Is America mentally ill?

[Rum]

Clearly a country can't actually suffer a mental illness in the strict sense of the term. But let's face it the place is going nuts.

I have long been an apologist for the place, often in the face of ridicule. I believe it's constitution is a wonder of the world. But the victory of stupidity over rationality, prejudice over fair mindedness, ignorance over knowledge, self serving decisions over even a modicum of long sightedness makes me think the symptoms are not that removed from the breakdown of mental structure that goes with classic schizophrenia.

It clearly needs a big dose of Valium right now.

[JimC]

I prescribe a national dose of gin...

[mistermack]

Of course it's mentally ill.
It believes in big Ju Ju men in the sky, who mate with Earth women to produce new gods.

And big Ju Ju man wants you to worship him. On your knees.

And that everyone having guns make everyone safe.

And that Coca Cola is drinkable.

And that slightly flavoured water is beer.

[NineBerry]

[Brian Peacock]

This madness will be replaced by some other madness in due course.

[Feck]

Clearly The Merkins lost it a long time ago: McCarthy, Prohibition and the Cold War should be enough evidence
But the fact Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, is thought both a philosopher and an economist shows just how bat-shit they really are ....
They voted in a President who thinks the fact that the far-right applied for a permit to demonstrate is not only moral equivalence to people protesting against racism but justification for vehicular homicide .

[Feck]

[cronus]

Still a young nation. Toddler stage....nothing insane about immaturity. Give them a few hundred more years....change gotta come.

[JacksSmirkingRevenge]

Funny the topic should come up now.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 97446.html

[Tero]

We invented democracy! And will protect with our 2nd Amendment guns! Whereis my musket?

[tattuchu]

Where would the rest of the world be without us. After all, Reagan SINGLE-HANDEDLY tore down the Berlin wall, for instance

But, yes, to answer your question. About half of the U.S. are mentally unwell.

[Feck]

Reagan didn't tear down the walls It was David Hasselhoff Or was it The Scorpions ......

[Feck]

Still a young nation. Toddler stage....nothing insane about immaturity. Give them a few hundred more years....change gotta come.

Wasn't the excuse we made after WWI ..........

[Hermit]

Using a mental disorder as a metaphor for the state (so to speak) of a nation should be left to poets. As an analytical tool for treating individuals it has more than enough problems already. Tellingly, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as currently used, is into its fifth revision, and it is only a matter of time for DSM 6 to appear. Apart from psychiatry there are also the fields of psychology and even psycho-analysis to pick from, not to mention the many strands within each of them.

Even as a metaphor mental disorder does not work if you suggest that the cure for the US's "classic schizophrenia" is a metaphoric "big dose of Valium". How would you go about administering it?

[Sean Hayden]