did was go out and buy a fresh copy of the new GURPS edition. I brought it home, and when she asked how I spent my money, I quietly pulled it out of the long, brown paper bag. She made an aghast face, but I simply said, "You said I could spend it however I wanted. I bought this with my own money."

And that was, more or less, that. Not exactly Billy Elliott, I suppose. But being misunderstood can hurt, a lot.

 

[Umbran]

Errrmmm... more skeptical about this bit. I don't think there were many teenagers whose lives were improved by being harassed and having their books burned.

Of course, not. But it remains that they may well not have had the books in the first place if not for the negative publicity generated by Pulling and her ilk. Pulling and company merely fed the monster they were fighting against.

The hobby grew into the millions in the wake of such publicity. Did millions hove their books burned? Did hundreds of thousands? Tens of thousands? My evidence is anecdotal, but it seems to me that while some few did have some major ugliness, by and large the publicity brought folks together who then gamed largely unmolested.