Motus Mentis

6 Comments

1. DaveB says

   Excellent analysis, thanks. I think of MFP (or better, maybe, MFH(hypnosis) as Scott Adams has been on that theme for a few days now – as a Macro phenomenon that explains many ‘mental’ and social problems, as opposed to Micro explanations such as described by Freud, Jung et al. For therapeutic purposes, bringing folks to the point of seeing the utterly contemptible ‘News’ as the source of their malaise would be a huge help.

   Posted January 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm | Permalink
2. c matt says

   Mass formation hypnosis (or psychosis, whichever you prefer) just sounds like a psuedo medical term for propaganda that works.

   Posted January 12, 2022 at 1:36 pm | Permalink
3. Malcolm says

   Thanks, Dave – some commenters are jumping on me over there for saying that everyone, not just the left, can be susceptible to this phenomenon. I suppose I should have started off by listing all the insanity on the Left right now (which would of course have been easy, and fun).

   Posted January 12, 2022 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
4. Malcolm says

   c matt,

   I’d say the point is that when the conditions are right, the right propaganda can be the nucleus around which a wily leader can shape the mass-formation he wants to control.

   Posted January 12, 2022 at 4:54 pm | Permalink
5. Mharko says

   I am very fond of Rene Girard’s formulation of the phenomenon in his work, and which he calls mimetic theory. He describes it to a tee, and adds heaps of insight and analysis.

   Posted January 12, 2022 at 9:43 pm | Permalink
6. Peter A. Taylor says

   “when conditions are right….”

   hbd_chick had a nice post about the Malleus Maleficarum:

   https://hbdchick.wordpress.com/2013/05/12/to-disbelieve-in-witchcraft-is-the-greatest-of-heresies/

   ‘historians who have studied witch-hunts, both religious and political ones, have found that they generally take place during times of turmoil or uncertainty. they are rituals of a sort in which social (and sometimes physical) boundaries are defined — witch-hunts are, at these critical moments, extravagant ways of working out who’s in the in-group and who is not. and woe to anyone who is not. the turmoil and uncertainty are the “pressures of social forces.”’

   Posted January 13, 2022 at 4:41 pm | Permalink