The Conscious Resistance Network presents: The Activation podcast
On this episode of The Activation podcast Derrick Broze interviews Mattias Desmet, author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism. He is also professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University and a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Derrick and Mattias talk about his book, his theories on mass formation, collectivism vs individualism, finding meaning, and solutions for challenging mass formation.
In 2018, he received the Evidence-Based Psychoanalytic Case Study Prize of the Association for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and in 2019, he received the Wim Trijsburg Prize of the Dutch Association of Psychotherapy.
Source:
The Psychology of Totalitarianism
Music for The Activation provided by Freejay MacLoud https://www.freejaymusic.com
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The Conscious Resistance Network is an independent media organization focused on empowering individuals through education, philosophy, health, and community organizing. We work to create a world where corporate and state power does not rule over the lives of free human beings.
Thanks, Derrick, for your usual, excellent interview. I am pleased Mattias’ work has had a positive influence in getting more of the mainstream status/statist quo intellectuals to question their thought leaders, but I have found Mattias’ work to not be all that new or usefully explicative in terms of his “Mass Formation” concept compared to the work that has been around for some 90 years starting with, to name just a few of the many authors and their many books: Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization-1934; Eric Hoffer, The True Believer-1951; James J. Lynch, The Broken Heart-1978 ( on the medical consequences of loneliness); Sherry Turkle, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit-1984; Iain McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary-2009; and most importantly for me, Lloyd deMause’s psychohistory work on the origins of human violence and mass movement/formation events such as wars, coming from abusive parenting, his last book, The Origins of War in Child Abuse-2010 https://psychohistory.com/books/the-origins-of-war-in-child-abuse/ . Btw, Mattias, I checked your The Psychology of Totalitarianism index and found no mention of Mumford, Hoffer, Lynch, Turkle, McGilchrist or deMause, so you might want to add these to your readings? Keep safe and free.
To add to above. I did some research on the term “Mass Formation”–how fascinating to see all the mainstream media fact checking, takedowns, pathetic rebuttals and attempted assassinations of Mattias’ “Mass Formation” concept which as the quote below indicates, ironically provides evidence for its existence in terms of the Covid1984 PlanScamDemic.
“How ‘mass formation psychosis’ formed society’s acceptance of COVID restrictions” COLDWELLIAN TIMES, June 24, 2022
“Despite a wealth of historical precedents, the reaction to Desmet’s ideas was bizarre and unfounded. A renowned and respected psychotherapist had postulated that we might need to reconsider the unconscious response to lockdowns and mandates — and his ideas were summarily dismissed by the voice of the state.
The diagnosis is clear. Deriding mass formation and dismissing its influence during a global crisis is in itself a verification of the phenomenon. Mainstream media demonstrates how it perpetuates mass formation by indulging in another well-accepted psychological phenomenon: denial. Considering the degree of unwillingness to confront the reality of ineffectiveness and dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines, an evaluation of the news media’s response to the current plague can also be deemed delusional.”
https://coldwelliantimes.com/eilmeldung/how-mass-formation-psychosis-formed-societys-acceptance-of-covid-restrictions/
Thank you, Mattias, for poking the hornet’s nest, stay safe and free, Jack in New Zealand