Americanistic Personality Disorder

[flashl]

Americanistic Personality Disorder (type 1776.0)

"Believing in their inherent superiority, they eschew laws or rules except when they can utilize them for personal gain or when they fear punishment."

Individuals with Americanistic Personality Disorder almost always rely on extortion or violence to get their needs met and to resolve conflict. Believing in their inherent superiority, they eschew laws or rules except when they can utilize them for personal gain or when they fear punishment. Given a choice between a just resolution to a situation and the opportunity to humiliate, subdue, or subjugate the other party, they will choose the latter with a high degree of frequency. They have an amazing capacity to justify their unethical or criminal behavior using false pretexts such as self defense, good intentions, ignorance of the consequences of their actions, or asserting that they were merely carrying out orders.

"Individuals with Americanistic Personality Disorder tend to manifest traits indicative of two of Erich Fromm's personality orientations. They thrive on adding to their possessions, and appreciate their acquisitions more when they attain them through coercion, theft, or manipulation, thus showing strains of Fromm's exploitative type. They also exist at a very superficial level, offering the world the "friendly face" of the marketing personality that Bernays and Madison Avenue have taught them is the most effective way of advancing their selfish agenda. Opportunism, careerism, and narcissism poison nearly all of their interactions and relationships.

Americanistic Personality Disorder appears to prevail in a very high percentage of those in the upper strata of the socioeconomic order in the United States (and to persist tenaciously because these individuals have little motivation to alter their pathological behavior as they are largely immune from the consequences of their actions). While it is epidemic amongst the opulent, this characterological deficiency does not recognize socioeconomic boundaries. Various segments of the middle, working and impoverished classes comprise a notable percentage of those exhibiting this condition, including those practicing deeply conservative Christianity, many residents of reactionary states such as those in the south, Kansas, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, and many members of the Republican Party.

Prevalence

The overall prevalence of Americanistic Personality Disorder was recently measured at approximately 35% of the overall population in the United States.

Diagnostic Criteria for 1776.0 Americanistic Personality Disorder:

A pervasive pattern of greed, selfishness, and lack of empathy, beginning the moment he or she begins to intellectualize and presented in nearly all contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. lacks empathy due to an excessive degree of self-absorption 2. believes that he or she is exceptional and morally superior
3. frequently engages in exploitative behaviors
4. requires frequent acquisition of goods he or she doesn't need
5. usually resorts to some form of overt or covert violence, coercion, or extortion to resolve conflicts
6. perceives others as obstacles to his or her "success"
7. disregards laws and rules except as a means to achieve his or her agenda
8. demonstrates deep hypocrisy by projecting a righteous, benevolent image while committing reprehensible acts
9. refuses to accept the consequences of his or her actions

Is he talking about a class of Americans or Americans in general?

[EFerrari]

1. (Sounds like the Bush base to me, by the numbers

and, I think that's a conservative estimate.)

[flashl]

6. My first thought. n/t

[Drum]

2. Wow, I've seen some of that lately. nt

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. A perfect description of residents of southern Orange County.

[lordsummerisle]

4. It just sounds like a variant of sociopath n/t

[AndyTiedye]

5. Seems More Like the RobberBaronistic Personality Disorder

and it certainly is not limited to Americans.

[Beerboy]

7. "American Exceptionalism" is a Mental Disorder.

I like it. A lot.

[L. Coyote]

8. This fits a model of stratified, complex societies generally.

In egalitarian societies, this cannot happen. The problem is stratification, with a privileged class, not unlike the royals who felt they could conquer other continents. This also is reminiscent of slave holders.

[Karenina]

9. Good points!

:thumbsup:

[flashl]

10. So ...

this is the

- wealthy, souless corporate CEOs, and / or robbers of the U.S. Treasury on the upper level railed about often here; and
- the Kansasans types in Thomas Frank's What's Wrong With Kansas?

[Perry Logan]

11. Add: Display a pathological incapacity for self-criticism.