Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred [Hardcover]

Professor Robert S. Robins (Author), Dr. Jerrold Post M.D. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0300070276 | ISBN-13: 978-0300070279 | Publication Date: September 23, 1997

Paranoia is not an obscure mental state afflicting some individuals but a widespread condition of modern societies, say the authors of this book. Robert S. Robins and Jerrold M. Post, M.D., document and interpret the malign power of paranoia in a variety of contexts - in political movements like McCarthyism, in organizations like the John Birch Society, in leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Jim Jones, and David Koresh, and among extreme groups that commit violence in the name of Christianity, islam, and Judaism. Indeed, Robins and Post show that paranoid dynamic has been aggressively present in every social disaster of this century. Robins and Post describe the paranoid personality, explain why paranoia is part of human evolutionary history, and examine the conditions that must exist before the message of the paranoid takes root in a vulnerable population, leading to mass movements and genocidal violence. Their wide-ranging discussion sheds lights on many troubling episodes in our history: why more than 900 people committed suicide in Guyana in 1978 with their leader, Jim Jones; how the terrorists who bombed New York's World Trade Centre in New York in 1993 justified their violence in the name of God; how the need for enemies in the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire led to a rise in anti-Semitism in some eastern European countries even though the Jewish population had been nearly decimated; how paranoia manifests itself among black and white racists; and why the conspiracy theory elaborated in Oliver stone's film JFK strikes such a chord in the viewing public.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Paranoia is an underlying theme in political life. While healthy suspicion is invaluable to leaders, extreme cases are disastrous for citizens and nations alike. Arguing that humans have a natural tendency toward paranoia based on the fear of strangers and the need for friends, Robins and Post (When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King, LJ 2/15/93) examine the role of paranoia in the political context. They first discuss the basic elements of the paranoid condition, then explore past paranoid episodes (Salem witch hunts,) paranoid societies (the Dobu society of New Guinea), and conspiracy thinking. Along the way, they examine the paranoid regimes of Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler as well as those of Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Middle East terrorists. The result is a fine complement to Anton Neumayr's Dictators in the Mirror of Medicine: Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin (Medi-Ed Pr., 1995). Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Stephen L. Hupp, Univ. of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Pa.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Lightly bolstering commonsensical armchair analysis of history's despots and cultists, this cursory survey manages to tell a bit less than we may sense we already know about the pathological use of power. Of Robins's (Political Science/Tulane Univ.) and Post's (Psychiatry/George Washington Univ.) theme--``that paranoia is a characteristic mentality of the late twentieth century''--this review of destructive regimes leaves little doubt, if there ever was any. But primarily retailing the well-known behavior of the likes of Pol Pot and cult leader Jim Jones, it is weaker on the more vexing question of their success in leading, in the extreme cases, entire societies to severe self-mutilation. After summarizing some basic psychology about the ``need for enemies,'' the authors largely neglect much examination of the specific conditions that allowed these paranoid delusions to be writ so large--save to quickly observe, for example, that in the Middle East conspiratorial thinking is fostered by a history marked by actual conspiracies or that interwar Germany was in ``distress.'' By the chapter on Hitler, the tininess of the psychological analysis (the possible Jewish grandfather) relative to the magnitude of the events in question becomes obvious. When the French and Russian revolutions are principally cited for operating ``as if [they] were to produce a messiah or introduce a millennium'' (a condition the authors classify as a ``pairing group'' state), it seems that any contextual understanding of social movements or conflict has been overshadowed by the psychopolitical angle. And yet the banal truth of political paranoia's rampancy is not even fully enough represented here, as the diagnostic line drawn around the pathological--decontextualized even in an example as immediate as the militia movement--underplays the wider spectrum of irrationality, superstition, and resentment along which most mainstream politics reside as well. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 408 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 23, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300070276
• ISBN-13: 978-0300070279
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Touch, June 16, 2010

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This review is from: Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred (Hardcover)

This was an excellent Amazon vendor. I received my book promptly. The book was the best price available and was in very good condition as advertised. I would certainly order from this vendor again.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Changing the politcal outlook, August 12, 2007

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This review is from: Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred (Hardcover)

A great book not recommended for ideological prejudice - mind readers. It might be that our leaders whether political or religious, are driving more for his / her diminish sense of self than for ideology, creed or believe. Their "true followers/believers" sometimes are useful only for enhancing personal purposes derived from an internally damage - ego - ashamed - poorly personal sense -self.

10 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The carnage is not based in paranoia but in male biology., January 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred (Hardcover)

The description of the urge to kill in the name of God and other ideologies is well chronicled in this book, as is the need to identify an "evil other." The authors, however, miss the forest for the well chronicled trees. The violence is rooted more in male biology than paranoid psychology. Male biology needs to form "teams" and violently compete with and exterminate each other, and it is extremely inventive in doing so, from football teams to religions.