By following these twelve tips, you will be guaranteed to get straight AAAAA’s. Read each tip carefully.

1. Find a quiet area in your house in which you are comfortable and can isolate yourself from distractions. Be sure that this space includes a chair, table or desk, and sufficient lighting. Ask others not to disturb you while you are in this special location and turn off all phones, beepers, televisions, videos, music, or anything else that your mind will wander to instead of focusing on the schoolwork.

2. Find the best time to study. Some students tend to do their best work as soon as they get home from school while they are still in the school mode. Others need a break and don’t settle down to study until after practice, playtime, a nap, dinner and/or family time. Just be sure to allow yourself enough time to get everything done and still get enough sleep each night.

3. Organize your day, week, month, etc. Set aside a specific time each day to do your homework and study. Decide on a reasonable minimum amount of time that you will spend in this quiet place each day. For instance, lets say you decide on 45 minutes as a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to schoolwork each day. This means that even if homework is completed in the first 35 minutes that you will still stay in this area and study or review notes for the next 10 minutes until the 45 is up.

4. Reward yourself for sticking to your schedule and being productive. Decide on an activity to do once your study time is completed. Plan on watching a television show later in the evening. Tell yourself that you will play five minutes of a video game for every fifteen minutes that you study. Create goals and their rewards before you start studying and work hard to reach them each and every day.

5. Variety is important. Vary the topics that you are spending time studying. Get the mandatory homework out of the way first and then go back and spend the additional time reviewing material from different courses each day. If you spent extra time reviewing history yesterday, spend the additional time on science tonight. Some subject areas may require more time than others. You should get a feel for this a month or so into the school year.

6. Study the difficult subjects first and get them out of the way. You will be able to absorb material quicker and make more connections when you are mentally fresh.

7. Take regular study breaks. This can also serve as a mini-reward. For instance, tell yourself that you are going to get a drink or snack or listen to a specific song after you finish re-copying your notes for science. Make the breaks short, 3-6 minutes or so, so you won’t get side-tracked or lose focus for the day.

8. Don’t just re-read notes or the text. Ask questions. Create flash-cards. Redo assignments. Create time-lines. Play games. Re-write your notes. Get someone to quiz you. Find websites online that review the same material. Make up questions that you think will be on the test. Create new outlines of the material by writing some specific topics and filling in the details from memory. Studying should be an active process, not just time spent re-reading something.

9. When you need to remember a group of terms use the first letter of each to create a word (acronym) or a sentence (acrostic). For instance, an easy way to remember the five Great Lakes is the word “HOMES”. By just remembering the word “homes” you can easily remember the names of the five Great Lakes . H stands for Huron, O for Ontario , M for Michigan , and so on. You can also create silly sentences to help you remember long lists of terms. For instance, remembering the sentence “Martha Visits Every Monday, Just Stays Until Noon, Period”, will help you remember the planets in the order they are found. M for Mercury, V for visits, E for Earth, etc.

10. Become a teacher. Find someone who is willing to listen to you &ndash, a classmate (this would be a great review for them), Mom or Dad, a sibling, the family dog &ndash and explain your notes to them. Have them (except the dog) ask questions about the material that they themselves don’t understand. It’s amazing how much you can retain when you have to actually teach material to someone.

11. Repetition, repetition, repetition. The material should become second nature to you by the time test day arrives. If it is not, then you need to devote more time to preparing for the test.

12. Exercise often and before you sit down to study. Research shows that students retain more after being physically active. Go to soccer practice, take a jog, rough-house with your dog, break a sweat first, then settle down and focus on your school work.

Go to .live-etutor.com to learn more about online tutoring and watch a virtual tour inside of our online classroom. All tutors are screened, qualified and ready to help your child get better grades!

The Emerald Buddha is a figurine of a sitting Budha, that is the is the palladium of the Kingdom of Thailand. The Buddha is made of green jade, suprisingly not of emerald, clothed in gold is approximately 45 cm tall. The Buddha is kept in the Chapel of the Emerald Buddha, which is located on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

Legend tells that that the Emerald Buddha was created in Pataliputra, India, which is now the city of Patna in 43 BCE by Nagasena. Other great historians beleive that it belongs to the Chiang Saen Style of the 15th century. The legend says that, it remained in Pataliputra for 300 hundred years, until it was taken to Sri Lanka to save it from a civil war. It was then in 457, that King Anuruth of Burma sent out orders to Ceylon to ask for the Emerald Budha and Buddhist scriptures. These actions took place by the king, to try and support Buddhism in his country. This request was granted, however the ship that was brining the Buddha to Burma, became lost in a storm and ended up in Cambodia. The Buddha made it’s way through several hands after that: Ayutthaya, Kamphaeng Phet, Lao and finally Chiang Rai. It was finally in Chiang Rai that the ruler of the city hid it.

