These nuanced discussions offer insights and reflections from leading experts – on psychology, politics, race, religion and more – to those of us struggling to make sense of our American political nonsense.
Drawn from the Mind of State podcast created by some of the co-authors and contributors to the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, this collection is as relevant now as it was when Apple Podcasts featured it as “New and Noteworthy” in 2019.
The chapters are divided into five sections that reveal persistent themes underlying our increasing distress due to the interconnectedness of psychology and politics in the United States:
Contributors:
Part 1 FRAMEWORK
Chapter 1: Cultural Complexes and the Soul of America – Thomas Singer
Part 2 ACKNOWLEDGING DEATH, TRAUMA, LOSS
Chapter 2: We are all going to Die—Someday – Sheldon Solomon
Chapter 3: Ambiguous Loss & the 2020 Pandemic – Pauline Boss
Chapter 4: Our Collective Trauma – Judith Herman
Chapter 5: Acknowledging Harm & Repairing the World – Jessica Benjamin
Chapter 6: Living Unarmed – Megan Doney
Chapter 7: The Trauma of Syria – Anne Barnard
Part 3 WHY TRUTH MATTERS
Chapter 8: The Case for Radical Openness – Anton Hart
Chapter 9: The End of Truth? – Scotty McLennan
Chapter 10: Conspiracy without Theory – Nancy Rosenblum
Chapter 11: Nervous States & the Instability of Truth – William Davies
Chapter 12: Trump on the Couch – Justin Frank
Chapter 13: Delusions & Lies: The Mind of Trump – Michael Tansey
Part 4 ANXIETIES OF RACE & DOMINANCE
Chapter 14: Justice, Rage & Peace – Eric Ward
Chapter 15: Anger & Racial Politics – Antoine Banks
Chapter 16: Why Everyone Hates the Jews – Susan Fiske & Peter Glick
Chapter 17: The Perilous Path to Asylum – Hawthorne “Hawk” Smith
Chapter 18: Partisan Politics, Toxic Identities, Dangerous Divides – Lilliana Mason
Chapter 19: White Identity Politics – Ashley Jardina
Chapter 20: A “Syndemic”—Climate, Race & COVID-19 – Adrienne Hollis
Part 5 DEMOCRACY AT RISK
Chapter 21: Sounding the Alarm: Cultism and the Loss of Reality – Robert Jay Lifton
Chapter 22: Politics of Care – Deva Woodly
Chapter 23: Restoring Faith in Democracy – Eric Liu
Chapter 24: Can Voting & Democracy Survive the Internet? – Nate Persily
Chapter 25: Analyzing the 2020 Election – Michael A. Cohen
Chapter 26: Politics & the Teenage Mind – Lisa Damour
Part 6 THE IMPORTANCE OF MYTH IN POLITICS
Chapter 27: America’s Economic Myth – Betty Sue Flowers
Chapter 28: When Myth Becomes History – Jules Cashford
Chapter 29: The Symbolic Power of Trump’s Wall – Thomas Singer
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