Posted on 10/10/2023 5:10:56 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Psychological dysfunction is now valorized and embedded in our institutions. We need to understand what we’re dealing with.
There is a creeping sense that our society has turned upside-down. Healthy debate is replaced by activist hysterics. Speech is declared violence; violence is excused as speech. Masculinity is condemned as “toxic,” while men in dresses are celebrated in the public square. It feels as if we are in the midst of a society-wide mental breakdown.
One might be tempted to laugh at these manifestations as the outbursts of small but vocal minority, but the compromised health of our body politic is no trivial concern. A strange new pattern of psychological dysfunction has infiltrated all our institutions, from humdrum bureaucracies to the highest offices. Wherever we turn, that creeping feeling sets in: our society is sick; our institutions are out of balance; our public life has been consumed by a cluster of disorders that appeal to our worst instincts and derange our most vital social functions.
What happened? Why have old standards suddenly vanished in favor of narcissism, hysteria, and moral theatrics—all in the name of “care”?
If we have any hope for recovering our sanity, we must first understand what we are dealing with.
Every historical period develops unique psychological characteristics that shape public life. After World War I, we had the “Lost Generation,” shell-shocked and disillusioned. In the mid-twentieth century, we entered the “Age of Anxiety,” characterized by a sense of existential dread in the face of the atomic bomb. And 50 years ago, we saw the rise of “the culture of narcissism,” which social critic Christopher Lasch described as a society obsessed with ego, desire, and self-image.
Today, we are witnessing the emergence of something new: the “Cluster B society.” Like the culture of narcissism, our digital age has distinct psychological traits, heavily influenced by the rise of personal pathologies and the power of social media. For this generation, the cameras are always on. The audience is always watching. And the old narcissism has transformed into hysteria, moral theatrics, emotional volatility, self-indulgence, and outbursts of violence.
Psychologists have captured the spirit of our modern culture in four specific psychopathologies that, together, make up the Cluster B personality disorders: the narcissist, the borderline, the histrionic, and the antisocial.
Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a sense of entitlement, obsession with one’s own importance, and deep feelings of resentment, often expressed through moral self-righteousness. Borderline personality disorder is marked by an unstable sense of identity, black-and-white thinking, feelings of emptiness, and recurring self-harm and suicide attempts. Histrionic personality disorder exhibits excessive emotionality, sexual provocation, and attention-seeking, often to serve a pathological need for sympathy. Antisocial personality disorder is typified by impulsivity, manipulation, disregard for others, and a penchant for violence and aggression that violates social norms.
This cluster of psychopathologies is no longer an individual matter, however, to be dealt with in the privacy of the analyst’s office. On the contrary, Cluster B psychological traits have begun to shape the patterns and structures of our culture. The scenes of American public life increasingly resemble a Cluster B psychodrama: victimhood replaces accomplishment as the standard of merit; accusation replaces disagreement as the means of settling disputes; false compassion becomes the primary method of manipulating citizens into compliance; and the whole scheme is enforced with the threat of violence: obey, or suffer the consequences...
It seems that mental derangement has now been normalized in society.
I blame it all on “selfies”.
Screaming hags and girly men.
I find that people are too self-focused and it makes them miserable. They self-diagnose themselves with Imposter Syndrome, Autism, Anxiety, various fatigue diseases and Suicide Ideation. I know Zoomers who think they won’t live 10 more years because of Global WarmingCooling. So many from Zoomers to Boomers just wants to get drugged up.
I don’t think society in general has embraced these pathologies, but governments sure have! That’s where it all begins. We have absolute psychos in the highest offices and there are certain people who get all their guidance from government (sheepies). Because these insane bureaucrats think dudes in dresses, competing in women’s sports, peacefully rioting and burning down cities, gluing hands to artwork, sitting in the middle of a busy freeway and/or men having babies is “perfectly normal”, the abnormal as of society feel vindicated and “seen”.
I call it Cluster Eff....
Closing society for a cold sure help.
Gym closed, alcohol delivery open.
Extra time for people to spend on social media.
Ted Kaczynski was right in the first half of his book.
Second half, not so much…
I hoped for him to give an explanation of how this is planned by leftists desiring the destruction of social order and Western Civilization.
even celebrated
Sorry to say it, but it is no coincidence that this sort of insanity has increased proportionally with the increase of women in positions of power and authority.
American society has become deeply dysfunctional.
Excellent article!
I agree 10000%, and I am a real woman. I think the majority of us (women) are vindictive and petty, and are driven by emotions and not facts.
Speaking of hysteria...
Someone was murdered in our neighborhood last Friday, right on the main road thru the ‘hood. Police have been shy with facts, but it was possibly a drug deal gone bad. I didn’t find out about it until yesterday because I don’t pay attention to the neighborhood theatrics. When I finally heard it on the radio, I visited the neighborhood’s private Facebook page (thru my wife’s acct). Good golly, you’d think someone had set off a nuclear weapon on the main road. Just a jumble of overboard rantings and demands upto and including buying the city’s streets in here, turning the neighbor private, putting up gates, hiring guards, installing license plate readers and cameras with facial recognition. One woman announced she was running for the HOA board, vowing to “never let anything like this to happen again”. She also wants to raise HOA dues extremely high just to keep the “riff-raff” from living in here.
People are idiots/nuts.
He hints at it, but I think his observation also works the other way around:
"As psychologists have long known, a clear link exists between violent, narcissistic personalities and attraction to left-wing authoritarianism. The former serves as the desire, the latter as the rationalization."
and here i thought we were a “Cluster F” society
“ What happened? Why have old standards suddenly vanished in favor of narcissism, hysteria, and moral theatrics—all in the name of “care”?”
Libtardism
Next question
I thought the explanation of modern societal dysfunction is a consequence of the origin of humanity as colonists from the Golgafrinchan B Ark Ship.
We’re getting there.
Long ago, historian Flavius Josephus referred to the problem as “the madness of those that were for innovations.”
The quote is from “War of the Jews” Book 7, Chapter 1, Section 1
https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/flavius-josephus/war-of-the-jews/book-7/chapter-1.html
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