It wasn’t until 1434 that sources indicate the resurfacing of the statue in Northern Thailand. There is one story about the discovery: “lightning struck a pagoda in a temple in Chiang Rai, after which something became visible under the stucco. The Emerald Buddha was dug out and the people thought the figurine was made from emerald, hence its current name.”

Although, the Buddha is just a simple jade statue, it is dressed with garments that are made of fine gold. The Buddha’s clothing are changed by the King of Thailand, to celebrate the chaning of seasons. This occurs three times a year: 1st Waning of Lunar Month 4, 8 and 12

Do you seriously want to build muscle without weights? This is something which some people will say is impossible, but it can definitely be done if you take the time to learn the right methods. Here are the basics you need to be able to build muscle without weights, from right now.

1-Basics

It is even possible to build muscle without weights with the traditional simple forms of exercise &ndash exercises which need no special equipment, and which can be done anywhere. These include such exercises as sit ups, press ups etc. These are no going to turn you from a weakling into a champion bodybuilder, but if you are not used to exercising your body, they can be a great way to start. As with any form of exercise, you need regular workouts to see results.

2-Arms

Although these general exercises are beneficial, to see real results you will need to concentrate on specific muscle groups. This is the best way to build muscle without weights. Building up the biceps, which is a common starting point amongst aspiring bodybuilders, is not easily done without weights. Probably the best way of going about this is just to use something in place of the weights, such as cans of food. Put the cans into a bag, and you have a makeshift weight to lift.

3-Chest

Every bodybuilder wants to work their chest, as this is what gives the appearance of a well built body. To effectively build muscle without weights for your chest, the muscles called the pectoral muscles, one of the simple possibilities is to make regular press ups harder to do. One easy way of accomplishing this is to put your feet up on a chair, making all the weight go in to your arms. You will find these a lot harder to do than the standard press up, so be prepared.

4-Shoulders

The shoulders will definitely benefit from basic exercises such as press ups, and even more so from inclined press ups. One way to go beyond this is to add pull ups. So many people find these exercises hard to perform, so they definitely have the potential to build muscle without weights. To get the very best results from your pull ups, you will need to widen your grips, so that the weight is concentrated in the shoulder area. This will make sure that the effort you are putting in gets the best possible result, by being directed to the right area. It is hard work, though.

It is certainly not difficult to start to build muscle without weights, and you can start this way without needing to invest in gym memberships or home equipment. Click the links below for some great extra resources.

Hide and Seek is a wonderful game to play with your children. The next time you play this game observe what happens. If you are the person hiding your eyes and counting to 10, feel what happens to your heart as you look for your children.

If you pay attention, my hunch is that your heart and imagination will heighten. Since you cannot see your children in front of you, a movement from the perceptual world to the intuitive world becomes your path into soul. You are, now, being guided from within. In soul, you will feel your heart come alive. You will feel your heart open. And, you will experience your heart become ONE with your children.

1. Feel Your Heart.

Close your eyes and place your attention on your heart. Look at your heart from within using the inner vision of your mind, and not, the ones you use in the material world. This simple act of noticing and placing your attention on your heart enables you to feel your heart.

2. Feel Your Heart Open.

The next time you hug someone you care deeply about, feel how warm and open your heart becomes. It is a similar feeling you get when you receive good news or visit someone you haven’t seen in a long time. An open heart is able to receive the love and attention of another person who wants the same. This mutual receiving and giving love connect hearts as one cohesive unit.

3. A Unified Heart.

A heart in unity with the world, itself, and others around it knows wholeness. Wholeness is the feeling of being ONE with all that is alive and well. It is the feeling of being loved, blessed, known, and cared for. This feeling of being connected to the unified whole called the universe is our ability to identify beyond our own individualized selves. This transcendent state of being creates an awareness of what infuses our heart with eternal love.

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Notice what happens when you play Hide and Seek with a small child. The closer you get to finding them, the more you will feel your heart. Your heart will open to a channel of expression and experience where physical eyesight is no longer necessary. This guiding force enabling you to feel your heart, allow your heart to open, and create a path merging two hearts as ONE is the heart of soul.

Sam Oliver, author of, “A Fish Named Ed”

My right: Universal elementary education

A plight on Indian universal elementary education system

The god has created this wonderful universe. In this universe he/she has sent human to live. In human he/she has inserted an organ named brain. The brain generates ideas, these come from knowledge and finally knowledge can be gather only and only by education. Thus education is a basic fundamental need of human to live natural life.

