One
of the chapters in Devereux's aforementioned tome is entitled
"Schizophrenia: An Ethnic Psychosis, or Schizophrenia without
Tears". To him, the whole USA is afflicted by what came later to be
called a "schizoid disorder". C. Fred Alford (in "Narcissism:
Socrates, the Frankfurt School, and Psychoanalytic Theory", Yale
University Press, 1988) enumerates the symptoms:
"...withdrawal, emotional aloofness, hyporeactivity
(emotional flatness), sex without emotional involvement,
segmentation and partial involvement (lack of interest and
commitment to things outside oneself), fixation on oral-
stage issues, regression, infantilism and depersonalization.
These, of course, are many of the same designations that
Lasch employs to describe the culture of narcissism. Thus,
it appears, that it is not misleading to equate narcissism
with schizoid disorder." (page 19).
Consider the Balkan region, for instance:
http://samvak.tripod.com/pp25.html
http://samvak.tripod.com/pp29.html
5. Christopher Lasch, American "culture of narcissism" and the long
term effects of the September 11 atrocities
Lasch and his work are increasingly relevant in post September
America. This is partly because the likes of bin Laden hurl at
America primitive and coarse versions of Lasch's critique.
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