Tag Archives: The Psychology of Totalitarianism

  Professor Mattias Desmet, a Belgian psychologist, gained worldwide recognition toward the end of 2021, when he presented the concept of “mass formation” as an explanation for the absurd and irrational behavior we were seeing with regard to the COVID pandemic and its countermeasures. He also warned that mass formation gives rise to totalitarianism, which is the topic of his …

  Professor of Clinical Psychology, Mattias Desmet’s book The Psychology of Totalitarianism is well worth reading: The world is in the grips of mass formation—a dangerous, collective type of hypnosis—as we bear witness to loneliness, free-floating anxiety, and fear giving way to censorship, loss of privacy, and surrendered freedoms. It is all spurred by a singular, focused crisis narrative that …