The Attention Seeker

Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.
Benjamin Disraeli

I'm about to finish up South of Broad by Pat Conroy. He's usually a favorite of mine, but I think he may have jumped the shark on this one. It's taking me way too long to read because I lost interest, but I'm one of those people who has to finish what she starts. Last night it revolved around bullying and I'd just read an interesting article on the subject in regards to workplace bullies. I took that to mean all those little kids on the playground who were so cruel and mean to others never matured to civility. They stayed petty and small, only in a bigger package.

These so-called adults are divided into different groups, the first being "The Attention-Seeker." Here's a partial descriptive:

The Attention-Seeker

Motivation: to be the centre of attention
Mindset: control freak, manipulation, narcissism
Malice: medium to high; when held accountable, very high

• emotionally immature
• selectively friendly - is sickly sweet to some people, rude and offhand to others, and ignores the rest
• is cold and aggressive towards anyone who sees them for what they really are or exposes their strategies for gaining attention
• overfriendly with their new target, especially in the initial stages of a new working relationship
• manipulative of people's perceptions
  
• manipulative with guilt, ditto
• sycophantic, fawning, toadying
• uses flattery to keep a person in authority on side
• capitalizes on issues and uses them as a soapbox for gaining attention
• exploits others' suffering and grief as a vehicle for gaining attention
• misappropriates others' statements, e.g. anything which can be misconstrued as politically incorrect, for control and attention-seeking
• shows a lot of indignation, especially when challenged
• often as miserable as sin, apart from carefully constructed moments of charm when in the act of deceiving
• demanding of others
• easily provoked
• may feign exclusion, isolation or persecution
• malicious
• constantly tries and will do almost anything to be in the spotlight
• the focus of their life is to be the center of attention

Just found it all interesting. What would be more interesting is to know how many of you reading this is thinking, "I know someone who fits this description perfect!" I know I did.