How Culture Runs the Brain

A Freudian View of Collective Syndromes

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Counselling, Psychotherapy
Cover of the book How Culture Runs the Brain by Jay Evans Harris, Lexington Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jay Evans Harris ISBN: 9781498562461
Publisher: Lexington Books Publication: July 31, 2017
Imprint: Lexington Books Language: English
Author: Jay Evans Harris
ISBN: 9781498562461
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication: July 31, 2017
Imprint: Lexington Books
Language: English

Freud was right: mind and brain evolved together, adapting progressively to cultural change; responding regressively to wars, genocides, and forced migrations. Freud traced innate conflicts between pleasure and aggression in each stage of individual development to corresponding development in cultural stages. Cultural trauma that induces PTSD with a loss of secure identity in one generation induces collective phantasies (mythologies) among succeeding generations, and this may form cultural syndromes of revenge and restitution. Families, tribes, clans, and religious communities can regress together to infant and childhood stages. They may breed heroes, sociopaths, revolutionaries—or potential terrorists vulnerable to the siren call of internet shamans.

How Culture Runs (and sometimes ruins) the Brain presents neuroscience findings, revealing fantasy as the brain’s default mode, as it alters identity during unbearable trauma or loss. The book presents case histories of cultural conflicts among individuals, tribes, and nations, using the examples of the Boston Marathon Bombers, Bowe Bergdahl’s iconic trial, the Orlando Shooter, and regressive American players in the election of 2016. Conflicting forms of cultural narcissism determine economic survival: the immature narcissism of Trump and his followers challenges the mature narcissism that hid Hillary Clinton’s hubris. Immature narcissistic oligarchs can act out their economic dominance to deal with the fear of extinction of their own identity. Some terrorists groups use mature global technology in the service of immature fundamentalist identity.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Freud was right: mind and brain evolved together, adapting progressively to cultural change; responding regressively to wars, genocides, and forced migrations. Freud traced innate conflicts between pleasure and aggression in each stage of individual development to corresponding development in cultural stages. Cultural trauma that induces PTSD with a loss of secure identity in one generation induces collective phantasies (mythologies) among succeeding generations, and this may form cultural syndromes of revenge and restitution. Families, tribes, clans, and religious communities can regress together to infant and childhood stages. They may breed heroes, sociopaths, revolutionaries—or potential terrorists vulnerable to the siren call of internet shamans.

How Culture Runs (and sometimes ruins) the Brain presents neuroscience findings, revealing fantasy as the brain’s default mode, as it alters identity during unbearable trauma or loss. The book presents case histories of cultural conflicts among individuals, tribes, and nations, using the examples of the Boston Marathon Bombers, Bowe Bergdahl’s iconic trial, the Orlando Shooter, and regressive American players in the election of 2016. Conflicting forms of cultural narcissism determine economic survival: the immature narcissism of Trump and his followers challenges the mature narcissism that hid Hillary Clinton’s hubris. Immature narcissistic oligarchs can act out their economic dominance to deal with the fear of extinction of their own identity. Some terrorists groups use mature global technology in the service of immature fundamentalist identity.

More books from Lexington Books

Cover of the book The Ecology of Money by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book New Immigrants, Changing Communities by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book The Roads to Congress 2010 by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book The Problem of Naturalism by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Transnational Feminist Rhetorics and Gendered Leadership in Global Politics by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book The South Seas by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book National Football League Franchises by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book The EU and the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict 1971–2013 by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Beyond New Media by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Environmental Justice and Climate Change by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Whiteness and Racialized Ethnic Groups in the United States by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book An Alternative History of Bicycles and Motorcycles by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Classical Myth in Alfred Hitchcock's Wrong Man and Grace Kelly Films by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Neonationalist Mythology in Postwar Japan by Jay Evans Harris
Cover of the book Japan and Germany under the U.S. Occupation by Jay Evans Harris
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy