Wow! Reading these pages, it sounds like I'm listening to my brother again. Notice how far off we got about tickling being like heroin. True, it can be addictive, but it's so much fun and doesn't have the health consequences as heroin does.
But as for my brother, he was a fun guy to hang out with when we were both in our 20's. However, he got into the cocaine and alcohol abuse pretty heavy back then. I got alarmed while watching him running back to the table for another line every five to ten minutes. I tried to tell him about the negative personality changes from abusing cocaine, but he just looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights, bent over the table, and did another line anyway. In his early 30's he started making people the butt of his jokes, which were fine so long as he was performing them, but give him a taste of his own humor, and he'd blow up every single time.
Asked, Why did you do that to me, and you tell him the cause that preceded the effect, he would just skip right over it like he never heard it, and keep a laser like focus on the effect. The paranoia was starting to creep in to, and even bringing up the cocaine abuse again, he'd just give me the gorilla face and tune me right out. Friends were getting angry with him and he couldn't figure out why, but ask him to think back what might have been said or done five-seconds before he got that reaction, and he'd blow right up again. He said he didn't want to believe that he was responsible for the reactions he was getting from people.
Time progressed, and he claimed he was in therapy, but as these incidents of his destructive behavior and attitudes kept happening and being brought up, he'd get more steadfast and closed minded in dealing with anything. To make a long story short, I found out 20 years after the fact he never was in therapy, but manipulating a submissive looking counselor into believing he was always the victim. In learning on how to deal with people who tried to talk to him, he became even more closed minded and combative until it just wasn't any point in wanting to hang around with the guy. All that 'therapy' just made him a more confident asshole. All of his long time friends are gone, and I haven't spoken with him for a decade now myself.
He tried to write me years ago in an attempts to reconnect, but once again, he'd blow off the issues that drove me away, and instead went into a lengthy monolog itemizing all the money he was spending on his counseling, like trying to paint the illusion he was getting help while his disorders became stronger and stronger. He also tried to interject that he was a Licensed Therapist now, unaware of the fact that one of the requirements of such a degree, is a PHD in Psychology, while he dropped out of college in his first year. No schooling, no training. After all the relations he had destroyed, he's suddenly a Licensed Therapist, wanting to tell others how to run their lives. This was just another attempt at trying to paint an illusion of superiority.
Very strong narcissistic personality, and a few years ago I discovered Oppositional Defiant Disorder, while looking up something else. This fits both my brother and Grim to a tee. Oppositional Defiant obviously that no matter what you say, you will always be wrong, and he will always be right, in spite of the facts. Hence his typing by capitalizing all the words, as if he's coming from a place of superiority, the voice of reason. No one is agreeing with anything he says, but he claims to be part of the Normal majority.
Another symptom is getting pleasure out of bothering and annoying people. Hence as Grim said himself, he comes here for pleasure. He's having fun getting people riled at him. So long as he gets a reaction, he will be fed. Last but not least is not being able to hear people due to a chemical imbalance in the brain. They may hear the words, but the meaning gets distorted on the way to the processing center of the brain.
The sad part is these people will always be weak at relations with people because of this affliction. Coming back at this guy, he wants that. Don't respond, he'll give up and find someone else to pester.
P.S. In a recent article about Narcissists in a Psychology Today magazine, they suggested if you find your self involved with a narcissist, don't try to talk to them, change them or reason with them. Just get away.