Abuse
The Sadistic Worldview
The sadist secretly or openly respects any and all entities associated with power and secretly or openly denigrates any and all entities associated with weakness. To the sadist psychological, emotional, or material invulnerability equal power and psychological, emotional, or material vulnerability equal weakness.
While these polar attitudes towards power and weakness sound simple enough they create confusing and contradictory feelings within the psyche of the sadist since honoring that which is felt to be more powerful makes the sadist feel weak and vulnerable by comparison, turning the sadist into the despised entity. And on the other side of the coin that which is associated with weakness, although loathed, denigrated, thought to be superfluous, is also absolutely necessary to have around in order to maintain or regain that wanted sense of power and invulnerability
It turns out that all sadists are, unbeknownst to them, actually masochists in that they constantly subject their psyches to the pain and discomfort of being pulled in both directions, of consciously loving external signs of power but unconsciously hating these signs since their own sense of power is diminished by them while consciously hating signs of weakness but unconsciously loving these signs since their own sense of power is augmented by them. Sadists are attracted to and repelled by that which they perceive as powerful and attracted to and repelled by that which they perceive as weak. At times they see themselves as strong and at other times they see themselves as weak, seesawing back and forth throughout their lives, a constant battle waged at the unconscious level.
These contradictory attitudes wreak havoc on their personal relationships. Sadists do a lot of mental flip flopping in how they perceive the people close to them, venerating but also actively or passively tearing down those they perceive as strong while denigrating but actively or passively surrounding themselves with those they perceive as weak. Often cycles of veneration and denigration will center around one and the same person, usually a romantic interest. What should be obvious from this article is that the flip flopping has little to do with the traits and behaviors of the people who surround sadists and everything to do with the conflicting attitudes towards power and weakness in the psyches of sadists themselves. Until these attitudes are brought into conscious awareness and overcome sadists will continue to suffer, regardless of the power they acquire, and those close to them will continue to suffer too.