In future, India is going to be largest population hub of world. Are we providing our new born brains that knowledge which they deserve? “My Right” deals with this aspect of future’s India. Right to education has become fundamental right in Indian statues books in 2002, as once Indian parliament had given its approval to 86th constitutional amendment in 2002 under article 21A of constitution. According to this every Indian child 6-14 year of age has fundamental right to free and compulsory education. Additional to this government of India has introduced a bill called “Right to education bill 2005”, which deal with early age child care and education for all children until they acquired the age of six. It also says that, it is the fundamental duty of every Indian parent to provide equal opportunities to his/her children of age of 6-14years to get education.

Please look into this for my sake.

Population

(6-14years) 226204139

Below poverty line

Population(6-14 years) 56573568

(25%)

Total of students

(primary) 149400000

Number of schools

(primary) 664041

Number of teachers

(primary) 2900000

Teacher/students ratio 40/teacher

Children not able to attend

the school (primary) 76804139

(33.9%)

%of girls out of school 39%

Expenditure on education 4.02% GDP

Source: census 2001&: UNICEF statistical year book

What are the reasons behind this all?

1. 25% of Indian population still live below poverty line means
2. The low adoption of modern education system by Muslims.

India is a multi religions nation.

a) % of religion based population

b) %of illiteracy among 6-14year

Above facts clearly tell the whole tale itself. 30.8% of my Muslim friends are remaining illiterate in target age for universal elementary education campaign (6-14 year). This is highest among all religious population in India. It is largely because, Muslims prefer theirs religious education over modern education.

3. Gender bias ness.

The Indian society is fully male dominant. The gender equation always tilts towards male section of society, decline sex ratio; numbers of women in different parts of society to government position is clear cut message of bias ness towards women in my part of world. This is also a hurdle in making my school/class fully humane. (Where every child of age 6-14 year can attend it

without any consideration of caste, creed, religion and gender).Please go through it. After making every girl child into school/class room, then and only than we can see education for all in real sense.

primary school

enrollment rate Primary completion

rates Youth illiteracy Rate (% of people aged 15-24)

Male

91

85

20.3

Female

76

69

35.2

Source: world Bank

4. Urban based education system.

Education system of India is urban centric, Every financial capable Indian parent want to send theirs kids to these urban schooling, so big gap has been created in favors of urban because all good schools, educational institutions and universities are based in urban areas.

Who is caring for me?

The education in India is subject of all and none to responsibility. As per Indian constitution education fall in concurrent list, which mean federal and state governments has its say on this all important subject of human development. Following are my care takers.

1. Federal government.

2. State government.

3. International agencies (united nations)

4. Private sectors.

What are being done for my sake?

1. Sarv shiksha abhiyan(Indian universal elementary education campaign)

2. Mid day meal programme(food for education launched in 1995 and revised in 2004)

3. District Primary Education Programme (launched in November, 1994 to overhauling the primary education system in India)

4. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (Setting up unto 750 residential schools with boarding facilities at elementary level for girls belonging predominantly to the SC, ST, OBC and minorities in difficult areas.)

5. Programme of Mobilizing Local Support to Primary Schools (PLUS)(launched in 2004 to get additional local resources by local support.)

6. 86th constitutional amendment in 2002 under article 21A of constitution. (every Indian child 6-14year of age has fundamental right to free and compulsory education)

7. Right to education bill 2005. (Early age child care and education for all children until they acquired the age of six.)

What I require?

As above stated programmes and schemes are being run by different federal and state governments agencies for me but still I am not able to reach school yet. So to get me enroll in school, I require following.

1. One teacher for 15 students

Students/teacher ratio Source: UNESCO

Above pictorial facts show that developed nations has always less Students/teacher ratio as compare to developing side, but some developing nations has achieved shoulder to shoulder with developed ones like China, Iraq etc. As identical to China, I require one teacher for 19 students of my class.

2. One School in one kilometer radius.

India has 2973190sq.km Land area. AS one school with in one kilo meter radius need approximately 2000000 primary schools, where as only 664041 schools are for me. This clearly means 1335959 more schools I require to get my education near to my home.

3. Free education for all

As per 86th constitutional amendment has ensured me free and compulsory education (6-14year age). But in practical rural India and some urban, it is too implemented in true sprit.

4. Common education system across India.

As in India education is subject for all but responsibility of none, because there is not a uniform education system in nation. This has made me more vulnerable when I have to move around nation in my 6-14 year’s child hood. So I need a common education system across the nation to make me easy at every part of country as same.

5. Education in my mother tongue

Language is the first barrier which a child has to face in his/her school entrance in India. If it is removed than I may really not fear to attend my school as I do now. Which in latter becomes substantial reason of my drop out from schools.

