What are the causes for the high volume of dysfunctionality in America?

The story-cycle of the Hero is ending. Every few thousand years (at least according to Julian Jaynes, Joseph Campbell, and Carl Jung) the human brain has to reprogram itself to deal with increasing levels of complexity. The last time this happened was the result of transitioning from hunter-gatherer to agrarian lifestyle and the necessity for recognizing personal and individual identity so as to allow for specialization: we invented the concept of “I”. This marked the beginning of the story-cycle of the Hero, the narrative of self and male-oriented, logical, goal-directed mental processes.

But the sort of mental operating system sufficient for operating and maintaining the city of Ur is no longer capable of maintaining a modern, industrialized mega-city. We are on the cusp of a Singularity; whether that Singularity turns out to be genetic, AI, spiritual, or technological is immaterial. When it happens all bets are off, and what it means to be human will be completely redefined. The Hero will be replaced with a new archetype and a new phase of post-human endeavour will begin.

Totally non-peer reviewed bibliography: The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell; Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind – Julian Jaynes; The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious – Carl Jung; The Age of Spiritual Machines – Ray Kurzweil

Decadence.
Explained in From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present by Jaques Barzun

Depression

Data is easy to post as an argument for being extreme when no comparison is given. How does this compare to other general populations?

And why do you posit that some states of being are “dysfunctional”? Having a mental disorder, which in most cases is temporary, is not dysfunctional. Neither is the state of being overweight/obese.

@zenvelo, if every other country had similar stats as America, how would that change the high volume of dysfunctionality?

For a mental state to be classified as a disorder, it needs to cause dysfunction.

What source are you basing your claim that most mental disorders are temporary? In 2004, 26 million were diagnosed with a mental disorder. In 2013, that number increased to 44 million. The mental disorders don’t look temporary at all based on the yearly trend.

The state of being obese is dysfunctional because it is debilitating in nature and is quickly followed with the development of serious health problems which increases debilitation.

Statistics and medical advancement. 100 years ago we wouldn’t even know what was wrong with people. I think it is better diagnosing is what is happening.

@talljasperman, Indeed. But, it doesn’t explain the large sample size of dysfunctionality. It might only explain the increase in numbers.

@vertz If all those conditions where cured we would discover more ailments and it would balance out. It’s like I.Q. they would always have most people at 100 points with half the population scoring under 100. Most of the diagnosis are made up to sell pills.

If you call something dysfunctional you must define functional.

@tinyfaery, Its opposite.

Healthy > Sick
Fit > Fat

DSM-5

@flutherother is right, the DSM-5 does expand the definitions.

@vertz, Just take autism as an example of a statistical change. In 1987 the definition was greatly expanded,and what many think is an epidemic is more of an expansion of the diagnosis to include many more people.

You use them “high volume”; what I ask is why do you consider it “high” and compared to what?

And, being clinically obese (BMI >30) is not debilitating by itself if it is not a long term condition. One needs to be plump (obese but not morbidly obese) for quite a few years before it is debilitating. I don’t think that merits being called “dysfunctional.”

@zenvelo Oh! When you wrote change, I thought the actual mental disorder goes away from the ill person. I didn’t realize you were referring to the terminology.

I consider it high based on the overall United States population of the time the stats were taken which was 314 million. The high numbers in the stats speak for themselves when comparing it to the overall population.

Statistically, obesity is a long term conditions which again is based on the increases of the yearly trends. Likewise, the debilitating chronic illnesses are increased by the year which obese people are the most likely to experience.

People need love, intelligence, and nature.
And if they are lacking any of those, they will become either depressed, stupid, angry, or some combo thereof.

And fluorescent lights, pop culture, commercials, and political subcultures are not helping any.

sorry I thought it was social, my answer is not relevant to the question

Most of your given ‘US characteristics’ are found around the world.
What are you using as a basis for comparison?
Statistical information you have collected may be incorrectly scored numerically in comparison to the corresponding numbers from like nations, however some of your other variants exist in every continent/both hemispheres. You must be careful to use the same collected data in your blanketed interpretation of your statistical information.
The USA has a higher incidence of reporting everything- to the point of the ridiculous.
Ex: BMI numbers interpretation has wide variables. Dates of informational statistics have still not caught up with real-time data outcomes.
Alternative informational data is not at a consistant level with those you may be using when measuring comparisons- if indeed you are fairly balancing this nation in equivalents with those of the rest of the world. Making allowances for varied method reliability in reporting, the influx of immigration and it’s effects upon national statistics over the span of determined years, while studying balanced data from other contries in comparison with your base data for the USA -skewers your base line.
You may be setting up an unequal basis for true data analysis via a differing baseline for just the country you are concentrating upon, without a fair balance of statistical data from other countries, and what your assessments are assigning to the US population.
You have made some vast generalizations in proving your theory, but they are not based upon true data, if taken with correlated data from other nations.

There are countries in the world where the majority of the population rarely goes to the doctor. In the US and most developed countries, we’re at the doctor at least once a year for something. If you rarely go, you’re not going to be diagnosed for much. Hence the disparity.

In a population approaching three-hundred-twenty-five billion, five-hundred million people with dysfunctionalities is a relatively small percentage. This is far from being a “majority of the American population.” I would be surprised compared with statistics from fifty or a hundred years ago that this ratio is significantly higher.

Consumerism coupled with capitalism.

The disfunctionality stems from a society trying to reconcile the dichotomy that we live in a society that has an economic system that requires us to accept as truth that consumerism and monetary reward are more important than people (including ourselves),that glorifies gain at all cost, and rewards greed and selfishness with the subconscious knowledge that it actually isn’t working for us.

@ZEPHYRA “Consumerism coupled with capitalism.”

Toss-in some heaping doses of greed and entitlement.