Conference turris::womannotes-v3

I would like to take a layman's stab at the phenomena of depression in
women and aggression in men.

Now before the absolutists in the crowd get your gander up and point out
it ain't necessarily so, let me say that the following is suggesting
common paatterns of behavior, not immutable laws.


I suggest that depression and aggression are triggered by the same
psychological issue namely... 

A diminished sense of self-worth. 

This view suggests that women have been "acculturated" to internalize their
low self-esteem. and males have been "acculturated" to act out our low self
worth by being bullies; that members of both sexes are devalued, but
we have different (learned) ways of dealing with it.

There is a kind of orderly symmetry there; for every strutting bully there
is a cowering target. Of course, the bullying behavior starts out with
boys bullying other boys, with the ones 'lower' in the pecking order
trying to find ones even lower in the pecking order. These boys were
probably originally bullied by their fathers (as were the girls).
Mothers may be culpable in inculcating low self-esteem in boys
as well as fathers; they certainly do a job of transfering their own
self-esteem onto their daughters.

So there is a kind of generation to generation "passing of the baton"
ensuring a permanent supply of people of both sexes with low
self-esteem.

See also 28.*
    
    
    What do you think?
    

    I think that's good psychology, Herb; the literature bears that out as
    one of the principal causes.

    Now i'm going to step a little further and suggest that
    
    the difference between aggression and depression in much more extreme
    cases of abuse becomes the difference between
    sociopath/psychopathic personality/anti-social personality disorder)
     (e.g.s Ted Bundy, Stanley Speck, Albert DeSalvo) on the one hand
    and
    
    multiple personality disorder 
    (three faces of Eve/Trudi Chase/etc) on the other hand.
    I think DSM III said the ratio of female to male in this disorder is
    about 9 to 1. 
    Don't recall the ratio for sociopath (not sure one was given) but it is
    an overwhelmingly male phenomenon (Lizzie Borden to the contrary
    non-withstanding).
    
    Similarly, most inhabitants of prisons are male. This is also, I
    suggest, a reflection of the difference between acting out abuse and
    internalizing abuse.
    
    I think there may be a comparable statement about females in mental
    hospitals, but I don't know what that statement is. (maybe depression?)

    I'm not sure if this is related or not, but I've noticed that
    whenever I come out of a bout of depression, I go through a bout
    of being hostile and aggressive -- usually verbally, though I've
    been known to smash crockery...
    
    --bonnie