Where lay my future?

My future is lying in your hands. The world fraternity has pledged in April 2000 at Dakar (Senegal), education for all unto 2015 A.D. Where as my Indian education planners has set 2010A.D for me to be in school/class room. Last not the least is my humble request to all who are concerned with this mission “education for all” that kindly look into above plight, so that my right for universal elementary education will be available to my every brethren and sisters at the time of theirs birth.

Plighted by

An Indian child of 1967

E- mail:drawatabcnewsnetwork.com

If you’ve ever been around someone who is persistently miserable you’ll find that they have a working strategy for making their experience unpleasant for themselves.

This article will give a few explanations why they use a strategy that makes them miserable, how that process works, and if this describes you, why you might want to change. It will also describe what you’ll have to sacrifice if you no longer want to be miserable.

Also, if the benefits of being miserable are enough you’ll learn how to continue to make choices and decisions that contribute to your misery.

The Benefits of Misery.

It’s hard to believe that there are benefits to feeling bad but the fact is that there are. Some of these benefits include:

* Uniqueness. If you are suffering you at least can see yourself as special and even persecuted.

* Righteousness. If you are miserable because of something outside of your control you can hold it up as a banner and proclaim that you must be right to have such an enemy.

* Blame. As long as your misery can be something external to you then you can blame it for all your problems. This releases the burden of self-reflection and change.

* Familiarity. Sometimes misery is the only thing that seems familiar. Getting rid of it would mean launching yourself is a completely unfamiliar territory and might mean new things about yourself that you had never considered before.

* Misery is easy. There are very few people who go through life and are naturally happy. Those that are have found a strategy that works for them often after a lot of effort. It takes some work to change ones thinking process.

How to make decisions that make you feel miserable.

* Ask a series of miserable questions of yourself like

“What could go wrong about today?”

“What do I have to feel guilty about?”

“Why do bad things always happen to me?”

“Why am I feeling so terrible?”

* Make vague and unreasonable expectations and goals.

By making a goal or expectation unreasonable you’ll make it impossible to achieve. By making them vague you’ll never know exactly if you achieve them and you’ll always be able to say “No, that’s not what I meant.”

* Think the worst first.

For any event that occurs you have a million ways of thinking about it. Go for the worst possible interpretation. For example, if you walk into a store and teenagers are outside laughing and smoking cigarettes they are probably laughing at you.

* Cling to past hurts.

Progress can be easily inhibited when you use past hurt of slow you down. These can take the form of lingering on why your life has been so terrible or even by saying “We’ve never done it that way before. Why start now?”

Why you might want to stop feeling miserable.

* Without a doubt misery is the number one cause of suicide. If you want to live you want to get rid of your misery.

* You will have more power (much, much more) and control over your life if you stop all the misery producing processes and take responsibility for your life.

How to stop making miserable decisions.

* Set reasonable goals using the S.M.A.R.T. goals process. If you don’t know what this is do a google search.

* Know when your emotions are trying to influence away from your goals and work to keep your focus.

* Agree to take responsibility for your life and especially for your emotions. This is very hard work but very rewarding.

What you will have to give up when you stop making miserable decisions.

* You will have to give up on the belief that your suffering makes you unique. The fact is suffering is ordinary and boring to most people. We’ve all experienced it and there is little you can say about your suffering that will make us think of you for very long. What is exceptional and unique is someone who makes no excuses for their life and decides to excel and feel joy AS A CHOICE.

* You will have to give up blame. This means blaming anyone or anything. It means even giving up blaming yourself.

* You will have to give up on fear and timidity. Only boldness and audacity can overcome a longstanding habit of misery.

Final note.

While all of this may seem vary callus and cold it’s important to point out that this is not an essay by which you should judge other people but only yourself. Bad things do happen to good people and it’s a good idea to help them when you can. On the other hand, if you find someone who is persistently and habitually miserable it’s generally a good idea to keep your distance from them lest they infect you with their misery and, beleive me, they can do that more easily than you think.

Occam’s (or Ockham’s) razor is a principle named after the 14th century mathematician and friar, William of Occam. Ockham was the village in this English County where he was born. There are many resources to investigate this man and his theories. This is not about him but his thinking. Thinkers are important to the world. Over thinking something can be the death of it.

Most people have never heard of this and yet with the logical thinkers of today it is almost built into our genetic code. We know things without realizing how or why we do. The universe as a whole is almost emanating this into our very souls. Our brains absorbing codes that alter our thinking giving the same idea to the masses at the same time. I don’t completely understand everything. When I hear something my brain lets me know that logically the information is even viable. The brain will calculate out many different scenarios. You will start to evaluate your own opinions, theories and reason as to why one thing sounds right vs. the other. The Occam’s razor is a logical way of thinking.

