Politic rhetoric does not correspond to or describe "reality." Rather, political rhetoric articulates or conveys fantasies shared by a leader and his followers. How to uncover the fantasies that define a political culture? My methodology is described in my book Hitler's Ideology (see below).

An ideology is comparable to a dream—or nightmare--that many people are having at the same time. The psychological study of ideology focuses—not on the idiosyncrasies of individuals—but upon how shared desires, anxieties and conflicts give rise to collective representations.

PS: What many of your are experiencing at the present time--in the United States--is a shared or collective nightmare. The "mass-media" embraces and conveys this nightmare. Even as "the news" produces "fear and trembling and a sickness unto death," it also generates sexual excitement: the irresistible attraction of observing psychotic people--day after day, right before one's eyes. THE UNCANNY: psychotic delusion at the center of a civilization. 

Some of you may have received a similar copy of this LSS Newsletter a few days ago. Due to a glitch, we are re-sending it (with a new title and new material). Hope you find it useful. Mary Helen Guider Shaw.

Hitler's Ideology: order through Amazon. by Richard Koenigsberg Presents an ingenious technique for identifying the psychological origins of political and social events.” —The Village Voice “The best critical analysis in English of Hitler's thought.” —Colin Day “Koenigsberg's genius has unlocked the secrets of a timeless drama.” —Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology

The Psychological Interpretation of Political Ideas: Methodology

Political ideas articulate psychological meanings. How to decipher the latent content of political rhetoric and texts? My method consists of identifying recurring images and figures of speech in the rhetoric and texts of political leaders--to reveal the phantasies that the political ideology seeks to express.

An ideology is comparable to a dream—that many people are having at once. The psychological study of ideology focuses—not on the idiosyncrasies of individuals—but upon how shared desires, anxieties and conflicts give rise to collective representations.

My method grows out of my research on Nazism, which began with Hitler’s Ideology (click previous link for information on ordering the eBook). Identifying recurring images and metaphors in Hitler’s rhetoric, I concluded that Nazi ideology externalized a coherent phantasy: the idea that the German nation was a real body (politic) suffering from a potentially fatal disease.

The Final Solution grew out of Hitler’s phantasy or perception of reality. Hitler and the Nazis sought to eliminate Jews—imagined to be the source of Germany’s disease—in order to prevent the death of the body politic. Hitler conveyed this phantasy to his closest colleagues, and eventually to the German people. A sufficient number of Germans embraced and enacted this phantasy—the source of the history the Nazis created.