Healing the inner tyrant

Even with so many self-help workshops available in the Shire, here’s one not yet seen: healing your inner bully, or tyrant therapy.

This unpleasant and destructive personality trait is not uncommon; it’s often a learned behaviour originating from school and upbringing and can continue through to the workforce.

As far as I can tell, tyrants are everywhere, and you have to be on constant vigilance for attack. It’s also behaviour with similar characteristics to that of sociopaths and psychopaths. Manipulation, a lack of empathy, and egocentric behaviour go hand in hand with being a bully.

For those wanting to explore psychopaths in more depth, British Columbia University professor, Robert Hare, co-wrote Snakes in Suits – a widely applauded book on how psychopaths function in the workplace. He also offers an insightful article on ‘How to spot social predators before they attack,’ hosted on www.psychologytoday.com.

In bureaucracies such as Byron Shire Council, the act of workplace bullying has been workshopped through code-of-conduct training.

The recent WorkCover NSW’s compensation payout to former manager Jocelyn Mitchell at least acknowledged that it occurred, but there’s a lot more to be done. She lost her job, car and house for speaking up; however, the perpetrator remains within Council.

It takes a brave person to go public over being abused, and this action can hopefully encourage others to speak up against the tyrants among us.

The Echo also hopes the results from Council general manager Graeme Faulkner’s ‘internal’ investigation will be made public to assure public money is not funding psychopathic behaviour.