Short excerpts from the 14th century theory:

“If you have two theories which both explain the observed facts then you should use the simplest until more evidence comes along”

“The simplest explanation for some phenomenon is more likely to be accurate than more complicated explanations.”

“If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, pick the simplest.”

“The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct.”

“Keep things simple!”

You have heard many of these concepts built in to many popular slogans and methods of achieving a goal. The Occam’s Razor does not only have to applied to only scientific experiments but it can be applied to every day life.

This is a great scholarly way of looking at things. The way you look at things dictates how you decipher, translate and learn things. Then if you can learn things you can implement them into discovering the worlds secrets.

Countess Erszebet Bathory was a breathtakingly beautiful, unusually well-educated woman, married to a descendant of Vlad Dracula of Bram Stoker fame. In 1611, she was tried - though, being a noblewoman, not convicted - in Hungary for slaughtering 612 young girls. The true figure may have been 40-100, though the Countess recorded in her diary more than 610 girls and 50 bodies were found in her estate when it was raided.

The Countess was notorious as an inhuman sadist long before her hygienic fixation. She once ordered the mouth of a talkative servant sewn. It is rumoured that in her childhood she witnessed a gypsy being sewn into a horse’s stomach and left to die.

The girls were not killed outright. They were kept in a dungeon and repeatedly pierced, prodded, pricked, and cut. The Countess may have bitten chunks of flesh off their bodies while alive. She is said to have bathed and showered in their blood in the mistaken belief that she could thus slow down the aging process.

Her servants were executed, their bodies burnt and their ashes scattered. Being royalty, she was merely confined to her bedroom until she died in 1614. For a hundred years after her death, by royal decree, mentioning her name in Hungary was a crime.

Cases like Barothy’s give the lie to the assumption that serial killers are a modern - or even post-modern - phenomenon, a cultural-societal construct, a by-product of urban alienation, Althusserian interpellation, and media glamorization. Serial killers are, indeed, largely made, not born. But they are spawned by every culture and society, molded by the idiosyncrasies of every period as well as by their personal circumstances and genetic makeup.

Still, every crop of serial killers mirrors and reifies the pathologies of the milieu, the depravity of the Zeitgeist, and the malignancies of the Leitkultur. The choice of weapons, the identity and range of the victims, the methodology of murder, the disposal of the bodies, the geography, the sexual perversions and paraphilias - are all informed and inspired by the slayer’s environment, upbringing, community, socialization, education, peer group, sexual orientation, religious convictions, and personal narrative. Movies like “Born Killers”, “Man Bites Dog”, “Copycat”, and the Hannibal Lecter series captured this truth.

Serial killers are the quiddity and quintessence of malignant narcissism.

Yet, to some degree, we all are narcissists. Primary narcissism is a universal and inescapable developmental phase. Narcissistic traits are common and often culturally condoned. To this extent, serial killers are merely our reflection through a glass darkly.

In their book “Personality Disorders in Modern Life”, Theodore Millon and Roger Davis attribute pathological narcissism to “a society that stresses individualism and self-gratification at the expense of community … In an individualistic culture, the narcissist is ‘God’s gift to the world’. In a collectivist society, the narcissist is ‘God’s gift to the collective’”.

Lasch described the narcissistic landscape thus (in “The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an age of Diminishing Expectations”, 1979):

“The new narcissist is haunted not by guilt but by anxiety. He seeks not to inflict his own certainties on others but to find a meaning in life. Liberated from the superstitions of the past, he doubts even the reality of his own existence … His sexual attitudes are permissive rather than puritanical, even though his emancipation from ancient taboos brings him no sexual peace.

Fiercely competitive in his demand for approval and acclaim, he distrusts competition because he associates it unconsciously with an unbridled urge to destroy … He (harbours) deeply antisocial impulses. He praises respect for rules and regulations in the secret belief that they do not apply to himself. Acquisitive in the sense that his cravings have no limits, he … demands immediate gratification and lives in a state of restless, perpetually unsatisfied desire.”

The narcissist’s pronounced lack of empathy, off-handed exploitativeness, grandiose fantasies and uncompromising sense of entitlement make him treat all people as though they were objects (he “objectifies” people). The narcissist regards others as either useful conduits for and sources of narcissistic supply (attention, adulation, etc.) - or as extensions of himself.

Similarly, serial killers often mutilate their victims and abscond with trophies - usually, body parts. Some of them have been known to eat the organs they have ripped - an act of merging with the dead and assimilating them through digestion. They treat their victims as some children do their rag dolls.

