Professor Sam Vaknin:
Weak people terrify me. Weakness of character is indistinguishable from evil. The weak are suggestible, malleable, mutable and, therefore highly unstable, unreliable, and untrustworthy.
People pleasing and an inability to say “no” even to the most degrading offers and demands lead the weak to reckless, disgraceful, and antisocial acts. They are enablers in the worst sense of the word: aid and abet the self-destructiveness of others.
Gradually, to survive their wracking guilt, shame, and self-loathing, they evolve into narcissists and psychopaths. They mistake defiance for boundaried assertiveness. They betray their loved ones and breach their own fragile and permeable boundaries time and again just in order to fit in and be “liked” or to counter loneliness and boredom.
Many weak folks are mentally ill. They suffer from Borderline or Dependent personality disorder, for example. But others have been conditioned by needy and selfish parents to become subservient and self-denying. ……