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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Psychological Risks Of War Between The United States And China, Eugen Koh
The Psychological Risks Of War Between The United States And China, Eugen Koh
New England Journal of Public Policy
The relationship between the United States and China has deteriorated over the past two decades and fears of escalating risks of war are regularly reported in global media. This article explores the psychological factors that contribute to the two superpowers shifting from a collaborative relationship to a competitive relationship, seeing each other as enemies, feeling increasingly threatened by each other, failing to consider the heightened sensitivities that arise from their respective traumatic pasts, triggering the collapse of thinking and unleashing of uncontainable emotionality, escalating accidents to conflict, and escalating conflict to war. It highlights the dangers of ignoring heightened trauma-related …
From Conflict To Covid: How Shared Experiences Shape Our World And How They Could Improve It, Harvey Whitehouse
From Conflict To Covid: How Shared Experiences Shape Our World And How They Could Improve It, Harvey Whitehouse
New England Journal of Public Policy
The human capacity for cooperation is at the root of many of the most impressive accomplishments of our species—from the evolution of language and tool use to the construction of pyramids and space stations. Although some forms of cooperation are motivated by self-interest or fear of punishment, the forms of cooperation that are most likely to succeed in the face of personal costs stem from love of the group. In this article, I consider one of the most intense forms of ingroup love known to psychology—identity fusion—resulting from shared suffering, from the battlefield and football pitch to the hospital ward …
Psychological Reflections On Mahatma Gandhi And The Future Of Satyagraha, Charles B. Strozier
Psychological Reflections On Mahatma Gandhi And The Future Of Satyagraha, Charles B. Strozier
New England Journal of Public Policy
The article examines the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi from a psychological perspective. Special attention is given to the psychoanalytic study of Gandhi by Erik Erikson, Gandhi’s Truth, in 1969. The author notes his personal connection with Erikson’s book, which profoundly influenced his thinking (and life). The article alternates between a close psychological reading of Erikson’s book and Gandhi’s My Experiments with Truth. The larger point of the article is to reflect on the future of satyagraha or nonviolence. Gandhi’s own meanings of satyagraha are often difficult for many to accept, given the psychological violence that infected his form …
The Apocalyptic Imagination And The Fundamentalist Mindset, Charles B. Strozier
The Apocalyptic Imagination And The Fundamentalist Mindset, Charles B. Strozier
New England Journal of Public Policy
This article explores the psychological meanings of the apocalyptic imagination in what I call a fundamentalist mindset. That mindset has its own long history but is newly relevant in the nuclear age. We no longer need God to bring about ultimate destruction. There are many facets of the fundamentalist mindset (for example, its intense literalism), but the focus in the article is on two: its kairotic sense of time and its rampant paranoia. These two facets interact synergistically around violence that is experienced by those who revel in it as moral in a totalistic sense. Killing becomes healing. The evil …