Ideological Possession and the Rise of the New Right

"Johnson's book is an original and timely attempt to use resources from Karl Jung's psychological theories-especially his understanding of the collective unconscious-to make sense of the contemporary resurgence of far-right nationalism. In addition to its contributions to understanding current political reality, one major philosophical achievement of the book is to make Jung a potential participant in contemporary debates in critical theory concerning the concept of "social pathology." I highly recommend it." - Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University.

"Laurie Johnson provides a lucid introduction to Carl Jung's political thought and a powerful Jungian diagnosis for the political illnesses of our time. Drawing upon Charles Taylor's concepts of disenchantment and disembedding, Johnson elucidates Jung's account of modern man's predicament as a spiritual sickness: a pervasive psychological disharmony with the collective unconscious brought about by ideational, social, and economic displacement. Johnson's demonstration that the imbalanced psyche of modern man is a fertile ground for ideological possession is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the identitarianism of the alt-right. The Jungian curative she offers-a recovery of a religious faith that is both sufficiently rich in rite and symbolism to generate genuine transcendent experience and supple enough to accommodate the doubts of the disenchanted-is timely and thoughtful." - Kody Cooper, UC Foundation Assistant Professor, University of Tennessee Chattanooga