Blind Trust: Large Groups and their Leaders in Times of Crisis and Terror

a newly published book by

Vamik D. Volkan, M.D.

About the author:
Vamik Volkan is emeritus professor of psychiatry and founder of the Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction (CSMHI) at the University of Virginia, School of Medicine in Charlottesville, VA. He is a former president of the International Society of Political Psychology; and a former member of The Carter Center's International Negotiation Network; and is currently the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at The Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA.

His book is written in an easy-to-read style for the layperson while including extensive footnotes for the scholar. It offers descriptions of field studies by the author alone and with members of CSMHI teams from locations such as: the US, Estonia, Macedonia, Turkey, Cyprus, South Africa, Croatia, Macedonia, and Georgia among others. The book introduces new theories structured in four parts:

• Theories of what comprises large group identity and rituals and what triggers large group regression;
• Studies religious fundamentalism from Waco to Iraq and terrorism;
• The role of leaders' personalities to either inflame or tame large groups and the use of political propaganda;
• A case example from Albania.

In praise of Blind Trust:

This book is the culmination of over three decades of profound immersion in the most pressing socio-political conflicts of our time, by a psychoanalyst with probably the most direct experience with such issues of any in the psychoanalytic world…the author applies his knowledge of depth psychology to the turbulent and destructive human experiences in the current cauldrons of the greatest unrest and disaster throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Volkan writes of activities of astonishing import, as he served as envoy, negotiator and consultant, on Commissions from the United Nations to the American Psychiatric, ...Israel to Egypt, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Kuwait, both halves of post-War Berlin and the Soviet Union. Utilizing his psychoanalytic knowledge to illuminate the etiologic bases of war, revolution, massacres and terror, as these have disturbed the world from ancient times to modern civilization; his voice speaks for the imperative of reason, the application of modern analytic knowledge for conflict resolution at the highest levels.

Volkan's subjects are large groups and their leaders…the prophet Muhammad…Stalin, Milosevic, and Osama Bin Laden, or David Koresh are interspersed with examinations of religion and fundamentalism, separately, each from both sides, and a sober study, including the Moslem view, of suicide attackers. Volkan's detailed and scholarly description of regressive movements in large group identities, complemented by an equal attention to progressive and creative reparative forces, is perhaps the most significant expansion of psychoanalytic group psychology since Freud's original breakthrough.

- Leo Rangell
Past President, International Psychoanalytic Association; Past President, American Psychoanalytic Association

For decades, Dr. Vamk Volkan has innovatively brought together the political and behavioral sciences to help explore and understand the role of political leadership. In this book he studies that role in times of crisis and terror. With greater severity and increasing frequency acts of terror are being directed at civilians. The responses of governments are not always appropriate or proportionate. In these complex and worrying times this study could not be more timely. It is written in an easy and accessible style. I found it fascinating and learnt much of value from it.

- Justice Richard Goldstone
Former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Chairperson, International Task Force on Terrorism, The International Bar Association

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