Killing the victim - often capturing him or her on film before the murder - is a form of exerting unmitigated, absolute, and irreversible control over it. The serial killer aspires to “freeze time” in the still perfection that he has choreographed. The victim is motionless and defenseless. The killer attains long sought “object permanence”. The victim is unlikely to run on the serial assassin, or vanish as earlier objects in the killer’s life (e.g., his parents) have done.

In malignant narcissism, the true self of the narcissist is replaced by a false construct, imbued with omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. The narcissist’s thinking is magical and infantile. He feels immune to the consequences of his own actions. Yet, this very source of apparently superhuman fortitude is also the narcissist’s Achilles heel.

The narcissist’s personality is chaotic. His defense mechanisms are primitive. The whole edifice is precariously balanced on pillars of denial, splitting, projection, rationalization, and projective identification. Narcissistic injuries - life crises, such as abandonment, divorce, financial difficulties, incarceration, public opprobrium - can bring the whole thing tumbling down. The narcissist cannot afford to be rejected, spurned, insulted, hurt, resisted, criticized, or disagreed with.

Likewise, the serial killer is trying desperately to avoid a painful relationship with his object of desire. He is terrified of being abandoned or humiliated, exposed for what he is and then discarded. Many killers often have sex - the ultimate form of intimacy - with the corpses of their victims. Objectification and mutilation allow for unchallenged possession.

Devoid of the ability to empathize, permeated by haughty feelings of superiority and uniqueness, the narcissist cannot put himself in someone else’s shoes, or even imagine what it means. The very experience of being human is alien to the narcissist whose invented False Self is always to the fore, cutting him off from the rich panoply of human emotions.

Thus, the narcissist believes that all people are narcissists. Many serial killers believe that killing is the way of the world. Everyone would kill if they could or were given the chance to do so. Such killers are convinced that they are more honest and open about their desires and, thus, morally superior. They hold others in contempt for being conforming hypocrites, cowed into submission by an overweening establishment or society.

The narcissist seeks to adapt society in general - and meaningful others in particular - to his needs. He regards himself as the epitome of perfection, a yardstick against which he measures everyone, a benchmark of excellence to be emulated. He acts the guru, the sage, the “psychotherapist”, the “expert”, the objective observer of human affairs. He diagnoses the “faults” and “pathologies” of people around him and “helps” them “improve”, “change”, “evolve”, and “succeed” - i.e., conform to the narcissist’s vision and wishes.

Serial killers also “improve” their victims - slain, intimate objects - by “purifying” them, removing “imperfections”, depersonalizing and dehumanizing them. This type of killer saves its victims from degeneration and degradation, from evil and from sin, in short: from a fate worse than death.

The killer’s megalomania manifests at this stage. He claims to possess, or have access to, higher knowledge and morality. The killer is a special being and the victim is “chosen” and should be grateful for it. The killer often finds the victim’s ingratitude irritating, though sadly predictable.

In his seminal work, “Aberrations of Sexual Life” (originally: “Psychopathia Sexualis”), quoted in the book “Jack the Ripper” by Donald Rumbelow, Kraft-Ebbing offers this observation:

“The perverse urge in murders for pleasure does not solely aim at causing the victim pain and - most acute injury of all - death, but that the real meaning of the action consists in, to a certain extent, imitating, though perverted into a monstrous and ghastly form, the act of defloration. It is for this reason that an essential component … is the employment of a sharp cutting weapon; the victim has to be pierced, slit, even chopped up … The chief wounds are inflicted in the stomach region and, in many cases, the fatal cuts run from the vagina into the abdomen. In boys an artificial vagina is even made … One can connect a fetishistic element too with this process of hacking … inasmuch as parts of the body are removed and … made into a collection.”

Yet, the sexuality of the serial, psychopathic, killer is self-directed. His victims are props, extensions, aides, objects, and symbols. He interacts with them ritually and, either before or after the act, transforms his diseased inner dialog into a self-consistent extraneous catechism. The narcissist is equally auto-erotic. In the sexual act, he merely masturbates with other - living - people’s bodies.

The narcissist’s life is a giant repetition complex. In a doomed attempt to resolve early conflicts with significant others, the narcissist resorts to a restricted repertoire of coping strategies, defense mechanisms, and behaviors. He seeks to recreate his past in each and every new relationship and interaction. Inevitably, the narcissist is invariably confronted with the same outcomes. This recurrence only reinforces the narcissist’s rigid reactive patterns and deep-set beliefs. It is a vicious, intractable, cycle.

