DSM-V criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
- has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
- is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
- believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
- requires excessive admiration
- has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
- is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
- lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
- is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
- shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
I would like to suggest that the United States of America suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder on Axis 2 of the DSM. However, Axis 2 disorders are not really mental illnesses so much as they are sickness of character, of essence, of the very purest heart and soul of an individual. Axis 2 people aren’t crazy. Crazy like a fox, sure. Many Axis 2 disorders can only be seen on a moral spectrum. One can make an excellent argument that many Axis 2 types, especially the Cluster B’s, are more evil than crazy. In that case, then, America isn’t nuts, it’s evil. We’re beyond the help a physician can give. The only hope for cure lies with the doctors of the soul, the priests, the ministers, the philosophers and the teachers. A sick body can be cured. A sick mind can be cured, as it is part of the body. But how does one cure a sickness of the soul?
In the book “I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me”, the authors spend a chapter on why the USA is a Borderline society, check it out sometime. I find myself in agreement with them.