Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World [Paperback]

Robert Jay Lifton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1560255129 | ISBN-13: 978-1560255123

No one is better equipped than psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton-a leading scholar of thought control and mass violence- to make sense of the extreme moment. From Hiroshima survivors to Nazi doctors, from Vietnam veterans to the cult that sarin-gassed the Tokyo subways, he has explained to us global apocalyptic urges, the ravages of psychic numbness, and the psychology of the survivor. Now, as al- Qaeda's desire to purify the earth of "evil" meets the unilateral urge to dominate the globe's sole superpower, Lifton believes we have arrived at a remarkably perilous moment. The United States-from its leaders to much of its people-feels itself painfully vulnerable and thinks of itself as a survivor nation. The combination of such feelings roiling through the land over the last year and an administration with unprecedented military power bent on dominating and purifying the earth adds up to an intensely dangerous atmosphere-in fact, a "syndrome." Unfortunately, there is no therapy available for empires-or rather, the only therapy available is self-prescribed. But while Lifton can't be therapist to the earth's last superpower, he can bring together a half century of wisdom and apply it to Superpower Syndrome.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lifton brings his unique psychiatric and psychohistorical perspective to the heated issues of the war on terror and America in a unipolar world. Lifton defines superpower syndrome as an aberrant "national mind-set... that takes on a sense of omnipotence, of unique standing in the world that grants it the right to hold sway over all other nations." He examines parallels with other instances of apocalyptic nations, which he has explored in groundbreaking works about Hiroshima (Death in Life), the Holocaust (The Nazi Doctors), the Vietnam War (Home from the War) and global terrorism (Destroying the World to Save It). Bush's war on terror can be seen as apocalyptic, Lifton says, because of its call for an amorphous battle unlimited in time or space and encompassing the absolute eradication of evil. The perceived threat of group annihilation leads apocalyptics to "merge with God in the claim to ownership of death," asserting the right to "murderous purification" and to decide who lives and who dies. The U.S. response to Nazi violence was similarly apocalyptic, in Lifton's analysis, a battle "for global salvation through the flames of destruction," such as the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima. The latter in turn fed into the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult in Japan in the 1990s. Similarly, the Bush response is "part of an ongoing dynamic in which the American apocalyptic interacts, almost to the point of collusion, with the Islamic apocalyptic"-an escalation that, Lifton believes, "has in it the potential seeds of world destruction." Yet escalation isn't inevitable, and with guarded hope, Lifton provides a complex yet clearly articulated roadmap to national self-reflection rather than international destruction.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"As with all of Mr. Lifton's reflections on politics and psychology, this one [Destroying the World to Save It] has many powerful and compelling insights."

Product Details

• Paperback: 211 pages
• Publisher: Nation Books (October 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560255129
• ISBN-13: 978-1560255123
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil.", January 18, 2004

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World (Paperback)

Freud and Bertrand Russell have both examined the roots of popular religion in psychology. The purpose of religion, they observe, is to give the appearance of respectability to the passions of fear, conceit and hatred, provided they run through certain channels. (See Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?") In his book, SUPERPOWER SYNDROME, National Book Award winner, Robert Jay Lifton, examines our country's popular religion and current politics in drawing similar conclusions about our "national mindset."

Lifton is a psychiatrist and renowned scholar on the subjects of thought control and mass violence. In SUPERPOWER SYNDROME, he examines the extreme and apocalyptic "mindset" that has been perpetuated by our country's leaders since September 11, 2001. Drawing parallels from the "destructive excesses" of Nazi genocide, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chinese Communist "thought reform," the Vietnam war, and the apocalyptic actions of Aun Shinrikyo and other global terrorists of the late-twentieth century, Lifton provides his readers with a well-reasoned psychological profile of George Bush's mindset in polarizing the world into good and evil. While he does not claim the Bush administration is a mirror image of bin Ladin or Islamism, Lifton says that Bush's "crusade" to "rid the world of evil" (terminology connoting a Christian holy war) nevertheless suggests a harmful disorder and psychological and political abnormality (p. 187) shared by millions of Americans, including Christian evangelists like Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, and Pat Robertson.

The symptoms of the superpower psyche include unilateralism in all-important decisions, including those relating to war; the use of high technology to secure the ownership of death and of history; a sense of entitlement concerning the right to identify and destroy all those considered to be terrorists or friends of terrorists, while spreading virtues seen as preeminently ours throughout the world; the right to decide who may possess weapons of mass destruction and who may not; and a righteous vision of ridding the world of evil and purifying it spiritually and politically (p. 188). Before the Bush administration announced last week its plans to send a manned flight to Mars, Lifton noted in his insightful study that our present leaders believe American power extends not over the planet Earth, but through the militarization of space, and over the heavens as well (p. 175).

While Lifton's diagnosis is serious, he concludes his psychological and historical analysis "in a spirit of hope." "We can do better," he writes; "America is capable of wiser, more measured approaches, more humane applications of our considerable power and influence in the world" (p. 189). He encourages us to look to the words of Albert Camus in resetting our moral compass, and "to refuse to be a god," which means to reject omniscience and to instead embrace "thought which recognizes limits" (pp. 199-200). Though some readers may reject his diagnosis and opt for a second opinion, Lifton has nevertheless written one of the most important books of our time. Highly recommended.

G. Merritt

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent psychiatric analysis of 'Superpower Syndrome.', January 19, 2004

By 

Masaki Tanaka "mtanaka7" (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World (Paperback)

This concise book is undoubtedly one of the most important critiques of America's foreign policy along with Barber's, Rampton & Stauber's and Daalder & Lindsay's. The author recognizes, for example, the war on Iraq as a manifestation of America's apocalyptic face-off against Islamist forces. Nonetherless, at the heart of 'Superpower Syndrome,' the author argues, lies a powerful fear of vulnerability. This insight that the world only superpower suffers from such ambiguity is an extremely interesting point which only psychiatrists can explore. He also refers to other apocalyptic imaginations such as Islamist's and a Japanese cult called 'Aum.' I really enjoy reading this interesting work!

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A chilling and accurate analysis, January 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World (Paperback)

This book is truly amazing. By looking at the actions and motives of the Bush administration through Lifton's psychological perspective, so much of the insanity of our predicament suddenly comes into perspective. Without slandering the Bush administration, Lifton compares their motives and worldview to cults, terrorists, and other militant ideologues, the common thread being their apocalyptic mindset. Lifton reconciles the religious apocalyptic views of Bush with the more secular and political apocalyptic views of those in his administration...and you finally realize that, although they're all coming at it from different angles, they're all equally willing and eager to destroy the world for the sake of glory.

Some of the most interesting parts come when Lifton talks about the ideas of "controlling history" and therefore controlling life and death. This explains the apocalyptic mindset of those who don't hold religions as the catalyst. This book is a very interesting, and I think accurate, frame through which to view current events. Criticism of the Bush administration is often dismissed as liberal, Democrat slander. This book was not written from any certain political perspective; it was written from a very humane, psychological perspective. The final diagnosis is less of a critique and more of a warning about the imminent threat posed by the current political status quo.

I was telling my sister about this book, and what I thought of it, and she said: "Isn't there a part of you that doesn't want to know these things?" It's an odd question, but understandable. This book is frightening. It forces the reader to consider that we may be in the grips of an apocalyptic cult which, beneath the public-friendly rhetoric about peace and freedom, is motivated by a need to destroy all evil, and all of the world, if necessary.