" ... There are two major problems of Western civilisation that seem unlikely to be ever properly addressed by a market-based economic system. The first is the problem of global ecological degradation caused by unrestrained economic activity. The second is mass unemployment caused by the competitive drive to automate the work-place. The one erodes the biological support system of the planet while the other erodes the social structure by turning increasing numbers of workers into surplus labour.
Economic rationalism is an attempt to avoid facing these problems by turning towards the past and seeking solace in cultural fundamentalism. This impulse stems from a deep-seated anxiety that the cultural paradigm focussed on work, productivity and consumption is no longer tenable. If reality is demanding that the industrial nations now evolve into a post-capitalist phase -- of steady-state economics -- then the avoidance of this same reality, by the adoption of economic rationalism, could be interpreted as a symptom of mental pathology. Manifestations of this pathology can be identified in the statements and exhortations of economic rationalist advocacy by referring them to psychiatric diagnostic manuals.
[ ... ]
The critics of economic rationalism are rapidly finding their confidence and are already hinting that there might be a pathological explanation for the phenomenon. They are calling it the "Anglo-disease", "economic fundamentalism" and a vehicle for celebrating individual greed as if it were a social virtue. That "avarice is a form of brain disease and such people should be locked away in new asylums for the socially dangerous". They say that "the unfortunate nation [Australia] has become split between virtually the entire people on the one side, and a narrow tripartite elite consensus on the other". That economic rationalism has its roots in "a growing pessimism connected with anxieties"; and that "it involves a foolishness which comes from ignoring the lessons of economic history".
But, perhaps like a family with a member behaving strangely, these critics are still reluctant to come out and actually state the obvious -- that economic rationalism is a form of mental disease that has been induced by an intense fear of the future. Fundamentalist movements -- whether Islamic, Christian, Hindu or the English-speaker's version of economic rationalism -- are all cultural reflex conditions involving a withdrawal into traditional values so as to escape a confrontation with the new.
Once one adopts this point of view it is not very difficult to find evidence of economic rationalism's pathology. It seems our cultural tradition has always known that it is abnormal for people to retreat into the ideology of cultural infancy. Let me briefly quote from a psychiatric manual to demonstrate how well the typical economic rationalist has been described.
The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of of Mental Disorders is the foundation-stone of orthodox psychiatric diagnosis in the United States and is used in Australia to supply the diagnostic codes necessary for lodging Medicare claims. It is a de facto international standard for diagnosing psychiatric complaints. The third edition of the manual (DSM III) identified a personality disorder which it called Compulsive Personality Disorder:
301.40 Compulsive Personality Disorder
perfectionism that interferes with the ability to grasp "the big picture"; .... Preoccupation with rules, efficiency, trivial details, procedures, or form interferes with the ability to take a broad view of things .... Although efficiency and perfection are idealised, they are rarely attained. Individuals with this disorder are always mindful of their relative status in dominance-submission relationships ....
A more recent revision of the manual (DSM IV) has a slightly altered definition of the the disease and has codified the character traits:
Diagnostic criteria for 301.4 Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility and openness, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four (or more) of the following:
(1) is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organisation, or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost
(2) shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion (e.g., is unable to complete a project because his or her overly strict standards are not met)
(3) is excessively devoted to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships (not accounted for by obvious economic necessity)
(4) is overconscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values (not accounted for by cultural or religious identification)
(5) is unable to discard worn-out or worthless objects even when they have no sentimental value
(6) is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things
(7) adopts a miserly spending style towards both self and others; money is viewed as something to be hoarded for future catastrophes
(8) shows rigidity and stubborness. ... "
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