My DSM code is 301.81. What's yours?
March 18, 2009 11:47 AM Subscribe
Slate is on the cutting edge of psychological assessment, Diagnosis by Unnamed Quote.
Here's a quote:
"A line from a New York Times profile of [Rod Blagojevich] is as trenchant a description of narcissism as is found in most psychology textbooks: "[He] is unapologetically late to almost everything, and can treat employees with disdain, cursing and erupting in fury for failings as mundane as neglecting to have at hand at all times his preferred black Paul Mitchell hairbrush." There it all is: the sense that other people don't matter, the belief others are instruments for the narcissist's use, the self-admiration."
All kidding aside, this kind of pop-psychology must be pretty popular because Emily Yoffe (previously) has done it before. But popular isn't always good. And Yoffe is firing off labels without respecting how difficult it is to define and determine a disorder/disability as a part of someone's thoughts/behaviors/feelings. Of course, this culminates in a smallish statement about our culture in general, "If the observers who say that part of our economic troubles result from a mass case of narcissism, from consumers who thought they should have the house of their dreams financed on bad debt to bankers who thought they deserved eight-figure bonuses for packaging that bad debt, then perhaps we are about to be cured". Interestingly, there's no mention of wage stagnation regarding consumer debt. Very naughty, Slate.
Here's a quote:
"A line from a New York Times profile of [Rod Blagojevich] is as trenchant a description of narcissism as is found in most psychology textbooks: "[He] is unapologetically late to almost everything, and can treat employees with disdain, cursing and erupting in fury for failings as mundane as neglecting to have at hand at all times his preferred black Paul Mitchell hairbrush." There it all is: the sense that other people don't matter, the belief others are instruments for the narcissist's use, the self-admiration."
All kidding aside, this kind of pop-psychology must be pretty popular because Emily Yoffe (previously) has done it before. But popular isn't always good. And Yoffe is firing off labels without respecting how difficult it is to define and determine a disorder/disability as a part of someone's thoughts/behaviors/feelings. Of course, this culminates in a smallish statement about our culture in general, "If the observers who say that part of our economic troubles result from a mass case of narcissism, from consumers who thought they should have the house of their dreams financed on bad debt to bankers who thought they deserved eight-figure bonuses for packaging that bad debt, then perhaps we are about to be cured". Interestingly, there's no mention of wage stagnation regarding consumer debt. Very naughty, Slate.
This post was deleted for the following reason: This reads like a personal thing-you-don't-like; it's not really clear why this should be a post on mefi instead of one on your personal blog. -- cortex
I don't know why people (other than mental health professionals) need to fall back on the DSM to criticize the behavior of others. If anything, it weakens the accusations you want to make. After all, Blagojevich may well be a diagnosable narcissist, or sociopath, or any number of other things, but saying this only serves to shift the blame off of the man himself, not to mention further stigmatizing mental illness. Blagojevich is an asshole and a douchebag, and I don't need to pretend to be a psychologist to know this to be true.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:57 AM on March 18, 2009
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:57 AM on March 18, 2009
Is there where I talk about how I'm totally not a narcissist? Because I can give you lots of examples.
posted by GuyZero at 11:57 AM on March 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 11:57 AM on March 18, 2009 [1 favorite]
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posted by DU at 11:56 AM on March 18, 2009