The Psychology of Totalitarianism

by Mattias Desmet Narrated by Dan Crue

Overview

We bear witness to loneliness, free-floating anxiety, and fear giving way to censorship, loss of privacy, and surrendered freedoms. It is all spurred by a singular, focused crisis narrative that forbids dissident views and relies on destructive groupthink. Totalitarianism is not a coincidence and does not form in a vacuum. It arises from a collective psychosis that has followed a predictable script throughout history, its formation gaining strength and speed with each generation?from the Jacobins to the Nazis and Stalinists?as technology advances. Governments, mass media, and other mechanized forces use fear, loneliness, and isolation to demoralize populations and exert control, persuading large groups of people to act against their own interests, always with destructive results. In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, world-renowned Professor of Clinical Psychology Mattias Desmet deconstructs the societal conditions that allow this collective psychosis to take hold. By looking at our current situation and identifying the phenomenon of “mass formation”?a type of collective hypnosis?he clearly illustrates how close we are to surrendering to totalitarian regimes.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

05/23/2022

Clinical psychology professor Desmet (Lacan’s Logic of Subjectivity) delivers a dubious examination of “the psychological roots of totalitarianism.” Describing totalitarianism as the “logical consequence” of a “delusional belief in the omnipotence of human rationality,” Desmet discusses the concept of “mass formation,” a phenomenon in which individuals willingly sacrifice their own freedom for an amorphous collective good. He traces the “mechanistic ideology” behind totalitarianism from the Enlightenment through 19th-century imperialism and “the emergence of Nazism and Stalinism” to the rise of the climate movement and Covid-19 lockdowns. According to Desmet, public health measures to combat the spread of Covid exist on a continuum of ever-worsening social crises in which the citizenry actively choose security provided by technocrats over personal agency. He spends much of the book arguing against the conventional narrative of Covid, suggesting that it is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu and that death counts associated with the disease are overstated because they include deaths caused by underlying conditions. Though Desmet makes some intriguing points about how technological advances and the “war on terror” have undermined privacy rights, his historical analogies are disingenuous and his warnings about “subcutaneous sensors,” “synthetic wombs,” and other “technocratic medical experiment” are alarmist. This provocation misfires. (June)

From the Publisher

"As I walk through the halls of a major US medical center, I see eyes that divert themselves away from me as I pass. When we engage in our usual discussions on patients, the topic of COVID-19 vaccination brings a halting response: ‘We don’t want to talk about it.’ I see fear, shame, and a never-ending cycle of groupthink that has been more contagious among physicians than aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 in a crowded elevator. Mattias Desmet, like a guided missile, has hit the target. The medical community is in mass formation and this led to a much larger penumbra that has enveloped the general population. In this book, Desmet has constructed an explanatory framework from which the cohesive fabric is suspended that clearly and concisely explains what is happening and what the next steps are that each and every one of us need to take to break the ‘spell’ and restore normalcy. A must read for our time.”

—Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH; chief medical advisor, Truth for Health Foundation

"Transcending medical controversies, this book offers an indispensable window into the social phenomenon we call COVID."

—Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics and The Coronation

"Mattias Desmet is the world’s expert on the phenomenon of mass formation—and one of the most sincere, thoughtful, and important intellectuals of the twenty-first century. If you want to understand why and how the coronavirus pandemic response unfolded the way it did at a societal level and—even more importantly—how to prevent such a travesty from happening again, The Psychology of Totalitarianism is essential reading. Desmet shows us how to reclaim our humanity in an increasingly dehumanized and mechanized world."

—Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, trial attorney; cofounder, Berlin’s Corona Investigative Committee

"In this masterful book, Desmet asks how we have arrived at the doorstep of totalitarianism. Taking the reader on a wild, scholarly ride through history, science, and psychology, he delivers answers both necessary and unexpected."

—Heather Heying, PhD, evolutionary biologist; coauthor of A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century

"Desmet is waking a lot of people up to the dangerous place we are now with a brilliant distillation of how we ended up here."

—Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

"Mattias Desmet’s theory of mass formation is the most important lens through which we can understand the COVID-19 pandemic and the social aberrations that accompanied it. In The Psychology of Totalitarianism, Desmet explains how and why people will willingly give up their freedom, how the masses can give rise to a totalitarian leader, and—most importantly—how we can resist these phenomena and maintain our common humanity. This is the most important book of 2022."

—Dr. Robert Malone, author of Lies My Gov’t Told Me

"Mattias Desmet’s [theory of mass formation hypnosis] is great. . . . Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere."

—Eric Clapton

"The foundational thinkers on mass formation are joined by Mattias Desmet, who now stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Arendt, Jung and Freud. His understanding and analysis of contemporary group behavior in a destabilized society, presents a fascinating window into the minds of the most complex beings on the planet. Desmet’s seminal work underlines the increasingly dangerous behavior of humanity—and that it must be understood and reversed if we are to survive as a species."

 

—David Marks, writer and documentary producer

"One of the most important books I’ve ever read."

—Ivor Cummins, The Fat Emperor Podcast

Product Details

BN ID:	2940174852877
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	06/16/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,069,153

Videos