Starting with the Spring 2024 Issue of the Journal of Psycyhohistory, we began publishing Jay Gonen’s manuscript of his fifth and final book, written before he died in 2022 at the age of 88, titled The World and the Self in Early 20th Century Literature. We will be publishing all seven chapters of the book serially — in consecutive issues of the journal. In this issue, we will be publishing Chapter 4 (Part 2).
Articles
Sense-Making of the Continuing Age of Trump Through Fable and Allegory, Howard F. Stein
“Imagination is the only weapon in the war with reality.”
—Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland (1865)
Them
I am a “them” to you –
the banishment is
in your eyes,
in the distance
you stand from me,
in the frown
on your face
when I am the object
of your gaze.
How not to make
your judgment
my own,
and become a “them”
to me?
ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to make sense of the ongoing Age of Trump in the US via the genres of allegory, fable, myth, and story-telling, rather than from the more traditional scholarly, narrative, lineal approach. The paper poses and attempts to answer several questions: What is it like for us to live during this mischievous, perilous time in America? How do you make sense of the seeming senselessness of the continuing Age of Trump?
The author explores not only the problematic nature of making sense of chaos, but also how one comes to understand how to begin to accomplish this. The writer’s “method” includes the psychohistorian’s very style of writing, and how this style itself contributes to the process of making sense of the continuing Age of Trump. By the term “style” I specifically mean an often-conversational mode of story-telling, and the use of fable, allegory, and myth.
I hope to show how a more accessible writing style contributes to the process of making sense, one unburdened by the limits of traditional scholarly writing. My ultimate question is: Does this experiment resonate with you my reader? That is the litmus test of the “success” of this experiment in psychohistory-by-storytelling.
Destructive Leader and Political Dynamics: A Psychosocially Informed Perspective, Seth Allcorn
ABSTRACT: In 2025 we as Americans and the citizens of the world enter into Trump Season 2.0 the sequel. We are, after the election, left to imagine the endless possibilities of a chaotic mind, supported in this season by a cast of loyal enablers and a pre-programmed 2025 project plot and script to follow. Bearing witness to what may be hard to imagine leads to considering the destructive leader and loyal follower dynamics that will follow (Allcorn & Stein, 2025). These dynamics include the disruption of the federal government by mass terminations in order to—according to a DHS (Department of Homeland Security) spokesperson—“eliminate egregious waste and incompetence that has been happening for decades at the expense of the American taxpayer” (Timotija, 2024), by members of the deep state and those tar- geted by Trump for revenge. The disillusionment, disappointment, and distress of those who remain will be palpable (Allcorn et al., 1996; Stein, 1997). Will they continue to try to embrace a culture of professionalism and risk being singled out as people who need to be brought into MAGA compliance? It may be that a collapsed American governmental organizational culture will only be remembered with nostalgia (Gabriel, 1993, 1999). Insight into what happens during the balance of the current decade, including the problematic nature of the transfer of power at the end of Season 2.0, will be aided in this article by psychosocially informed perspectives into leadership and organizational dynamics.
Being a Czechoslovak Dissident’s Child on the Run: Biographical Narratives About Overcoming Parents’ Persecutions, Involuntary Emigration and Life After, Magdaléna Uhmannová & Lenka Krámaská
ABSTRACT: Between 1948 and 1989, Czechoslovakia was under the influence of communist totalitarianism, which dealt with its opponents in various ways. From the late 1970s, the regime tried to force dissidents to emigrate by using psychological pressure and physical violence. Some of the dissidents left the country with their children. Previous studies focused mainly on the negative experiences of dissidents. This article focuses on their descendants, trying to capture in their biographical narrative not only the adversity they experienced but also the resilience, described using the Gunnestad model.
Data were obtained using in-depth interviews and the crisis curve method with nine descendants of dissidents and additionally with six of their parents and was then processed using reflexive thematic analysis. The form of risk factors changed, in the Czechoslovakia it posed risks to family safety and educational opportunities. They experienced the pressure to learn the language and emotional strain during emigration and adjustment. During the elementary and high school years they experienced social and emotional burden. In adulthood, risks were replaced by dilemmas. Both generations described risks differently. Resilience factors also changed, at the beginning the importance of social support was emphasized, then personal strengths were added and later values.
