D decided after talking with another friend who was a practicing psychologist in family counseling, that his ex-wife exhibited many elements of what is currently called a borderline personality disorder. Below is a link to a short article that discusses BPD and several schools of thought about the disorder for those who want more:
http://www.palace.net/llama/psych/bpd.html
>From what I watched, people like Tiger Mom destroy their children--and
anyone who shares a close social relation with them. It is in my view a
social pathology, because it breaks down the ability to socially function
within society. From what I watched over an almost ten year period was a
Tiger Mom type who used her psychological manipulation skills under the
pretense of helping her children's learning and social development, actually
perform the opposite effect.
Superficially, she appeared to be a control freak, and she was that. This was also pretty much the profile of my last boss, a Thai-Chinese woman. But it was also pretty much the same profile that fit the boss-owner of the business before her. He was just a slightly different and lesser version of the same syndrome. He was the usual white small business guy of no ethnic background, some anglo-saxon something.
So rightly or wrongly, I see an almost direct connection between these psychological types and neoliberalism mantra of competition, more, faster, harder, etc the intensification scheme that is destroying our societies.
CG