Correspondingly, in some cases of serial killers, the murder ritual seemed to have recreated earlier conflicts with meaningful objects, such as parents, authority figures, or peers. The outcome of the replay is different to the original, though. This time, the killer dominates the situation.

The killings allow him to inflict abuse and trauma on others rather than be abused and traumatized. He outwits and taunts figures of authority - the police, for instance. As far as the killer is concerned, he is merely “getting back” at society for what it did to him. It is a form of poetic justice, a balancing of the books, and, therefore, a “good” thing. The murder is cathartic and allows the killer to release hitherto repressed and pathologically transformed aggression - in the form of hate, rage, and envy.

But repeated acts of escalating gore fail to alleviate the killer’s overwhelming anxiety and depression. He seeks to vindicate his negative introjects and sadistic superego by being caught and punished. The serial killer tightens the proverbial noose around his neck by interacting with law enforcement agencies and the media and thus providing them with clues as to his identity and whereabouts. When apprehended, most serial assassins experience a great sense of relief.

Serial killers are not the only objectifiers - people who treat others as objects. To some extent, leaders of all sorts - political, military, or corporate - do the same. In a range of demanding professions - surgeons, medical doctors, judges, law enforcement agents - objectification efficiently fends off attendant horror and anxiety.

Yet, serial killers are different. They represent a dual failure - of their own development as full-fledged, productive individuals - and of the culture and society they grow in. In a pathologically narcissistic civilization - social anomies proliferate. Such societies breed malignant objectifiers - people devoid of empathy - also known as “narcissists”.

Personality disorders are like tips of icebergs. They rest on a foundation of causes and effects, interactions and events, emotions and cognitions, functions and dysfunctions that together form the patient and make him or her what s/he is.

The DSM uses five axes to analyze, classify, and describe these data. The patient (or subject) presents himself to a mental health diagnostician, is evaluated, tests are administered, questionnaires fulfilled, and a diagnosis rendered. The diagnostician uses the DSM’s five axes to “make sense” and meaningfully organize of the information he had gathered in this process.

Axis I demands that he specify all the patient’s clinical mental health problems that are not personality disorders or mental retardation. Thus, Axis I includes issues first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence; cognitive problems (e.g., delirium, dementia, amnesia); mental disorders due to a medical condition (for instance, dysfunctions caused by brain injury or metabolic diseases); substance-related disorders; schizophrenia and psychosis; mood disorders; anxiety and panic; somatoform disorders; factitious disorders; dissociative disorders; sexual paraphilias; eating disorders; impulse control problems and adjustment issues.

We will discuss Axis II at length in our next articles. It comprises personality disorders and mental retardation (interesting conjunction!).

If the patient suffers from medical conditions that affect his state of mind and mental health, these are noted under Axis III. Some psychological problems are directly caused by medical issues (hyperthyroidism causes depression). In other cases, the latter are concurrent with or exacerbate the former. Virtually all biological illnesses may provoke changes in the patient’s psychological make-up, behavior, cognitive functioning, and emotional landscape.

But the machinery of life - both body and “soul” - is reactive as well as proactive. It is molded by one’s psychosocial circumstances and environment. Life crises, stresses, deficiencies, and inadequate support all conspire to destabilize and, if sufficiently harsh, ruin one’s mental health. The DSM enumerates dozens of adverse influences that should be recorded by the diagnostician under Axis IV: death in the family or of a close friend; health problems; divorce; remarriage; abuse; doting or smothering parenting; neglect; sibling rivalry; social isolation; discrimination; life cycle transition (such as retirement); unemployment; workplace bullying; housing or economic problems; limited or no access to health care services; incarceration or litigation; traumas and many more events and situations.

Finally, the DSM recognizes that the clinician’s direct impression of the patient is at least as important as any “objective” data he may gather during the evaluation phase. Axis V allows the diagnostician to record his judgment of “the individual’s overall level of functioning”. This, admittedly, is a vague remit, open to ambiguity and bias. To counter these risk, the DSM recommends that mental health professionals use the Global assessment of Functioning (GAF) Scale. Merely administering this structured test forces the diagnostician to formulate his views rigorously and to weed out cultural and social prejudices.

Having gone through this long and convoluted process, the therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, or social worker now has a complete picture of the subject’s life, personal history, medical background, environment, and psyche. She is now ready to move on and formally diagnose a personality disorder with or without co-morbid (concurrent) conditions.

But what is a personality disorder? There are so many of them and they strike us as either so similar or so dissimilar! What are the strands that bind them together? What are the common features of all personality disorders?

1977:

The Age of biotechnology arrives with “somatostatin” - a human growth hormone-releasing inhibitory factor, the first human protein manufactured in bacteria by Genentech, Inc. A synthetic, recombinant gene was used to clone a protein for the first time.

