From: Kennita Watson (kwatson@netcom.com)
Date: Tue Dec 31 1996 - 09:46:11 MST
Anders Sandberg wrote, re focused attention:
>> Hmm, I think this is a very common technique. ...
>> Once you look for it, it is everywhere.
>
>Excellent example. In fact, the reason we do a lot of things, including
>posting to this mail list, is because of the status it gets us, which we
>can sense by the level of attention we get.
Note -- "level", not "amount". I used to worry about the fact that I made
so many posts that nobody responded to until I started asking people if
they were ignoring them because they were so inane. More often they seemed
to like the post and just to have little to add. It seems that I get more
overt attention when people disagree than when they agree.
Keith, perhaps you can add to your draft a further explanation of the success
of run-you-down trainings like EST -- even if the attention is negative,
it's attention, and many people crave attention. Actually, negative attention
may be _more_ effective (at least as an initial hook) for those with low
self-esteem; from my own experience with Lifespring, I recall that I responded
to criticism-bombing with remorse, resignation, and a sense that the people
doing it knew me very well (and a determination to do better so they would
think better of me in the future, which was probably the main intent of the
instructors), but to praise-bombing with complete rejection and panic --
actually, I don't think I'd have screamed any more if they'd been flaying
my skin off. I think I was an extreme case, but in degree, not in kind.
I got better. I'm still struggling with self-esteem issues, so I might still
be vulnerable to a workshop attack, but I've definitely made progress.
Kennita
Kennita Watson | The bond that links your true family is not one of blood,
kwatson@netcom.com| but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do
| members of the same family grow up under the same roof.
| -- Richard Bach, _Illusions_
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