ARE CORPORATIONS PSYCHOPATHS?
There’s a Canadian documentary called “The Corporation”. A teacher shared it with me back in 2010 or so, as I was studying to become an audiovisual communicator and for some reason I found it pretty interesting and is one of those things (few things) you always remember from college.
So I wanted to rescue this memory and see how applicable it’s conclusions are to companies and to the entertainment industry after a decade (actually almost two because the documentary was first launched on 2003).
“The Corporation” is a Canadian production that analyzes the modern multinational corporations (modern for 2003), examining social behavior facts according to psychiatric criteria, in order to establish a parallel between the behaviors of a psychopath with those of a corporation. The analysis was performed based on the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a standard tool for psychiatrists and psychologists.
The conclusion of the documentary: the corporation is diagnosed as psycho. This, argued by the fact that in some cases human health, life of consumers or public goods have been violated.
The corporation has been considered a dominant institution for many reasons, one of the most relevant is that it has a considerable influence on people’s decisions, since it often manipulates their feelings and needs to profit. In addition, corporations reinforce the consumerism nature of society and make people define themselves based on their purchasing capability, this has been developed in some cases by the growth in competition that corporations have. Therefore, the corporation becomes a dominant entity whose purpose is, apparently, to provide a solution to human needs, and I say apparently because most of these needs are created by corporations themselves.
The entertainment industry differs from some of the characteristics of the corporation described in the documentary because its operation is more profitable and its processes are more productive when its contents or productions increase cultural knowledge, modify social habits, give joy, educate or inform. This is a fact to be proud of (for us who work on the entertainment industry) because content consumption is determined by individual tastes, contexts and needs that are difficult to manipulate or change easily. Therefore, the entertainment industry gets rid of the diagnosis of psychopath, because of the constant need of this universe to investigate, propose, adapt, transform and create information and entertainment to meet the needs of its consumers, or spectators, as they would better be called.
Not only I would rescue the entertainment industry, I think in general, corporations (not all of them of course but I like to think that a great majority) shouldn’t be compared to psychopaths, at least not nowadays. I’m pretty sure so I would call it a fact that in almost 20 years the documentary has lost its credibility. Corporations have adapted their goals to go beyond a monetary objective; nowadays they care about people, they stand for inclusion, for diversity, for defending the rights of their employees and for providing the best possible conditions for them. They are also dedicated to contributing to the environment and are committed to contribute to social causes.
For sure there is still a long way to go, not to mention salary inequality and gender discrimination, but on the scale of psychopaths, I feel we are breaking apart, taking proper distance from the worst diagnosis.
• Abbot, J., Achbar, M., & Bakan, J. (Address). (2003). The Corporation [Documentary].
