Summary: Psychology of Totalitarianism: A Guide to Mattias Desmet on Mechanistic Ideology & Mass Formation

by Leo Aprendi

To avoid confusion, please note that this is an independent SUMMARY of The Psychology of Totalitarianism by Mattias Desmet, who is not affiliated with this project. It is NOT the original book, which is also available on Amazon.By necessity, this SUMMARY is shorter than the original. While it seeks to leave much savory "meat on the bone," please recall that any synthesis will leave many things out, and therefore the reader is strongly encouraged to read The Psychology of Totalitarianism and employ this summary as both an invitation to read and as a memory-refresher. The 2nd edition of this guide includes 30 new review questions.Prof. Desmet organizes his work into three (1) Science and Its Psychological Effects; (2) Mass Formation and Totalitarianism; and (3) Beyond the Mechanistic Worldview.Part 1 traces the rise of modern science (from the Enlightenment on), and how its real-world, evidence-based methods gave humans confidence in both their intellect and their ability to master their physical environment. In doing so, people achieved phenomenal technological feats and improvements to medicine, engineering, energy-exploitation, and increased standard of living. But they also became alienated from their traditional life ways and cultures that had given their lives meaning for uncountable centuries. Religion declined as science—especially mechanistic science--replaced it as the dominant lens through which to interpret the world.Most insidiously destructive of all, everything, including humans and their complex psychology, were reduced to problems to be solved and manipulated by physical and chemical intervention. World as clockwork, people as machines—mere tools to be tinkered with until experts can design and engineer our utopias (fascist, positivist, socialist, communist)—which of course always fail to deliver on their promises.Part 2 treats the intriguing and topical material which might have first caught the attention of many readers during 2021-2022 when Desmet’s mass formation theory became widely known (often as “mass formation psychosis”) on internet blogs and various podcasts—most famously via Dr. Robert Malone on The Joe Rogan Experience (which provoked a short protest around Spotify)—and in the elegant and useful primer by Truman Verdun, Mass Formation (Psychosis): In Brief.This Part 2 material addresses the four preconditions of totalitarianism (isolation, meaninglessness, anxiety, aggression) and the promises made and delivered by the leader called into existence by the atomized and fearful masses. The leader names the source of the problem and various means of eliminating it. In the corona context, that meant the problem is the virus (and later, the unvaccinated) and the solutions of lockdowns, vaccines, and censorship of dissident voices. All collateral damage and other potential solutions are ignored. The dissident voices are vital for keeping the hypnotized masses awake and from committing atrocities against scapegoats—as they nearly always do under totalitarianism.Part 3, “Beyond the Mechanistic Worldview,” explores how our societies can supplement science—which needs serious reform to eliminate corruption, biases, flawed findings, and outright capture by powerful and monied interests—with both traditional and alternative ways of knowing and attaining meaning (community, spirituality, mastery of craft, etc.) and to further develop the humble and mystery-respecting frontiers of science as articulated by giants such as Einstein, Bohr, and Planck.

57 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 26, 2022