On Jun 25, 2006, at 1:50 PM, Doyle Saylor wrote:
You favor sometimes using the term, narcissistic, which is an attempt to label a personality disorder. It's just your fancy as a writer to metaphorically say someone is narcissistic, but in terms of what a class does narcissistically it is not connected to the larger class workings of capitalism.
I rarely use the word "narcissistic" metaphorically, and the word isn't a mere "attempt" to label a disorder, but one that's in pretty wide use. When certain personality types become prevalent, or characterize group behavior, I'd say that we've gone beyond the realm of individual psychology into something more broadly social - so they are linked to the larger class workings of capitalism. I wrote at some length in Wall Street (now available for free download at <http://www.wallstreetthebook.com>) about how the gold standard era produced and/or reflected certain personality traits characteristic of early capitalism - the classic anal/obsessive trio of orderliness, obstinacy, and thrift - and how the breakdown of the gold standard into a pure credit standard reflected a social transition away from those "virtues" towards more immediate gratification. That transition came with the weakening of patriarchy. So I am quite willing to argue that "personality disorders" are associated with historical changes in class relations.
If over night Utah Mormons found a solution to narcissism capitalism would still be here.
I'm tempted to say the Mormons suffer from an entirely different disorder, but that would open another can of worms I'd rather leave sealed. Doug
