Dissonant Obedience

IN THE the right situations, disobedience to the order of an otherwise evil authority demands more courage than mindlessly following the order in the name of authority and obedience. Psychologically speaking, it becomes a healthy way to proceed as it provides no internal dissonance to the doer.

“Disobedience, the rarest and most courageous of the virtues,” according to George Bernard Shaw, “is seldom distinguished from neglect, the laziest and commonest of the vices.”

In 1963, a study demonstrated that “an average 65 percent of people had been willing to administer apparently painful and dangerous electric shocks to an innocent victim when ordered to do so by a seemingly legitimate authority.” Researcher S. Milgram published the report in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology.

In this study of 19 separate experiments involving thousands of ordinary Americans, researchers found that... [Read more.]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 30 March 2011.

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POST-PRESS: Narcissistic Disorder, Ground for Annulment

On 20 May 2011 (Friday), the First Division of the Philippine Court of Appeals dismissed the plea that Julie Balarbar, wife of 15 years of House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, filed questioning the November 25, 2010 decision of the Makati Regional Court declaring the marriage null and void on the ground that Balarbar had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Pyschiatric evaluation show a diagnosis of NPD with anti-social features, from her involvement in a shoplifting incident, her closeness to and trips abroad with her male students, and a kissing incident with a co-professor. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fourth Edition (DSM IV-TR) enumerated nine indicators of NPD, with only five of them needed for the diagnosis. It is not clear however which indicators have been found in the case of the Tañada annulment case. The Archdiocese of Manila also declared their canonical marriage void ab initio (void from the start) due to "gra...

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