Category Archives: Blog
On Mixed Minds: Liberal-Conservatives and Conservative-Liberals
Conservatives are generally fearful of and highly resistant to change, have an obsessive need for order and predictability, prize individual differences (money, status, etc.), and believe in hierarchy over community and egalitarianism. In sharp contrast, liberals generally believe strongly in reasoned argument, logic, and science.
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Posted in Blog, Media + Politics, Psychology
Tagged Chris Mooney, conservative, liberal
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Standing Up To Political Bullies
One of most powerful ways of helping people learn about themselves and others is to put people into different groups based on their personalities. Thus, all the people with the same personality type are put into a common group. In this way, there are as many different groups as there are different types. Continue reading
The Unconscious Choice: The Forces of the Dark and Light Sides
Make no mistake about it. This election is about the choice between two worldviews that are as psychologically different and far apart as any two could possibly be. The choice is difficult not just because so much is riding on it—this much is obvious–but like most crucial things in life, much of it rests on factors that are largely unconscious. The later is far from obvious. Continue reading
Corrupt to the Core
Originally published on Nation of Change, August 26, 2012 This is a rant. I make no apologies for it because sometimes that’s the only thing that can help cleanse one’s soul. Norman Mailer was once asked why no good literature … Continue reading
Economics: The Psychologically Naïve Science
I admire Paul Krugman. I really do. His many columns in The New York Times and books (for his latest, see, End This Depression Now, ISBN 978-0-393-08877-9) are a testimony to his ability to explain arcane topics in terms that the layperson can understand. Continue reading
Psychoanalytic Politics: The Roots of Current Dysfunctional Political Behavior
What does the behavior of British children in WWII possibly have to do with today’s fractious politics? More than one would ever imagine! Continue reading
Your Call: How should we respond to mass shootings?
On July 26, 2012, I was a guest on the radio program Your Call on San Francisco local public radio station KALW. I spoke about the recent mass shooting in Colorado and how we should be responding. What could we … Continue reading
Psychotic Nation: Media, Macbeth, Cinderella
Make no mistake about it. America is in an extreme state of mind. It is gripped by forces that can only be described as psychotic. Continue reading
The Origins of Republican Pathology: Rebuilding the Emotional Containers of Society
By now, it is of course a truism to say that the Republican Party has tilted so far to the Right that it is extreme, if not literally a cult. As harsh as this may be, it doesn’t even begin to describe what’s wrong with it. In a word, the Republican Party is deeply pathological. In saying this, I am not using the term “pathological” flippantly. Continue reading
Getting Guns Out of Our Heads
What do the following possibly have in common?
One, Woolrich, the venerable 182-year-old clothing company, recently brought out a new line of chinos with a second pocket that has been especially designed for carrying a concealed handgun. The clincher is that the pocket has been designed so that it wouldn’t destroy the “stylish look of the pants.”
Two, Levi Johnston, former fiancé of Bristol Palin and father of their child, not only has another baby on the way, but he plans to name her “Breeze Beretta” after his favorite Italian-made pistol.
Three, over the stringent objections of Tampa’s Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Florida Governor Rick Scott upheld the decision to ban water guns during the Republican National Convention, but not concealed handguns.
If you said that these three items have nothing in common, you’re wrong! Dead wrong! Continue reading
Ian Mitroff | Mitroff Crisis Management 