AFFLUENZA

noun (Health and Fitness) (People and Society) A psychiatric disorder affecting wealthy people and involving feelings of malaise, lack of motivation, guilt, etc. Etymology: Formed by telescoping affluence and influenza to make a blend. History and Usage: The term was popularized in the mid eighties by Californian psychiatrist John Levy, after he had conducted a study of children who grow up expecting never to need to earn a living for themselves because of inheriting large sums of money. The name affluenza had apparently been suggested by one of the patients. By the end of the eighties, the term had started to catch on and was being applied more generally to the guilt feelings of people who suspected that they earned or possessed more than they were worth. The San Francisco group also runs seminars that teach heiresses how to cope with guilt, lack of motivation, and other symptoms of affluenza, an ailment she says is rampant among children of the wealthy. Fortune 13 Apr. 1987, p. 27 Also pathogenic is 'affluenza', the virus of inherited wealth, striking young people with guilt, boredom, lack of motivation, and delayed emotional development. British Medical Journal 1 Aug. 1987, p. 324