| Description |
x, 366 pages ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Ch. 1. The Mind of the Paranoid -- Ch. 2. Paranoid Culture and Conspiracy Thinking -- Ch. 3. The Roots of Paranoia -- Ch. 4. The Need for Enemies: Nationalism, Terrorism, and Paranoid Mass Movements -- Ch. 5. From the Individual to the Collective Apocalypse -- Ch. 6. Killing in the Name of God -- Ch. 7. Paranoia's Theorists -- Ch. 8. Paranoia's Agitators and Activists -- Ch. 9. Paranoia's Organizers and Propagandists -- Ch. 10. Paranoia in Power: Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and Joseph Stalin -- Ch. 11. Adolf Hitler: Destructive Charisma -- Ch. 12. Concluding Note |
| Summary |
Robert S. Robins and Jerrold M. Post, M.D., experts in political psychology, 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 the 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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-353) and index |
| Subject |
Right and left (Political science) -- Psychological aspects.
|
|
Paranoia.
|
| Author |
Post, Jerrold M.
|
| LC no. |
96040336 |
| ISBN |
0300070276 alkaline paper |
|
