The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

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The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 478 ratings · 80 reviews

The Political Brain is a groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation. For two decades Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, has explored a theory of the mind that differs substantially from the more "dispassionate" notions held by most cognitive psychologists, political scientists,...more The Political Brain is a groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation. For two decades Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, has explored a theory of the mind that differs substantially from the more "dispassionate" notions held by most cognitive psychologists, political scientists, and economists—and Democratic campaign strategists. The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works. When political candidates assume voters dispassionately make decisions based on "the issues," they lose. That's why only one Democrat has been re-elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt—and only one Republican has failed in that quest. In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. Westen shows, through a whistle-stop journey through the evolution of the passionate brain and a bravura tour through fifty years of American presidential and national elections, why campaigns succeed and fail. The evidence is overwhelming that three things determine how people vote, in this order: their feelings toward the parties and their principles, their feelings toward the candidates, and, if they haven't decided by then, their feelings toward the candidates' policy positions.

Westen turns conventional political analyses on their head, suggesting that the question for Democratic politics isn't so much about moving to the right or the left but about moving the electorate. He shows how it can be done through examples of what candidates have said—or could have said—in debates, speeches, and ads. Westen's discoveries could utterly transform electoral arithmetic, showing how a different view of the mind and brain leads to a different way of talking with voters about issues that have tied the tongues of Democrats for much of forty years—such as abortion, guns, taxes, and race. You can't change the structure of the brain. But you can change the way you appeal to it. And here's how(less)

Hardcover, 480 pages

Published June 26th 2007 by PublicAffairs (first published June 25th 2007)

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Dec 08, 2008 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

The book started off in superb fashion-tossing out psychological gems like candy to the reader, but the grotesque bias that clouds an otherwise intelligent person makes this a difficult read and an awful philosophy.

Westen starts off by mentioning a study in which participants showed how people rationalize blatant contradictions by their favorite political candidates. When the participants found a way to keep their candidates in good standing, the "happy circuits" in their brains lit up like a C...more The book started off in superb fashion-tossing out psychological gems like candy to the reader, but the grotesque bias that clouds an otherwise intelligent person makes this a difficult read and an awful philosophy.

Westen starts off by mentioning a study in which participants showed how people rationalize blatant contradictions by their favorite political candidates. When the participants found a way to keep their candidates in good standing, the "happy circuits" in their brains lit up like a Christmas tree. This study showed that people--once they've picked a political party or candidate--very little evidence will change their mind about them.

Instead of dwelling on this dramatic finding and elaborating on why today's us-against-them mentality in politics is killing our democracy and bigger goals (like truth), Westen spends the majority of the book showing how Republicans use emotion to manipulate the populace and how Democrats should use emotion also--not to manipulate constituents' minds--but to reveal the valid points Democrats are trying to get across.

This book fails because it's contradictory itself: The religious right is evil when they use religion to make a political move, but Westin uses religion throughout his book (not just his native Judaism) to make his points; Westen shows that popularity of issues are an indication of their validity, but then contradicts that by saying the Civil Rights movement was correct despite its unpopularity; and of course, Republicans who use emotion are diabolical, but Democrats are the white knights using emotion to spread truth. Westen also uses polls throughout the book, but at one point explicitly says that polls can basically say anything you want them to--each poll can be used for either side.

Despite the author's initial plea to people on both sides of the aisle, his bias is deliberate and obvious and it's another major drawback to the book--Nixon wasn't the President who got us out of Viet Nam, he was the President who dismantled the War on Poverty. Johnson wasn't the President who presided over the largest troop deployment in US history (to Viet Nam) he was a champion of civil rights. Clinton wasn't lucky to get elected (minority votes) and lucky to preside over a boom--he was an emotional and economic genius. Well, I hate to break it to you Drew, you aren't the objective voter who shares the views of every American, you are a snide, biased, commentator.

Die hard Democrats will love this book, but people with an honestly open mind will struggle to get past the first few pages--unfortunately, there's little new in this book--it just perpetuates the us-against-them mentality that makes politics today so unbearable. For a better book about politics, try Justice and Equality: A Dialogue on the Philosophies of Conservatism and Liberalism and for a better book about psychology, try Stumbling on Happiness.(less)

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Jan 24, 2012 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book articulated something I (and I suspect many people) knew intuitively but could not explain and certainly did not understand scientifically. Westen, a psychologist and researcher in cognitive neuroscience, first demonstrates that voters do not approach politics with a dispassionate mind, choosing rationally between detailed policy plans, but rather they understand politics with a highly emotional mind. From here, Westen describes how the Democrats have failed to successfully communicate...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Keith Swenson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading this book in the autumn of 2011, I could not stop kicking myself for not having read the book earlier. For years I have felt that the Democrats had the higher moral ground, but the Republicans simply tell a better story. I always wondered why it is that the conservative positions (which pander to greed and hate) were so visceral and easy to understand, while the progressives argue the superior position, but fail to get the message across to the public.

