Extremism - What makes a person an extremist is their extreme preoccupation.
References:
Frank Rochford said: “Before I had my Recovery training the fear of making mistakes was, with me, the preoccupation of my every waking moment. It was an obsession with me, my every waking moment was devoted to past, present and future mistakes.”
from Selections from Dr. Low's Works page 108
“Being a nervous patient, you are always preoccupied with your disability. This preoccupation is a kind of worry which hardly ever leaves you.”
from Mental Health Through Will Training, The Myth of "Nervous Fatigue", chapter 42, page 341 in the 1997 edition
“A patient suffering as much as she did naturally turns inside and becomes constantly, forever preoccupied with her inner trouble, with her own suffering. And there is no time left to think of somebody else or of something else. And this massive preoccupation with oneself means that all the interests of the person are centered on herself. And many of you - if not all of you - know that from personal experience, that while you suffered, you had either no or very little interest in anything or in anybody except yourself. That's understood.”
from Manage Your Fears, Manage Your Anger, The Fear of Heart Disease (part 1), lecture 59, page 375
“Obviously, some factor operating in nervous patients upsets the pulse of their sensations and interrupts the stream of their thoughts. That factor is an abiding sense of insecurity, producing, through concentrated preoccupation, sustained tenseness and preventing the nervous system from relaxing.”
from Mental Health Through Will Training, Sabotage Method No. 9: Failure to Practice Muscle Control, chapter 41, page 328 in the 1997 edition
“To cure a nervous patient means to change his mental attitude, that is, to make him drop his romanticisms and intellectualisms and to substitute a realistic outlook. If this is accomplished, a mental attitude of self-trust is installed, and the physical and mental tools of the body can then aim straight at their goals, without fear, without self-consciousness, without morbid preoccupation.”
from Selections from Dr. Low's Works, Bodily Tools and Mental Attitudes, page 48
