Contents 
How to Read This Book vii 
Acknowledgments viii 
Introduction: The Production of Idiocy 
1 
1. The Logic of Behavior 16 
DJ 
Extasis: The Context of Behavior 43 
3. The Logic of Abstraction 64 
4. The Desperate Debtor and the 
Tradition of Authenticity 85 
5. Self-Possession and the Estrangement of Power: 
The American Example 118 
The Political Psychology of Permission 143 
Afterword 157 
Reference Titles Used in Source Notes 
138 
Bibliography 161 
Index 167