KEY WORDS: involuntary emigration, children in emigration, central Europe, era of communism, dissidents, resilience, protective factors.
Psychohistorical Perspective on Current Events and Issues
From Agriculture to Agribusiness: a Personal Journey, Peter Petschauer
ABSTRACT: This essay begins with the abuse of kittens, chickens and horseflies on our farm in the mountains of Italy, moves through the recognition of the importance of the animals for the continued endurance of our farm, to the modern use and abuse of the same species for human survival and profit.
KEY TERMS: kittens, cats, chickens, cats, cows, horses, sheep, pigs, Dolomite Mountains, Italy, hog lagoons, North Carolina, environmental concerns.
INTRODUCTION
This essay is based on the argument that all animals have, just as we do as human beings, a right to existence. It begins with the childhood abuses of some animals who surrounded us on a small mountain farm in the Dolomite Mountains, goes on to my learning how to care for some of them and understanding implicitly that household animals allowed us to prevail on a small family farm. It ends with a brief look at the use and abuse of the descendants of these very animals.
Book Excerpt
The World and the Self in Early Twentieth-Century Literature, Jay Y. Gonen
CHAPTER 4 (Part 2) FRANZ KAFKA: FACING THE SYSTEM
Franz Kafka’s name has become associated with the notion of the modern world gone berserk. His portrayals of mindless as well as heartless organizations, which systematically and thoroughly grind down unfortunate individuals, have become symbols of the monstrosity of the modern age. The term Kafkaesque now serves as a common, even classic, way for condemning bureaucracies specifically but also modern society in general. It became part and parcel of the conception of the malaise of the modern world in which, in one fashion or another, an individual finds himself facing a crazy order of things that we shall term here “the system.” Included in the notion of the Kafkaesque is the basic assumption that the individual is essentially helpless in trying to oppose the system. Because the system is so powerful yet mindless or perhaps mad, it will simply not budge. It will keep on grinding until the doomed individual is completely pulverized. This is the unlucky lot of modern man, who is thrust into a contemporary world in which the development of oppressive, albeit dysfunctional, systems have become routine. What can individuals do? How can any person face the system with even a modicum of success? Perhaps there is nothing that he can do short of flailing in all directions! As can be learned from two novels by Kafka, the question is deceptively simple while the answers are complicated. Therefore, we shall seek the answers in two novels The Castle and The Trial.
Book Review
Forging New Paths: Reflections on History, Culture and Psyche, David Beisel and Irene Javors, Reviewed by Wei Zhang
In the realm of psychoanalysis, trauma is defined as “the psychological disruption that occurs in response to a sudden overwhelming stimulus, either from without or from within, that exceeds capacities for active
assimilation and has severe and pervasive negative impact on psychological function” (Auchincloss et al., 2012, pp. 271-272). Such experiences typically yield varying degrees of negative impact on personality function. Trauma manifests both at an individual and collective level. The book titled Forging New Paths: Reflections on History, Culture and Psyche primarily addresses collective traumatic experiences within broader societal frameworks.
This book is structured into two parts: the initial three chapters focus on the deeply traumatic experiences of World War II, while the subsequent three chapters address the traumatic reactions caused by recent social events, such as television productions and the recent pandemic.
Psychohistorical Perspectives: Poetry
Kitchen Wars, A Narrative Poem, Howard F. Stein
So ordinary a kitchen setting: The 1950’s, an already ancient Heavy square metal table, Mom to the left, Dad to the right,
I sat in the middle.
An old gas stove beyond
The open front of the table,
Behind it, a garbage can,
Ever redolent of putrid waste,
Then the refrigerator to my right,
And at the far, right end of the kitchen, A massive porcelain sink.
As far back as I can remember,
Mom and dad at war across this table,
A battlefield of bitter stares and deafening shouts, Both of them firing cannonade
Of hate, resentment, disappointment,
Masks of sorrow and of grief,
Across some imaginary middle. ….