The Psychopathology of American Capitalism

The Psychopathology of American Capitalism, a scholarly book by Thomas Paul Bonfiglio, combines Marxist critique and psychoanalytic theory to investigate resistance to economic socialization in the United States. The text examines how protectionist discourses maintain anomalous capitalism and suppress the development of a capitalist welfare state.

Bonfiglio explores how post–World War II realignments by both the Democratic and Republican parties eliminated communist and socialist parties while suppressing allied labor movements. This rightward shift established an artificial two-party binary that diverges from political divisions in other industrialized democracies and neutralizes structural alternatives.

Part of the series Critical Political Theory and Radical Practice, the volume applies psychoanalytic concepts such as displacement, repetition, and cognitive repression to explain why working-class citizens repeatedly vote within a framework that neglects their interests.