TURBULENT TIMES: IS AMERICA COMING UNDONE?
Featuring Murray Stein, Luigi Zoja, Nancy Furlotti, Nathan Schwartz-Salant, Steve Buser, and Pythia Peay.
This live Webinar was originally held August 11, 2016, by Asheville Jung Center, and is now available as a replay on their site.
This is a presidential election unlike any other, taking place during a chaotic time of roiling unrest, at home and abroad. A time when a cluster of explosive political issues, from terrorism to racism to climate change, has each taken on a demanding urgency—even as the country is divided along partisan and economic lines.
Adding to the volatility, President Barack Obama is poised to make his final exit from the political stage.
The current nominees, two of the most disliked candidates in the past ten election cycles, can seem almost like a fall from the height of one of our best achievements.
It is at just such a time that wise voices are called for from thinkers who can help bring insight to the problems we face as a country. Psychologists, who have available to them a body of knowledge on human nature unique to the modern era, and who daily witness how the American dream shapes the day-to-day lives of the country’s citizens, are among those who occupy the kind of sane middle ground so needed at this critical juncture.
To learn more about the collective psychology of this political moment and the deeper currents underlying the 2016 Presidential election, psychiatrist Dr. Steve Buser, MD and the Asheville Jung Center bring together a panel of four noted psychoanalysts—Murray Stein, Nancy Furlotti, Nathan Schwartz-Salant and Luigi Zoja—to offer their perspectives into the unconscious forces, complexes, and other patterns as they are played out with great political theater during the conventions and debates.
Moderated by depth journalist Pythia Peay, the panel addresses these topics:
—The psychological background of this particular historic moment
—The psychology of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, as well as the psychology of Republicans and Democrats, and what they each of the candidates and their parties reveal about the psychology of America at this time
—Racial tension, and the rise of Black Lives Matter and the marginalization of economically disadvantaged white men
—Violence and terrorism
—Polarization, economic and political
—Climate change denial
—The anxiety of being an American voter, and as a psychological consequence of democracy but most especially in these times
—Healing symbols to guide the country forward
While we certainly don’t aim to solve these problems, or even to address each of these issues in their totality, we do hope to do our part in helping the country hold together during this fragile period, without fragmenting into factions.
We aim to do this by helping voters stay connected to the process of understanding the political issues as they are thrown into sharp relief during the campaign process, as well as their own unconscious responses, empowering them to stay in the fray without getting overwhelmed so that they can cast the vote that best represents their vision for the country.
We also aim to satisfy the need for a deeper relationship to the complex problems of our time than is provided by the mainstream media.
Offered by Asheville Jung Center
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