Description
Springer Politics And Psychology Contemporary Psychodynamic Perspectives 1991 Edition by Joan Offerman-Zuckerberg
The world is a different place today.* Much of this has to do with the increasing volume and clarity of the people's collective voice. The power and pressing desire in man for autonomy self-determination and change are emerging as a demand. As a consequence Communist governments are giving way to democratic re structuring Europe is being recrafted and the Cold War is slowly thawing. Simultaneously back home our government is becoming increasingly bogged down by media-created political images and psychodramas lacking in substance and value-the degree of exposure somehow determined more by commercial appeal (inherent sensationalism) than merit. The newborn child (Le. the budding democracies) is looking eagerly to Uncle Sam as a role model: throughout the world people are quoting our political scriptures our proclamations our Bill of Rights and yet as models we seem sorely lacking. Given this climate this book intends to address a number of contemporary themes: the role of the media-symbolization idealization and projection---on political choice; the roles of group fantasy; and the more rational force of II group governance" on political elections; the personalities of our presidents and leaders their psychic vulnerabilities their public versus private personas and how this division interacts with the complex unraveling of historical events (for example Jimmy Carter's response to crises in Afghanistan and Iran Michael Dukakis and the 1988 campaign George Bush's emergence as president John F. Kennedy and his private versus public personas Anwar Sadat as myth and symbol). Table of contents : I. Political Leadership: Myth and Reality.- 1. Shifting Images in Politics.- 2. Some Reflections on Political Choice in America: Symbol and Substance.- 3. National Group Governance in Presidential Elections: Fact and Fantasy.- 4. Collective Suicide at Jonestown: An Ethnopsychoanalytic Study of Leadership and Group Dynamics.- II. Presidential Profiles: Psychic Vulnerabilities and Political Repercussions (Both Catastrophic and Otherwise).- 5. The Spelling and Seduction of Michael Dukakis.- 6. The Public Presidency: A Psychological Inquiry into John F. Kennedy.- 7. George Bush: From Wimp to President.- 8. Jimmy Carter and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: A Psychological Perspective.- 9. Presidents Carter and Sadat: The Repudiation of the Peacemakers.- III. A Global Village? Childhood Roots Reflections and Hopes.- 10. The Gentle Revolution: The Childhood Origins of Soviet and East European Democratic Movements.- 11. Growing Up in Nazi Germany: Lessons to Be Learned.- 12. Bridging East and West: Splitting and Integration.- IV. Making War Making Peace.- 13. Common Security: The Only Way.- 14. Growing Up in a Nuclear Age: Yesterday Today and Tomorrow.- 15. The Relevance of the Death Drive to the Nuclear Age.- 16. Further Clinical Considerations of the Psychological Fallout of the Nuclear Threat.- 17. Altruism: Antidote to War and Human Antagonism.- Overview.