Psychotherapist Jessie H. O’Neill claims that the big affliction of our time is not influenza but “affluenza.” O’Neil calls it a spiritual disorder.
She lists the symptoms of this over accumulation of stuff:
loss of personal productivity and motivation
an inability to delay gratification
an inability to tolerate frustration
a false sense of entitlement
a loss of self-confidence
If not checked, “affluenza” leads to a preoccupation with externals, depression, self-centeredness, and assorted addictions and compulsive behaviors. The more an afflicted person has the more he wants and the less satisfied he is. Translation: money is a spiritual matter.
The psychiatrist Karl Menninger observed, “One sign of mental health is