Superpower Syndrome: America's Apocalyptic Confrontation with the World

by William F. Schulz and Robert Jay Lifton

Book Overview

A scholar of the Holocaust and other acts of human cruelty in our century turns his attention to the Bush administration and the new politics of the security state that is emerging in the age of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560255129
• ISBN13: 9781560255123
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Nation Books
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.9" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

An excellent look at the Bush presidency

from a different angle. In essence what Dr. Lifton does is to put the Bush administration on the psychiatrist's couch and probe into the psyche of Bush, his cronies, and like-minded ideological extremists. One conclusion that can be readily drawn is that psychologically there is minimal distinction between Bush and his neo-con and Christian extremist cronies and those extremists from other religious and ethnic groups (say, such as the Likudites and Osama bin Ladin & Al Qaida). Lifton does a decent job not only of describing in layman's terms the psychological underpinnings of these extremists, but goes on to show the destructive dynamic that often exists between competing groups of extremists. A must read.

An excellent psychiatric analysis of 'Superpower Syndrome.'

This concise book is undoubtedly one of the most important critiques of America's foreign policy along with Barber's, Rampton & Stauber's and Daalder & Lindsay's. The author recognizes, for example, the war on Iraq as a manifestation of America's apocalyptic face-off against Islamist forces. Nonetherless, at the heart of 'Superpower Syndrome,' the author argues, lies a powerful fear of vulnerability. This insight that the world only superpower suffers from such ambiguity is an extremely interesting point which only psychiatrists can explore. He also refers to other apocalyptic imaginations such as Islamist's and a Japanese cult called 'Aum.' I really enjoy reading this interesting work!

"Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil."

Freud and Bertrand Russell have both examined the roots of popular religion in psychology. The purpose of religion, they observe, is to give the appearance of respectability to the passions of fear, conceit and hatred, provided they run through certain channels. (See Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?") In his book, SUPERPOWER SYNDROME, National Book Award winner, Robert Jay Lifton, examines our country's popular religion and current politics in drawing similar conclusions about our "national mindset."Lifton is a psychiatrist and renowned scholar on the subjects of thought control and mass violence. In SUPERPOWER SYNDROME, he examines the extreme and apocalyptic "mindset" that has been perpetuated by our country's leaders since September 11, 2001. Drawing parallels from the "destructive excesses" of Nazi genocide, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chinese Communist "thought reform," the Vietnam war, and the apocalyptic actions of Aun Shinrikyo and other global terrorists of the late-twentieth century, Lifton provides his readers with a well-reasoned psychological profile of George Bush's mindset in polarizing the world into good and evil. While he does not claim the Bush administration is a mirror image of bin Ladin or Islamism, Lifton says that Bush's "crusade" to "rid the world of evil" (terminology connoting a Christian holy war) nevertheless suggests a harmful disorder and psychological and political abnormality (p. 187) shared by millions of Americans, including Christian evangelists like Jerry Falwell, Franklin Graham, and Pat Robertson. The symptoms of the superpower psyche include unilateralism in all-important decisions, including those relating to war; the use of high technology to secure the ownership of death and of history; a sense of entitlement concerning the right to identify and destroy all those considered to be terrorists or friends of terrorists, while spreading virtues seen as preeminently ours throughout the world; the right to decide who may possess weapons of mass destruction and who may not; and a righteous vision of ridding the world of evil and purifying it spiritually and politically (p. 188). Before the Bush administration announced last week its plans to send a manned flight to Mars, Lifton noted in his insightful study that our present leaders believe American power extends not over the planet Earth, but through the militarization of space, and over the heavens as well (p. 175).While Lifton's diagnosis is serious, he concludes his psychological and historical analysis "in a spirit of hope." "We can do better," he writes; "America is capable of wiser, more measured approaches, more humane applications of our considerable power and influence in the world" (p. 189). He encourages us to look to the words of Albert Camus in resetting our moral compass, and "to refuse to be a god," which means to reject omniscience and to instead embrace "thought which recognizes limi

A chilling and accurate analysis

This book is truly amazing. By looking at the actions and motives of the Bush administration through Lifton's psychological perspective, so much of the insanity of our predicament suddenly comes into perspective. Without slandering the Bush administration, Lifton compares their motives and worldview to cults, terrorists, and other militant ideologues, the common thread being their apocalyptic mindset. Lifton reconciles the religious apocalyptic views of Bush with the more secular and political apocalyptic views of those in his administration...and you finally realize that, although they're all coming at it from different angles, they're all equally willing and eager to destroy the world for the sake of glory.Some of the most interesting parts come when Lifton talks about the ideas of "controlling history" and therefore controlling life and death. This explains the apocalyptic mindset of those who don't hold religions as the catalyst. This book is a very interesting, and I think accurate, frame through which to view current events. Criticism of the Bush administration is often dismissed as liberal, Democrat slander. This book was not written from any certain political perspective; it was written from a very humane, psychological perspective. The final diagnosis is less of a critique and more of a warning about the imminent threat posed by the current political status quo.I was telling my sister about this book, and what I thought of it, and she said: "Isn't there a part of you that doesn't want to know these things?" It's an odd question, but understandable. This book is frightening. It forces the reader to consider that we may be in the grips of an apocalyptic cult which, beneath the public-friendly rhetoric about peace and freedom, is motivated by a need to destroy all evil, and all of the world, if necessary.

One of the most important books published this year

The man who wrote the terrifying book The Nazi Doctors puts the Bush and his adminstration on the couch! A startling and elegant book that analyses America's new apocalyptic mindset, in the context of 9-11, Bush's war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. It also complements Lifton's lifelong work on cults and extreme violence. This is a disturbing and provocative book. not quite the comfort food that many liberals and progressives seem to dine on these days; but this marvellous book also has hope in its heart.