Ego-worship has become a common accepted ideology. A whole time-tendency within school, folk high school and continuing education, focus on so-called â€Âpersonal developmentâ€Â. Inspired by fx Sartre and postmodernism you are being encouraged to an unrestrained and egoistic self expression, where you are letting your choices (story-telling, self-branding) decide everything, in the belief that you through your choices can create a successfull life as it fit you.

This ideology is developed by the so-called management theories. From management theorists you fx hear slogans such as: â€ÂIt is not facts, but the best story, which wins!â€Â Slogans, which are widely accepted within our consumer culture.

In his novel AMERICAN PSYCHO, Brett Easton Ellis cleverly exorcises the zeitgeist of the age of consumer capitalism. Written in the first person present tense, the book chronologues the life of a rich New York yuppie, Patrick Bateman, whose existence is dominated by designer clothes, trendy restaurants, tepid pop music, exhausting gym workouts, “hardbody” sex partners, and lesbian porno movies. And did I mention that he is also a mass murderer who tortures and mutilates his (mostly young female) victims in unspeakable ways? Or is he just making this up – telling an interesting story in order not to end up in boredom?

Ellis shows us in this way the innate depersonalization of a consumer culture. Patrick Bateman, although strikingly handsome, atlanteanly fit, and impeccably dressed, is continually mistaken for other people by his acquaintances. Although he repeatedly confesses to his (real or imagined) crimes, he is never taken seriously by his associates, who are much too concerned with their own conceits to even listen to him.

A consumer culture is namely also a postmodern society, where the distinction between reality and appearance/superficies is about to disappear. Reality is often the images, we receive through the stream of information. And it becomes more and more difficult to see, which objective reality that lies behind. It seems more and more to be the images, which are real, and not some behind lying reality. In that sense all images are equal true, but they are not equal good, for some images are more fascinating than others, some images affect us more than others. Therefore the expression of the image has come in focus. The expression of the image – its aesthetics – decides, whether it fascinates us or bores us. What apply for today, is the intensity and seduction of the expressions. The new truth criterion is, whether something is interesting or boring. Eternal values such as goodness, truth and beauty fall more and more away.

The death of the eternal values doesn't only apply for reality, but also the personality. The individual human being lives in a space without truth, in a time without direction, and with an information flow so huge, that the manageability beforehand has to be given up. How are we to live then? Well, the management theorists claim, you do this by creating yourself in a never-ending new production. The personality then becomes a persona (mask), an eternal change of role, because when the role begins to stiffen, it becomes uninteresting and boring. New is good, as these theorists say. What before characterized the personality´s relationship to the world, was a call. Now the relationship has become a project (or as the management theorists say: a good story, a good branding, a good spin), which is formed, quickly is being carried out and dropped for the benefit of a new project, that can maintain the constant demand for intensity and seduction.

They can claim this, because they have psychologized/subjectified both realization and ethics. A turn, which especially origins from the so-called Humanistic Psychology (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow), which is a fundamental inspiration for the management theories. It is, according to the Humanistic Psychology, only the individual´s own subjective evaluation, based on the Ego, which can provide something with value. There neither exist valid values, which come from the community, or objective values, which come from nature, the universe, or life itself. Nothing has value in itself, unless it comes from the Ego.

The Humanistic Psychology´s view of morals is namely not only a subjectifying, which attributes the source of morals to the subjective itself (the Ego), but also an emotionalizing, since it is the individual´s feelings, which decides the moral quality of something. What it is about, is to do what â€Âfeelsâ€Â right. It is the individual´s (the Ego´s) emotional experience of something, which defines values, not conversely. And this is fully in thread with the ideology of Consumer Capitalism, where the customer (and his or her´s experiences) always is right. The consumer society, the therapeutic ego-unfolding and the subjectifying of the moral, go hand in hand. The moral – the Ego´s relation to itself – is therapized, and the moral is subjectified.

In this way the management theories end up in concealing power relations at the workingplace, they lead to difficulties assigning responsibility towards children in the schools, they reduce our spouses to means for our personal development, and remove political incitation and social responsibility by disguising social problems as personal problems.

The ideal about the Ego-unfolding human being shows furthermore - in a remarkable way - to remind about the actual behaviour of the so-called psychopath. The resemblance steps forward by comparing the characteristic psychopathic traits with the typical attitude to life, which is introduced by the management theorists:

1. Psychopaths are characterized by egocentrism/grand ideas about own value. They consider themselves as smarter than the most. The understanding of own abilities and importance is unrealistic exaggerated. The management theory is an expression of an individualistic way of thinking, where the main focus primarily is aimed on oneself. As the management theorists says: â€ÂIt is not facts, but the best story which wins! You can be anything, what you yourself choose to be!â€Â
2. Psychopaths have a low frustration threshold and low threshold for aggressive reactions. In the management theories the tendency to express feelings immediately and heavily, is cultivated. Inhibition of emotional reactions is namely regarded as neurotic.
3. Psychopaths are in need of new impulses, and are easily subjects of boredom. In the management theory the idea about innovation, development and growth lies as a vital need, where experiences stand in the centre. The value of the experiences are measured from whether something is interesting or boring.
4. The psychopath´s behaviour is characterized by impulsiveness and lack of realistic long time planning. According to the management theory, then the Ego-unfolding human is characterized by â€Âincreased spontaneityâ€Â and ability to live in the Now. (As mentioned you shall here be aware of the contradiction between the future worship of the management theories – the winner-mentality - and the ability of being in the Now. There is a big difference between the Ego´s instinctive reactions, which origins in thought-patterns from the past, and the self-forgetful spontaneity in the Now, which the wisdomtraditions talk about).
5. The psychopath is seeking excitement, and shows a ruthless indifference for own and others secureness. In the management theories they dissociate from a way of life characterized by secureness and monotony, and urge to take chances and to run risks.
6. The psychopath gives expression of having specific rights, which do, that he doesn't need to follow common laws and rules. By doing so he is characterized by irresponsibility and lack of consideration of social norms, rules and obligations. In the management theories obligations and bindings are regarded as impediment for the Ego-unfolding.
7. The psychopath is characterized by lack of empathy, inability to long relationships, as well as manipulation. According to the management theories emotional independence is a human right. The feelings, thoughts and expectations of others are regarded as restrictive elements for the Ego-unfolding, and the goal is most possible liberation from these.
8. The psychopath is characterized by lack of feeling of guilt and regret, marked tendency to push the guilt at others or to explain away the behaviour, which creates difficulties. Psychopaths often say, that they did something, because they felt for it. Within the management theories all actions can be explained with starting point in feelings, which, according to them, are expressions of the authentic self (the Ego). In this way the management theories in themselves can be regarded as a form of explaining away behaviour that creates social problems. Any action can be legitimized as a necessary expression of your self-realization/personal development (ego-unfolding).

In his novel Bret Easton Ellis mirrors, in an almost comical, reductio ad absurdum way, these connections between the psychopath´s traits and the life-ideals of Consumer Capitalism. Because Patrick Bateman precisely live a life, which is a perfect realization of the life-ideals of Consumer Capitalism.