1978:

Genentech, Inc. and The City of Hope National Medical Center announce the successful laboratory production of human insulin using recombinant DNA technology. Hutchinson and Edgell show it is possible to introduce specific mutations at specific sites in a DNA molecule.

1979:

Sir Walter Bodmer suggests a way of using DNA technology to find gene markers to show up specific genetic diseases and their carriers. John Baxter reports cloning the gene for human growth hormone.

1980:

The prokaryote model, E. coli, is used to produce insulin and other medicine, in human form. Researchers successfully introduce a human gene - one that codes for the protein interferon- into a bacterium. The U.S. patent for gene cloning is awarded to Cohen and Boyer.

1981:

Scientists at Ohio University produce the first transgenic animals by transferring genes from other animals into mice. The first gene-synthesizing machines are developed. Chinese scientists successfully clone a golden carp fish.

1982:

Genentech, Inc. receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market genetically engineered human insulin. Applied Biosystems, Inc. introduces the first commercial gas phase protein sequencer.

1983:

The polymerase chain reaction is invented by Kary B Mullis. The first artificial chromosome is synthesized, and the first genetic markers for specific inherited diseases are found.

1984:

Chiron Corp. announces the first cloning and sequencing of the entire human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) genome. Alec Jeffreys introduces technique for DNA fingerprinting to identify individuals. The first genetically engineered vaccine is developed.

1985:

Cetus Corporation’s develops GeneAmp polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which could generate billions of copies of a targeted gene sequence in only hours. Scientists find a gene marker for cystic fibrosis on chromosome number 7.

1986:

The first genetically engineered human vaccine - Chiron’s Recombivax HB - is approved for the prevention of hepatitis B. A regiment of scientists and technicians at Caltech and Applied Biosystems, Inc. invented the automated DNA fluorescence sequencer.

1987:

The first outdoor tests on a genetically engineered bacterium are allowed. It inhibits frost formation on plants. Genentech’s tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), sold as Activase, is approved as a treatment for heart attacks.

1988:

Harvard molecular geneticists Philip Leder and Timothy Stewart awarded the first patent for a genetically altered animal, a mouse that is highly susceptible to breast cancer

1989:

UC Davis scientists develop a recombinant vaccine against the deadly rinderpest virus. The human genome project is set up, a collaboration between scientists from countries around the world to work out the whole of the human genetic code.

1990:

The first gene therapy takes place, on a four-year-old girl with an immune-system disorder called ADA deficiency. The human genome project is formally launched.

1991:

Mary-Claire King, of the University of California, Berkeley, finds evidence that a gene on chromosome 17 causes the inherited form of breast cancer and also increases the risk of ovarian cancer. Tracey the first transgenic sheep is born.

1992:

The first liver xenotransplant from one type of animal to another is carried out successfully. Chiron’s Proleukin is approved for the treatment of renal cell cancer.

1993:

The FDA declares that genetically engineered foods are “not inherently dangerous” and do not require special regulation. Chiron’s Betaseron is approved as the first treatment for multiple sclerosis in 20 years.

1994:

The first genetically engineered food product, the Flavr Savr tomato, gained FDA approval. The first breast cancer gene is discovered. Genentech’s Nutropin is approved for the treatment of growth hormone deficiency.

1995:

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center transplanted hearts from genetically altered pigs into baboons, proving that cross-species operations are possible. The bacterium Haemophilus influenzae is the first living organism in the world to have its entire genome sequenced.

1996:

Biogen’s Avonex is approved for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The discovery of a gene associated with Parkinson’s disease provides an important new avenue of research into the cause and potential treatment of the debilitating neurological ailment.

1997:

Researchers at Scotland’s Roslin Institute report that they have cloned a sheep–named Dolly–from the cell of an adult ewe. The FDA approves Rituxan, the first antibody-based therapy for cancer.

1998:

The first complete animal genome the C.elegans worm is sequenced. James Thomson at Wisconsin and John Gearhart in Baltimore each develop a technique for culturing embryonic stem cells.

1999:

A new medical diagnostic test will for the first time allow quick identification of BSE/CJD a rare but devastating form of neurologic disease transmitted from cattle to humans.

2000:

“Golden Rice,” modified to make vitamin A. Cloned pigs are born for the first time in work done by Alan Coleman and his team at PPL, the Edinburgh-based company responsible for Dolly the sheep.

2001:

The sequence of the human genome is published in Science and Nature, making it possible for researchers all over the world to begin developing genetically based treatments for disease.

2002:

Researchers sequence the DNA of rice, and is the first crop to have its genome decoded.

2003:

The sequencing of the human genome is completed.