Hi all. I'm a psychiatrist. My main area of clinical work is emergency psychiatry, and my main research interest is functional brain imaging. I'd like to start a discussion about the karma thread, which I see as a serious danger. In a nutshell:

Karma whoring is a crime which sometimes hinges directly on feelings of power over the victim. That power often loses its meaning if the victim is unconscious. Many karma whores typically need a victim who knows they are being victimized. This victim is the karma whores audience. This is crucial. The audience gives the whore pleasure, euphoric delight from unfettered, witnessed lowly earned karma. That euphoria is intense and is possibly driven by the same neurobiology involved in a drug high.

Now, when Reddit invites karma whores to retell their stories, they offer an audience of thousands. The possibility that individuals reading these stories will be horrified afresh is very appealing to some karma whores. It’s neurobiologically very much like anticipating drug use.

Note: the audience doesn’t actually need to be horrified. In the mind of the karma whore, the possibility of horrifying an audience is what is appealing.