
Originally Posted by
mikemex
Current research about bullying points to a few important areas. Most importantly, the typical profile of a bully includes:
* Strong will.
* Low anxiety levels.
* Necessity for domination.
* Need for social significance.
* Little empathy toward their victims.
* Strong sense of hierarchy, combined with aristocratic righteousness.
* Little emotional control (i.e. quick to anger).
* Suspicious attitude (i.e. interpreting other's actions as deliberately malicious).
It is quite interesting to note that the concept of bullying itself is an analogy to the erotic attitude of an "aggressor". By itself, it is not really a malicious act, but the exercise of Se applied to an interpersonal relationship. This means, in a few words, that the bully perceives the situation as a (power) game more than anything else.
Everyone needs training when it comes about using their unique talents and bullies are not an exception. They are gifted with an acute perception of the relationship between cause and effect, which is the basis for power, and they are inclined to experiment with those around them.
Their acute sense of social "weight" and pragmatism makes them to choose the weakest possible victim, in order to minimize the danger of retaliation, which gives them an strategical advantage. The bully thus experiments with different strategies of domination. Physical violence is rarely used, as the bully well knows that violence is a public, punishable act. They also know that verbal and emotional violence are rarely punished, so they try subtler methods of domination such as induced social isolation by means of humiliation. This strategy exploits the human tendency to separate people into groups, "us and them". Since the victim belongs to a foreign group, one with undesirable characteristics, people tends to avoid any kind of identification with the victim, as it offers no benefit and a potential risk of rejection. Once the victim is isolated, this is, openly ignored and/or rejected, the risk about abusing the victim is drastically reduced, often approaching zero, thus leaving the door open for any hidden sadistic tendency among the members of the dominating group.
Here it is interesting to note that such strategies are also used in other events, such as lynching. It is well documented that victims are always in a strategical weak position: they are outnumbered, socially isolated by some reason and when murder occurs, they are unable to defend themselves, i.e. unarmed and/or tied.
I'll continue later.