Thoughts About the Enron Disaster and a Diagnosis

In the Sunday, 1/6/2002 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, columnist Joan Ryan, in "The 401(k) Terrorist," comments on the Enron disaster and its impact on the lives of those who trusted the company. Although employees were locked inside a sinking ship of frozen 401(k) plans, Enron distributed more than $100 million in bonuses to a select group of executives and other employees. She caps a penetrating critique with the paragraph: "Perhaps this sounds politcally insensitive, but I fear the upper management of the companies that comprise my pension fund more than I fear the upper management of Al Queda. The truth is, the cold indifference inside an American boardroom is more likely to cripple any one of us than the cold indifference inside an Afghan cave."

This corporate piracy, suggests the need for the creation of a new psychiatric disorder in DSM-V: "100,000,000.00 (CEO)."

Criminal Executive Orgy: Diagnosis of Corporate Terrorism
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A new psychiatric disorder, CEO (Criminal Executive Orgy) is sweeping large corporations with the potency of an Anthrax epidemic. Hardest hit by this often fatal syndrome, the Enron Corporation of Texas has completely collapsed, leaving massive casualties. Unlike other disorders that may ravage the bearer, this disorder leaves its host unscathed, but devastates everyone beneath him in an organizational hierarchy.

Symptoms of this disorder include: the uncanny ability to deceive professional auditors and financial analysts, a pathological lust for obscene wealth, and a malicious desire to make large groups of people suffer from economic deprivation. The only common physical symptom found in the autopsies of subjects from all over the world, is the remarkable absence of a heart.

This new psychiatric category, is a mutation of an earlier disorder, called WA (Wealth Addition), first identified by author Philip Slater in 1980. The term gradually faded from general use in the late 80's when research discovered that WA had become an American norm. The new disorder (CEO), frequently mixed with sociopathic features, represents a more insidious threat to public health. The only known cure is a radical diminishment of net worth below six figures, followed by a heart implant.

Henry. T. Stein, Ph.D., Director and Training Analyst
Alfred Adler Institute of San Francisco

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