American Psychosis: Cultural Dissonance and the Construction and Evolution of American National Identity

What does it mean to be an American? In Europe and elsewhere, it has been the prolonged association between the populous and the land that has constructed national identities. In Scotland there are Scots, in Poland there Poles, in Switzerland, there are the Swiss, and in India there are Indians, but in the United States whose population is overwhelmingly descendants from other parts of the globe, the logic of geographic national identity does not quite suffice. So how then is identity constructed? The essay, American Psychosis, is divided into three distinct sections, with each building on the latter. The first section is a rudimentary but necessary examination of American History which focuses specifically on two supposedly quintessential aspects of American History: American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny. The central pages then attempt to unravel the source and nature of American National Identity by deconstructing the prior examination of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny and through the deconstruction exposing America's inborn cultural dissonance. The final section deals with the contemporary conflicts between American National Identity and the ongoing processes of Globalization, and how these social conflicts further exasperate America's Cultural Dissonance.

Author: Coire T. Jones

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Mar 03, 2016

Number of Pages: 76 pages

Binding: Paperback or Softback

ISBN-10: 1530335841

ISBN-13: 9781530335848