A good deal of my life tends to intersect withe the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition). I have featured many posts that discuss my ongoing trials and tribulations with a variety of conditions found in this manual. So, I thought that rather than utilize the DSM-IV to examine me, what if I used it to analyze the state of this country?
Sounds like an interesting experiment, don't ya think?
Over the next few days, I plan to look at several different aspects of the American socio-political landscape in terms of specific conditions listed in the DSM-IV. I certainly do not plan to cover every syndrome, disorder and malady. Instead, I will pick out a few from each axis, ones that in my mind appear to match various elements of the US psyche.
At the very outset, I want to make it crystal clear that this is a wholly subjective blogging experiment. As anyone who has had experience with the medical or mental health community well knows, making diagnoses often is not an exact science. One professional may tell you that you suffer from x and the next guy or gal will claim this is all wrong and that the culprit is really y. If you continue to see other medical or mental health practitioners, some will agree it's x, others will agree it's y, a few will say it's both and a few others will inform you it's z, q, j or m!
My point here is that you may agree or not agree with my assessments. Many of you will agree or not agree with my biases. As always, you can utilize the comments section to tell me what a genius or doofus I am.
Let's see where this takes us.
Sounds like an interesting experiment, don't ya think?
Over the next few days, I plan to look at several different aspects of the American socio-political landscape in terms of specific conditions listed in the DSM-IV. I certainly do not plan to cover every syndrome, disorder and malady. Instead, I will pick out a few from each axis, ones that in my mind appear to match various elements of the US psyche.
At the very outset, I want to make it crystal clear that this is a wholly subjective blogging experiment. As anyone who has had experience with the medical or mental health community well knows, making diagnoses often is not an exact science. One professional may tell you that you suffer from x and the next guy or gal will claim this is all wrong and that the culprit is really y. If you continue to see other medical or mental health practitioners, some will agree it's x, others will agree it's y, a few will say it's both and a few others will inform you it's z, q, j or m!
My point here is that you may agree or not agree with my assessments. Many of you will agree or not agree with my biases. As always, you can utilize the comments section to tell me what a genius or doofus I am.
Let's see where this takes us.
Sounds like a very interesting undertaking. I will be looking forward to reading it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mark and Susan.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely say that, in business, there is a preponderance of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's one that's almost impossible to treat.