The Barford Syndrome

In Which Dr Welsh Remotely Explains the Barford Syndrome and Director Houghton Makes an Offer and an Admission

http://paul-barford.blogspot.com/2013/10/dr-welsh-remotely-explains-barford.html
by Paul Barford

Dealer Dave offers the latest diagnosis of this blog. 

My wife holds a doctorate in psychology, and she has explained to me that such behavior reveals a personality disorder characterized by narcissism and unrealistic, irrational fantasizing. 

Apparently, Dr Welsh is indeed in this with Dealer Dave. From half-way across the world, without even meeting me the US psychologist has come up with a professional diagnosis. She considers what I write here to be "irrational fantasising" (rather like the wild stories her own husband makes up about other people). I'd say her diagnostic skills would be better placed looking at the man who lives in the same tree-shadowed cul-de-sac bungalow with her whose writings reveal dark fantasies about stringing up Department of State authorities "from the lamp-posts of Constitution Avenue" and all-too-frequent reference to Nazi-related imagery. I would say she not look so far as to far-off Poland for a prime example of an individual with "a personality disorder characterized by narcissism and unrealistic, irrational fantasizing".

The Tompa blog Sock-puppet-Houghton suggests that here in Europe, as in the US, we need to pay for basic healthcare. Inferring from Dr Susan's remote diagnosis of my alleged condition: 

If I understand correctly, Paul Barford may have a clinical disorder, and should seek treatment as soon as possible,

he patronisingly offers some help with setting up an ACCG "Barford Therapy Fund". He claims he can afford this condescending gesture because " I have some money saved up from the sale of one or two antiquities I made some years ago". I would suggest Mr Houghton's money, wherever it comes from, would do more good spent in the USA where there are people who cannot afford proper health care which the state inexplicably does not supply (too busy spending the money on political assassination drones no doubt). I suggest Mr Houghton contacts ACCG's new friend Dick Stout, as he is trying to raise such money for one of his new friends whose son's need is certainly greater than mine and she has shown herself to be a friend of the collectors' cause.

It is interesting to note that the director of the American Cultural Property Research Institute apparently admits to being involved in dealing in antiquities. Surely a clash of interests there? What next, the director of a leading US medical research centre getting involved in trafficking human organs? 



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COMMENTARY
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Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder in which the individual is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity. This condition affects one percent of the population. First formulated in 1968, it was historically called megalomania, and is severe egocentrism.

Description

Persons diagnosed with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder are characterized by unwarranted feelings of self-importance. They have a sense of entitlement and demonstrate grandiosity in their beliefs and behavior. They have a strong need for admiration, but lack feelings of empathy. These qualities are usually defenses against a deep feeling of inferiority and of being unloved.

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Mr. Barford's almost hysterical reaction strikes one as being very revealing. Clearly any discussion of his possibly being mentally abnormal, which a great many individuals believe is indeed the case, is extremely distressing to him and demands an instant, vehemently attacking riposte. 

It seems to this observer that this reaction, taken in the context of the above information regarding Narcissistic Personality Disorder, is sufficient for readers of this blog to judge for themselves whether Mr. Barford has a normal personality -- or whether he is perhaps affected by a disorder similar to that described above.