WINTER 2019

Traumatic Fundamentalist Childhood and Trump, PART ll, Kenneth Alan Adams

ABSTRACT: As Part II of the 3-part series that examines support for Trump, fundamentalist childrearing, and the social trance, this article describes the childrearing beliefs and practices among fundamentalists and those influenced by them that create the formative mechanisms for the group trance that engulfs the Christian right. The issue is how, amidst the unprecedented malfeasance surrounding this administration, Donald Trump maintains his presidency against the opposition of more than half of the country. It is argued that fundamentalist immersion in a social trance is crucial to maintaining Trump’s political support, and that childrearing and alter formation are key to understanding the basis for the Right’s acquiescence in Trump’s abhorrent behavior and policies. It is suggested that fundamentalism is engaged in a purity campaign to cleanse America of non-Christian elements, a fanaticism so pronounced that one professional has proposed the existence of the Religious Trauma Syndrome. Using religious beliefs to terrorize and corporal punishment to chastise, fundamentalist parents dominate their children, generating in them authoritarian personalities, i.e., predispositions to obey authority unhesitatingly and defend against anxiety by switching into social alters. It is proposed that in adulthood, alter formation is transformed into political group-fantasies, which are crucial to trance induction. A network of conservative and religious groups, institutions, and individuals promote and elaborate these illusions to benefit conservative political and religious interests and maintain Donald Trump’s presidency. Part II concludes by focusing on moms who function as proxy patriarchs in the family and the political repercussions of childhood trauma as evidenced in the behavior of Trump supporters. Part III will focus on the social trance and trance induction.

Perception vs. Reality: Testing the Viability of a Psychohistorical Interpretation of the Group Threat Approach to Negative Attitudes Toward Immigrants and the Role of Ideological and Personality Traits in Perception Biases, Denis J. O’Keefe

Abstract: The humanitarian crisis in immigrant detention and treatment of refugees has been partially created and maintained with the use of threat-based narratives since the events of 9/11. The current research utilizes cross-sectional survey data to test the group threat approach of anti-immigrant sentiment and how group threat factors composing the narrative are defined by ideological and psychological traits. Findings indicate that the threat-based narrative is perception rather than reality based in line with a psychohistorical interpretation that such biases service group level projective needs for individuals with identifiable ideological, authoritarian and social dominance traits.

Introduction: Empirical Psychohistorical Research Program:

This research is part of a larger research program to quantitatively test basic tenets of psychogenic psychohistorical theory. More specifically, testing the role of childhood conflicts expressed via group fantasy as it pertains to important contemporary and historical events. The research is partially inspired by the work of William Meyer (2015) and his efforts to promote psychodynamically informed inquiries of history and culture in a scientifically valid way providing evidential footing for models of human behavior employed and evidence for their application, especially regarding unconscious determinants.

MODI’S “DIGITAL INDIA” AND THE MOTHER GODDESS: FANTASY AS LEGITIMATION, Souvik Raychaudhuri and Brian D’Agostino

ABSTRACT: This article examines two fantasies promoted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how they apparently function to legitimize his authoritarian regime. We argue that his “Digital India” program, notwithstanding its failures as public policy, has served as a fantasy about national transformation through technology. Secondly, Modi’s promotion of the “Mother India” fantasy—personification of the country as a Hindu goddess—fosters a false sense of national unity at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities and diverts attention from the real social and economic problems facing India.

KEYWORDS: authoritarianism, fantasy, intolerance, legitimation, mother archetype, nationalism

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aka“NaMo, is one of the world’s most politically successful authoritarian leaders. He has achieved legitimacy, we will argue, largely by promoting two fantasies. The first, “Digital India,” appeals to corporate elites, especially in the high tech sector. It also appeals to an Indian population eager for an escapist magic cure for deep-seated social and economic problems. The second fantasy is “Mother India”—the archetypal personification of the country as a Hindu mother goddess.

Archbishop William Laud’s Dreams: Their Personal and Political Significance, Anastasia Kucharski

ABSTRACT: William Laud was beheaded on January 10, 1645 on charges of treason for acts he committed during the reign of Charles I, when he was Archbishop of Canterbury. He maintained his innocence throughout his trial and died a depressed and lonely old man abandoned by the King he publicly defended. Laud’s legacy includes a chronicle of his life at Court in which he records his dreams and his responses to them. The dreams express Laud’s hopes and fears about his mentors and friends, parents and kings. Laud also notes his feelings about the dreams. He often found them “troubling” and tried to understand their significance for him.

         Laud’s attempts to interpret his dreams occurred at a time when introspection and self-examination were becoming a conscious part of a person’s psychological functioning. The seventeenth century has often been described as a period of transition from medieval to modern society. Literature reflects the growth of a personal voice, as individual characters are more delineated and their archetypal associations deemphasized. A similar phenomenon appears in Laud’s dreams, which serve as a source for our understanding of how he came to trial.

BOOK REVIEW ESSAY

Is Trauma Cultural/Political or All in the Brain and Biological?, Mustafa Rahman, MD, MBA and Jamshid A. Marvasti, MD

C.F. Alford, Trauma, Culture, and PTSD. 2016, Palgrave Macmillan, U.S.

The author, Dr. C. Fred Alford is an accomplished political scientist – Professor Emeritus of Government and Politics and a Distinguished Scholar Teacher at the University of Maryland, College Park.  By contrast our review of this book is rooted in disciplines and specialties quite different from that of the author. We and the author of this valuable book seek to examine the subject matter through the prisms of two different lenses – the author concentrates on aspects of culture and politics, while we consider neurotransmitters and hormonal changes (Marvasti 2012). And while we have knowledge of the other’s opinions, we may lack the same conviction.

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….“One way to interpret this difference is that Sri Lankans saw the damage done by the tsunami as located not in their minds, but in their social relationships.” Our counterpoint to the author’s interpretation is that “social relationships” are also perceived and felt by the brain; therefore the damage remains in the brain of the victims.