Affluenza describes the psychological and social effects of affluence. It is a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, and is used most commonly by critics of consumerism. Some psychologists consider it to be a pseudo-scientific term;[1] however, the word continues to be used in scientific literature.[2]
History
The word is thought to have been first used in 1908, and to have been adopted for its most common current usage in California in 1973.[3] It was also used by John Levy, executive director of the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco in 1984 to describe the lack of motivation that could dog wealthy people.[4] It was popularized in 1997 with a PBS documentary of the same name[5] and the subsequent book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (2001, revised in 2005, 2014). These works define affluenza as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more". A more informal definition of the term describes it as "a quasi-illness caused by guilt for one's own socio-economic superiority".[6] The term "affluenza" has also been used to refer to an inability to understand the consequences of one's actions because of financial privilege, as described in discussions of the psychological effects of inherited wealth.
Theory
Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss's 2005 book, Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, poses the question: "If the economy has been doing so well, why are we not becoming happier?" They argue that affluenza causes overconsumption, "luxury fever", consumer debt, overwork, waste, and harm to the environment. These pressures lead to "psychological disorders, alienation and distress", causing people to "self-medicate with mood-altering drugs and excessive alcohol consumption".[8]
They note that a number of Australians have reacted by "downshifting"—they decided to "reduce their incomes and place family, friends and contentment above money in determining their life goals". Their critique leads them to identify the need for an "alternative political philosophy", and the book concludes with a "political manifesto for wellbeing".[9]
In 2007 British pop psychologist Oliver James asserted that there was a correlation between the increasing occurrence of affluenza and the resulting increase in material inequality: the more unequal a society, the greater the unhappiness of its citizens.[10]
See also
Further reading
- The Circle of Simplicity, Cecile Andrews, ISBN 0-06-092872-7
- The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence, Jessie H. O'Neill, ISBN 978-0-9678554-0-0
- Voluntary Simplicity, Duane Elgin, ISBN 0-688-12119-5
- How Much Is Too Much? Raising Likeable, Responsible, Respectful Children-From Toddler to Teens-In an Age of Overindulgence, Clarke, Jean Illsley, Bredehoft, David & Dawson, Connie, ISBN 978-0-7382-1681-2
External links
References
- Christopher J. Ferguson. Psychologist: "Affluenza" is Junk Science Time, 2013-12-14, retrieved 2022-01-03^
- Laura Ann Flurry. The affluenza epidemic: consequences of parent-child value congruence in a material world Journal of Consumer Marketing, 2021-01-01^
- Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “affluenza (n.), sense 2,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1155293244^