Trumps Appeal To The Collective Pathology: A Jungian Perspective
Thomas Singer, M.D. and Jungian Psychoanalyst asks:
What is it about Trump that acts as an irresistible magnet with ferocious attraction or repulsion? Is Trump the end product of our culture of narcissism? Is he what we get and deserve because he epitomizes the god or gods we currently worship in our mindless, consumerist, hyperindulged cult of continuous stimulation and entertainment? Here is how Christopher Hedges states it in Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle:
"An image-based culture communicates through narratives, pictures, and pseudo-drama. Scandalous affairs, hurricanes, untimely deaths, train wrecks––these events play well on computer screens and television. International diplomacy, labor union negotiations, and convoluted bailout packages do not yield exciting personal narratives or stimulating images...Reality is complicated. Reality is boring. We are incapable or unwilling to handle its confusion...We become trapped in the linguistic prison of incessant repetition. We are fed words and phrases like 'war on terror' or 'pro-life' or 'change' and within these narrow parameters, all complex thought, ambiguity, and self-criticism vanish (Hedges 2009).
Taken from: Thomas Singer's chapter "Trump and the American Psyche" In The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (Bandy Lee, M.D. 2017)
No comments:
Post a Comment