The Social Studies section of the Globe and Mail includes a world o' syndromes section this week, the best of which is this:
Malignant self-actualization.
“There seems to be a rising tide of mental illnesses,” writes psychiatrist Trevor Turner in the New Internationalist, “a rising demand for ‘lifestyle’ medications and even several new ‘conditions.’ Common ‘shyness’ is now a ‘social phobia,’ screwing around is ‘sexual-addiction syndrome,’ and bad-tempered people now have ‘emotionally unstable personality disorders.’ So why not ‘malignant self-actualization syndrome’ (MSA) defined as a disabling condition which elevates personal choice into the highest arbiter of everything? It’s not yet in the standard psychiatric disease classifications but maybe it should be. . . . In fact, MSA is a bottomless pit of potential demand on the healthcare system. Conditions like ‘air rage,’ ‘road rage’ and dysmorphophobia (the conviction that you don’t quite look right) all reflect the triumph of individual desire over a commitment to the world outside oneself.”
Update, July 6th, 2003:
Aha! Here's Trevor Turner's article in the New Internationalist: I shop, therefore I am. "Has the narcissism of the market destroyed our sense of collective identity? Psychiatrist Trevor Turner argues that a preoccupation with self has spawned a new syndrome: malignant self-actualization."
Posted on April 29, 2003 12:01 AM. Filed under: miscellaneous.