Manic people are afraid of two things: of making a mistake, and of depending on feelings and on the people close to them. On the one hand, they have an inner need to care for their nearest and dearest. And at the same time there is a fear of those close to them: they are very afraid of falling into dependence. And they do fall into it rather easily. So first and foremost they try to distance themselves from the people close to them, to keep them within the frame of the system.
People of the Manic type prefer not to love their children but to bring them up, and they consider this more correct and more useful from life's point of view. In reality they do love their children, but showing that love — especially when it does not fit into the system — is very hard for them. That is why physical contact (a stroke of the hand, a hug) is often not the done thing in the families of Manic people: they pull away from it themselves and try to hold the other person still.
Their neighbours in the “violated right”, Compulsive people, also behave within the frame of the system. They too try to hold all these expressions back, but if the system begins to approve of them, they relax and start showing emotions and feelings. That is, Compulsive people are a little more open to certain kinds of change.
The main defense mechanism of the manic personality type is Denial. One of the chief arguments of a manic person:
“This does not exist, because it cannot exist.” “This is not so, because things are never like that.”
How do you “spot” people of the manic personality type? By their verbal “manoeuvres”, of course. Every type has its own characteristic manipulations in speech. With the Judges — that is, with the Manic types — they are these phrases:
- “Such behaviour deserves punishment”
- “It is not I who am punishing you, it is the system that is punishing you”
- “It is not that I think you are wrong, it simply does not fit our general line or our central idea”
- “It was not Stalin who put you away, so it is not for him to let you out.”
- “Here I am the Law.” “I embody the law” — that is, exact adherence to and observance of the letter of the law. Not so much defence lawyers as jurists, prosecuting counsel, public prosecutors.
They can also be identified by their appearance. It is sharp, severe, rigid. Looking at these people, one sometimes gets the feeling that they have been impaled on a stake. The upper half of the body is fixed, the upper part is locked in place, and they carry themselves a little stiffly all the time. This applies to men and to women alike.
