Posted: Feb 28, 2010 4:22 pm
Agree that an early familial or cultural environment that tends towards expressing absolutistic viewpoints is probably critical. They might also as well stress that "personal" meaning is derived from the extent to which a person endorses those viewpoints. Those "absolutes" could be theistic or secular, but they do not encourage or reward questioning, but compliance. There's also, I'd guess, got to be some real and continuing hostility or threat in that absolute, either posed as enemies or consequences of failure to endorse.
What does seem reasonably clear is that however established, the TB personality is a durable, maybe lifelong and fairly stable trait. Abandoning the ideological "frame of reference" in which one is completely defined has got to be a difficult task, as absent a radical and lasting change in the social environment, that's where the TB seeks and gets reinforcement.
Interesting speculations.
Dennis
What does seem reasonably clear is that however established, the TB personality is a durable, maybe lifelong and fairly stable trait. Abandoning the ideological "frame of reference" in which one is completely defined has got to be a difficult task, as absent a radical and lasting change in the social environment, that's where the TB seeks and gets reinforcement.
Interesting speculations.
Dennis