Capitalism and Sociopathy...

[Hexen]

Is capitalism and sociopathy linked or does capitalism ultimately lead to sociopathy? Or is capitalism actually designed for and by sociopaths?

[ForgedConscience]

Sociopathy as in lack of empathy? Well capitalism certainly encourages it, but a complete lack of empathy (the clinical disorder) seems to be based in genetics too. Here's how I see it: you can be genetically pre-disposed to sociopathy, but whether you become one depends on your experiences particularly during childhood.

[Left Leanings]

This is an excellent question.

Sociopaths are highly skilled and manipulative individuals, who are very, very good at getting their own way, without conscience. They are intelligent and charming, yet this masks a brutality.

I saw something on the TV about this, I think. Or it might have been an article in a newspaper, I can't quite recall. But it postulated that the peeps who make their way to the very top in business organizations fit the characteristics one would associate with the term sociopath.

[Revolutionair]

There's a documentary called fishead or something like that. It's about 'the corporate psychopath'. Basically psychopaths are the people who are most able to adapt to the modern structure of corporations, thus they have a competitive advantage over other people when going for high-end jobs. As a result most of the people at the top of a capitalist society are people who need to be able to cut jobs without a conscience, they need to be able to lie to the competitors, they need to manipulate government officials, etc etc.

[Left Leanings]

There's a documentary called fishead or something like that. It's about 'the corporate psychopath'. Basically psychopaths are the people who are most able to adapt to the modern structure of corporations, thus they have a competitive advantage over other people when going for high-end jobs.

Thanks, comrade. I think this is the documentary I might have seen :)

[Book O'Dead]

Is capitalism and sociopathy linked or does capitalism ultimately lead to sociopathy? Or is capitalism actually designed for and by sociopaths?

It seems to me that as capitalism's built-in contradictions become more generalized and acute its degeneration produces a plethora (always wanted to use that word, by gum!) of social and psychological pathologies among the different classes of population. That includes capitalist and workers in varying degrees of acuteness and severity.

Marx & Engels allude to that hypothesis throughout their lit. but the person most responsible for lending it respectability as a theory was Erich Fromm.