Wez
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I doubt if the likes of Theodore Adorno, Herbert Marcuse or Erich Fromme would have anything other than contempt for the DSM. The medicalisation of the psychological conditions caused by life within capitalism is almost entirely driven by the profits of big pharma and so anathema to true research into why people behave as they do.
mcolome1 wrote:In that case we should alo make a psychological imvestigation of Roosevelt and Churchill. Nazism is not Hitler, and Bolshevism is not Lenin, and without the Russian revolt Lenin would have mever became a popular figure. The popularity of Donald Trump is just a product of the discontent of some of the US workers, and he has used that discontent in order to promote his capitalist agenda, which is also the agenda of some sectors of the capitalist class of the US So do you believe that psychology has no place within a political analysis? I agree with your assesment of the Trump phenomena but I also see him in the broader context of the decadence of capitalist political culture. The reversion to 'scape goating' of elements within the US population is reminiscent of what happened in Europe after the economic crash in the 1930's. I believe there are irrational elements at play within racism and xenophobia that are accessible to psychological inquiry. Socialists are bemused by the workers' support for such demagogues and surely psychology can give us some insights into this (within a historical and political context).
It's possible that a psychological analysis of the millions who would vote for such a dysfunctional individual would be more productive than a psychiatric assesment of that individual. Such attempts were made by the Frankfurt school, among others, with varying levels of success. The need for and belief in authoritarian social structures together with the leaders that such an arrangement produces does indicate a level of political naivety that implies some kind of emotional infantile state. Nazism and Bolshevism cannot be explained away by a psychological investigation of Hitler and Lenin.
I'm always rather wary about using medical/psychological concepts to describe political ideologies in terms of the personalities of those who subscribe to them. It is possible to deconstruct any political perspectives in this way thus eliminating any reference to the history of political philosophy at all. I'm sure comrades have had their belief in socialism deconstructed in terms of their personalities only too often?
