Linda,

Were you really ‘stunned’ because someone told someone else they were full of shit?

And what do you mean how is that ‘allowed’?

Allowed by who?

Isn’t your whole article talking about how other people are full of shit because they think childhood trauma plays a role in aggressive behaviour?

You refer to the idea that poor behaviour results from trauma as a ‘saying’ like it’s just some anecdote that crazy people come up with at parties or school meetings in the deep south.

Then you cite the website ‘Quote Investigator’ as your source.

Rather than using such questionable sources, you could begin by reading articles like this by Professor Gina Wong instead.

https://theconversation.com/criminal-justice-needs-a-better-understanding-of-childhood-trauma-153848

One thing I found bizarre about your article is that you start by rendering any criticism of writers as a ‘personal attack’.

You then call Freud a ‘wackadoo’ and throw shit at Rick Warren and Oprah like they deserve criticism while your anonymous writer friend does not.

It’s also bizarre that you use Victor Frankl as the entire basis of your premise, like the guy knew what he was talking about just because he spent some time in a concentration camp.

It’s typical of humans to deify people who have been part of sensitive situations because we are so afraid of being seen to criticise that person.

One psychologist who existed seventy years ago does not make a premise. I doubt that trauma was even a word during the Second World War. Psychology has come an unbelievably long way since the 1940s.

To make your premise believable, you might want to find an expert from the last couple of decades at least.

Although, with what we know today, what professional will deny the effect of conditioning on the mind (the entire basis of modern psychology) and instead say that ‘people are just assholes’?

Finally, it’s a small thing, but being an asshole at Christmas is not ironic. Just as in Alanis Morrisette’s hit song, it’s yet another unfortunate situation with no degree of irony whatsoever.

FYI this isn’t an attack. It’s a critique.

With respect,

FTB