In patients of caucasian origin with this complex, a certain gestalt invariably presents itself:
However, these correlations are not diagnostic. The clinician should begin a thorough psychoanalytical investigation into any patient showing these associated signs. The clinical assessment should work from the present moment back. Questions the astute analyst will ask include, "Would you bone Carmen Electra if you could?", "How often do you dream of Carmen Electra?", and importantly, "Do you feel that, even if Carmen Electra were madly in love with you, would you feel somehow unworthy of her affection?" Of course, the typical heterosexual male will answer yes, yes, and no; but the person suffering from an unresolved Carmen Electra complex will answer yes, yes, and yes if being truthful. Massive denial and repression may prevent the patient's insight into feelings of inadequacy, particularly those calling into question his virility. Insight is a sign of good prognosis. To explore whether the patient's ego-sum-virs (i.e., I-am-man) integrity has collapsed upon exposure to Carmen Electra's radiant hotness, the analyst may have to probe the patient's psyche further.
Most neurotic complexes are set from unresolved conflicts in infancy and early childhood, but the Carmen Electra complex typically occurs in the Phallic stage of psychosexual maturation. Crucially, a pre-existing psychosexual fixation counterindicates this neurosis, so the therapist must continue examination into early development.
The psychoanalyst must remove all doubt that another neurosis is behind the symptoms.
Obsessive neurosis is superficially quite similar to the Carmen Electra complex; however, analysis reveals many differences. First of all, the obsessive-compulsive's neurosis is usually not limited to or even necessarily inclusive of Carmen Electra. The root of the obsessive neurosis is an intense anxiety of environmental uncertainty, whether it be contamination, counting, morality, or cam whores. The obsessive-compulsive is usually aware of the peculariaty of his or her position and apt to find treatment rather than live in denial.
An obsessive-compulsive may have an intense ambivalence towards Carmen Electra as a result of the splitting ego defense mechanism. To relieve the cognitive dissonance inherit in this ambivalence, the sufferer may begin to obsess with doing the deed with beautiful Carmen Electra, collecting facts about her, and so on. This does not signify the Carmen Electra complex but rather an obsessive neurosis centering on Carmen Electra.
The erotomanic is psychotic in every sense of the word. His or her delusion is that a person is in love with him or her despite no actual communication or negative communication. The erotomanic may carry out various compulsions to prove her love to him. Note the absence of unworthiness in light of Carmen Electra.
The erotomanic may fall delusionally in love with Carmen Electra and hold that it is mutual. He or she may collect paraphernalia of her hotness, but the origin is psychotic rather than psychosexual.
In the inferiority complex, a generalized sense of personal inadequacy is recognized. Its origin is in pre-Phallic psychosexual development and not exposure to Carmen Electra's undeniable hotness. In many cases, this inferiority complex drives a reaction formation called the Napoleon complex that leads to the neurotic's achieving greatness. In glaring contrast, the Carmen Electra complex sufferer usually wallous about in intense self-pity; in this, he is not so different from the narcissistic character.
A whole community of self-diagnosed Carmen Electra complex sufferers, who cleverly refer to themselves as Carmen whores, is growing on the Internets. They contend that their psychoneurosis is anything but an illness and resent the suggestion that they should seek treatment. They collectively reinforce their denial that any heterosexual male exposed to Carmen Electra's hotness could not help but develop a complex.
Carmen whores sometimes state that they feel they are on the wrong planet. If so, why are they on the planet that has Carmen Electra living in it? In either case, they have formed a movement to guard themselves against the projected hostility of the so-called neuro(tic)-Car(men)-Night (they believe the nonafflicted have not yet seen the light of dawn).
