Why is fear a dominant emotion in contemporary society? Why are politicians using words like 'terror', 'evil' and 'fundamentalism', and what effect is it having on public consciousness?
This book taps into the cultural psyche to explore the link between ideology and emotional and psychological manipulation. It shows that the Bush administration has been hugely successful in controlling and developing a new political climate through the creation of an almost hypnotic mass consciousness.
From the sado-masochist hysteria of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ' to the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison; and from the genocidal use of depleted uranium in Iraq to the apocalyptic language driving the Christian Right's assault on basic human rights.
Davis's findings take us to the heart of the ideological paralysis of the Left, while offering an innovative approach to understanding contemporary history.
By:
Walter A. Davis
Imprint: Pluto Press UK
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 215mm,
Width: 135mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 389g
ISBN: 9780745324685
ISBN 10: 0745324681
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 20 March 2006
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified
Preface: The Way We Were PART ONE—THE BELLY OF THE BEAST 1. 911- America 2. Living in Death’s Dream Kingdom: The Psychotic Core of Capitalist Ideology 3. Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib 4. Weapons of Mass Destruction Found in Iraq 5. A Humanistic Response to 9-11: Robert Jay Lifton, or the Nostalgia for Guarantees 6. A Postmodernist Response to 9-11: Slavoj Zizek, or the Jouissance of an Abstract Hegelian PART II: TO THE LEFT OF THE LEFT 7. Bible Says: The Psychology of Christian Fundamentalism 8. The Psychodynamics of Terror 9. Evil: As Psychological Process and as Philosophic Concept 10. Men of Good Will: Toward an Ethic of the Tragic Notes Bibliography Index
Walter A. Davis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Ohio State University. He is the author of six previous books, including Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx and Freud (University of Wisconsin Press, 1989) and Deracination: Historicity, Hiroshima, and the Tragic Imperative (SUNY Press, 2001).
Reviews for Death's Dream Kingdom: The American Psyche Since 9-11
'Davis writes with fervor, vision, and keen moral appreciation of our condition. He encourages us to see what we fear to see, to say what we fear to say. This book is illuminating, challenging, fierce.' Michael Eigen, author of The Sensitive Self, Rage, Ecstasy, Toxic Nourishment, Damaged Bonds and The Psychoanalytic Mystic
