[Updated in the end April 6] I was tipped about the psychologist Oliver James by a friend, see about James at wikipedia. His home-site.
Read the essay on George W. Bush “So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?”
Addition after bike tour: According to the tipping friend Oliver James recommends Alice Miller in his books!!
In the video James is talking about his book "Affluenza - How to Be Successful and Stay Sane." See extract from the book (pdf-file; in this the Hoffman institute is mentioned, see discussions on this institute here though, where it is seen as a cult) and articles about the book here and here. In the last article it stands for instance:
Addition April 6: I have translated this blogposting on my other blog. And when I sat here writing my mom phoned and told that Eskil the dog is dead. But I finished my writing..."Beyond a certain level of material wealth, more does not equate to happiness; indeed, the pursuit of more is positively pathological. Where this pursuit is accompanied by increasing inequality and economic insecurity, the results are even more dire. Add to this the ever more insidious power of advertising, the new electronic circus of celebrity culture, and the workaholism of unregulated economies, and we are, as we know, in big trouble.
Oliver James argues that the spread of the US model of capitalism is responsible for the epidemic of emotional distress that has swept across the developed world, and is threatening to engulf the new China and Russia, among others. The competitive drive for money, status and power results in a profound deformation of the human soul. We end up treating ourselves and others as commodities, as mere means to vacuous ends. Our capacity to form authentic, loving relationships, to feel secure and balanced, is destroyed. Anomie, alienation and addiction await us.
In the face of this pandemic, James offers us a series of vaccines that might inoculate us against the psychological destructiveness of our contorted affluence. From China and its familial Confucianism, he calls for realistic assessment of ourselves and our contexts. In contrast to the insane perfectionism and achievement-only orientation of American life, he finds the importance of knowing when good is good enough, and wisdom in recognising the real social limits of our lives. In Denmark, he finds a more egalitarian society that continues to reject the false gods of fame and brands in favour of solidarity, integrity and authenticity."
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