Stories About Psychology, Politics and Politicians

As our poltical parties ossify and become rigid, as the wealthy control information, as religious and poltical ideology dominate reasoned discourse and debate and as an individual such as Donald Trump reach for the Presidency of our country we can ask if Psychology can shed light on what is happening and what we might be able to about it. We will discuss Freud's notion that civilization is a thin veneer that overlays and tries to control the passions, fears and hatreds of individuals and groups. We will explaore Evolutionary Psychology to see how the roots of our present political dangers are literally to be found in our DNA and how present predicaments are found throughout human history. We will explore various types of stories that we live by and which of those can save us from ourselves.