Some months ago, when the term "drama queen" was first raised -- and reacted to -- on this forum, I searched the Net and found and posted an interesting article on drama queenery from (I think) Scientific American.
A similar search today, on a related subject, turns up no papers or studies, but I think it's an accurate psychological phrase anyway: "confrontation addiction." It's what seems to happen to some people when -- for whatever reasons -- they become accustomed to interacting with other human beings by getting in their faces and arguing with them. I am of the opinion, given the anecdotal evidence provided by the Internet, that this is an addiction that should be ranked up there with heroin and crack cocaine use. And one as hard to "kick." I mean, haven't you encountered people like this, who seem to have fallen into a rut of provoking arguments, *just so they can have an argument*? The subject doesn't seem to matter, the victims they run this routine on don't seem to matter -- all that really *does* seem to matter is that they can get into someone's face and provoke them into arguing with them. WTF? What is the *payoff* from this? In many of these people, the payoff seems to be ego-based, believing that they "won" each of these arguments they provoke. They'll believe that they kicked the other person's butt, no matter what bystanders may tell them, or even what subsequently-revealed facts may prove. Others seem to do it more for the in-the-moment pleasure of arguing. They seem to get off on having provoked the argument, no matter who "wins" it. It's as if what they get off *on* is having forced another human being to interact with them PERIOD, even if the only way they could figure out how to do it was to provoke an argument. Me, I don't really get off on arguing. My idea of "conversation" is one person stating what he or she believes, followed by other people stating what they believe, followed by the next subject. I tend to be able to say pretty much all I have to say about any given subject in one or two exchanges, and don't understand why others feel that they need 20 or 30. And I don't have any vested interest in proving any of my opinions "right" or "better." They are what they are -- opinions. As with assholes, everybody's got one, and none of them are any cleaner or less smelly than any other. Besides, I get off on the FLOW of conversations, two or more people segueing from one topic to another seamlessly and effortlessly. It's like jazz -- taking someone's idea and "riffing on it by" taking it in another direction. And then having them "riff back" by taking your new direction and sending it off into yet another. That's cool. But taking a topic and holding on to it like a bulldog, trying to get other people to hold on to it the same way and not release it until they've squeezed every possible gram of interest out of it? Not my idea of a good time, much less anything I'm likely to become addicted to.
