- After Virginia Woolf
Max More is an apologist for individualism and egoism. He has read Ann Rand’s "The Virtue of Selfishness"
and abhors totalitarian states, fundamentalist churches and cults which take psychological control of members. He correctly identifies these as major problems but does not seem to understand that the individualistic egotists he champions are to be found at the helm of these organisations, and that they are just as big a problem.
The ideal is to be owned by neither ego nor superego (the tendency to absorption in, domination by, controlling collective ego).
The capitalist system has it's merits but, on the downside, moves ever towards increasing commodification. Utimately there is even the commodification of self.
The problem with the kind of individualism promoted by More is that many so-called individuals have multiple personalities.
People who are not diagnosed, or in denial about a diagnosis of mental pathology, can convince themselves and others that they are acting from a position of self-ownership when they are really acting out their pathological impulses.
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