THE PATHOLOGY OF MODERNITY

"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom." ― E. O. Wilson.
This book examines the disintegration or distortion of shared reality in the digital age. Traditional epistemological frameworks―once grounded in reason, investigation, journalism, and evidence assessment and corroboration―have increasingly fragmented under algorithmic curation, social-media echo chambers, and engagement-driven rather than reality-based informational systems.
Organized into fourteen chapters, the work analyzes major domains of systemic dysfunction within contemporary society, including:
Drawing from psychology, sociology, existential philosophy, media, and empirical research, the book argues that modern societies increasingly exhibit characteristics analogous to individual cognitive and behavioral pathology.
A central theme is existential disorientation: the destabilization of meaning, identity, trust, and reality itself within a technologically a mediated modern society. Hyper-connectivity has not produced coherence; instead, it has intensified ontological instability, institutional mistrust, and collective cognitive fragmentation and distortion.
The author's analysis further examines whether contemporary civilization is entering an emergent dystopian condition marked by the expansion of surveillance, behavioral nudging, algorithmic influence, and growing separation from material and social reality.
The proposition - Modern Society Is "Insane" – is both philosophical and civilizational:
Has technological advancement produced progress― or a sophisticated form of regression? Paradoxical Atavism.

Dr. Jerry J. Marty received his medical degree (M.D.) in 1976 from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. After that, he completed six postgraduate years of training at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Postgraduate Year 1), Strong Memorial Hospital/University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York (Postgraduate Years 2 to 3, and 5 to 6) and completed an additional year in straight Internal Medicine at Saint Joseph's University Hospital -VA Medical Center/Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, Nebraska (Postgraduate Year 4).
An eight-week Fellowship in Forensic Pathology was taken under the direction and tutelage of Dr. Werner Spitz, Co-Author of the "bible" of Forensic Pathology―Medicolegal Investigation of Death (now in its 5th Edition, 2020) at the Detroit Medical Examiner's Office in Detroit, Michigan, lamentably a designated murder capital of the United States at that time.
A Visiting Fellowship in Clinical Cytology and Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) was subsequently undertaken in the fall of 1989 under the world-renowned Dr. Torsten Lowhagen at the Karolinska Hospital and Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
The author is board-certified in Anatomic, Clinical, and Cyto-Pathology with sub-specialization in Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) Cytology. He has authored several publications in peer-reviewed medical journals and two separate book chapters in his field of expertise, specifically in Cytopathology and Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) Cytology.
Among his earlier responsibilities, Dr. Marty held teaching positions at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and later at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Pharmacy (now Northeast Ohio University College of Medicine (NEOMED), Rootstown, Ohio.
A Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at George Washington University, School of Business (GWSB), Washington, D.C., was conferred on May 17, 2009.
Dr. Marty's most recent professional position until 2016 was as Chairman of Pathology and Medical Director of Laboratories at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center (MFSMC), a three-hundred-seventy-eight (378) bed Joint Commission (JC) accredited hospital facility in Baltimore, Maryland (one of ten Hospitals comprising MedStar Health across Baltimore, Central Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Southern Maryland). Dr. Marty is based in the United States and enjoys travel, photography, and Chess when not working.