This book dissects exactly what peop...more Reading this book in the autumn of 2011, I could not stop kicking myself for not having read the book earlier. For years I have felt that the Democrats had the higher moral ground, but the Republicans simply tell a better story. I always wondered why it is that the conservative positions (which pander to greed and hate) were so visceral and easy to understand, while the progressives argue the superior position, but fail to get the message across to the public.

This book dissects exactly what people like Al Gore and John Kerry have been doing wrong: nobody is listening to the debate for who is right or wrong. Clear evidence to support a position falls on deaf ears for the most part. Instead, "people vote for the candidate who elicits the right feelings, not the candidate who presents the best arguments. (p125)" In many cases, ideas that are just clearly wrong (e.g. wall street bankers being taxed too much) still win the hearts and minds of the public.

I should mention that I am politically independent, neither Republican nor Democrat, and while this book explicitly defend Democrat position, it is not the position that makes this book interesting, but rather the discussion of how the brain works, and how political debate is carried out. The book is not a criticism of conservative ideas, but instead a sharp criticism of how poorly progressives present their ideas. It is sobering information for intellectuals who believe that the voters will weigh the evidence and choose the right side. That is NOT what is happening. The author does, however, demonstrate how progressive ideas can easily be presented in way that are emotionally more appealing. In many cases it is surprisingly effective without any loss of intellectual honesty.

This book was written before Obama won the white house. It is clear to me that people like Obama have been listening to these ideas, and using them much more effectively than before 2008. Still, there is more to learn. If you care about your country, and you believe that political debate is important for the right ideas to succeed, then you MUST read this book.(less)

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Sep 10, 2011 Jan Strnad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For decades it has frustrated me that, while most of the country shares Democratic beliefs over Republican ones, Democrats keep losing elections. Why?

Because the very values Democrats hold dear...taking the higher road, trying to stay "above the fray", concentrating on issues over personalities...fail to speak to the emotional brain that makes most voters' electoral decisions. Whether it's the language they use while failing to understand its connotations, over-handling by committees that blunt...more For decades it has frustrated me that, while most of the country shares Democratic beliefs over Republican ones, Democrats keep losing elections. Why?

Because the very values Democrats hold dear...taking the higher road, trying to stay "above the fray", concentrating on issues over personalities...fail to speak to the emotional brain that makes most voters' electoral decisions. Whether it's the language they use while failing to understand its connotations, over-handling by committees that blunt the message, or simple refusal to debate some topics at all (abortion, gun control, race) thereby defaulting on them to the Republicans, Democrats systematically undermine their own campaigns.

Westen's book is must reading for every Democrat who wants to hold public office! Thus, the five stars.

On the other hand, Westen makes his point clearly and firmly in the first third of the book, and then beats us over the head with it, taking us point by point through campaigns, tweaking the information endlessly, and frankly, about halfway through I started skimming and eventually put it down. "I get it already!" I thought, and moved on.

Also, this is horribly produced ebook. It's obviously scanned from a printed copy and poorly proofread, it at all. When Westen talks about the perception of the word "gull" and how it affects elections, you have to read a bit to understand that it's the word "gun" he's talking about! Words bizarrely split, words run together, bizarre punctuation and misspelling due to OCR errors are rife on every single page.

Furthermore, the type looks like bad photocopying with the machine set on "light." Ugly, ugly, ugly. Yet the publisher (Hatchette) charges nearly as much for the ebook as for the print book, which I'm sure looks a lot better. It couldn't look any worse.

If I could, I'd rate it "five stars" for the content, downgrade it to "three stars" for being redundant, and finally give it "one star" for being so terribly produced.

That first third of the book, though, is so important for Democrats to understand (the Republicans already have a masterful grasp of it) that I went with the "five star" rating.(less)

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Dec 27, 2009 Donna added it

Shelves: unfinished

I read to page 199, or about halfway through the book. By this time, it was getting pretty repetitious--different gestures but the same basic speech.

Mislead, perhaps, by the subtitle, I expected more from The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. For the most part, the book simply documents the fact that, in matters of public policy, people "think" with their emotions rather than their intellect. I was hoping that the author, a psychologist, would recognize tha...more

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Oct 21, 2009 Steven Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars

The dust jacket has one line that is at the center of this book: "The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works." Drew Westen uses this thought as a takeoff point in his book, "The Political Brain." He asserts that (page xv) "The political brain is an emotional brain."

One point that he hammers throughout the book is that Republicans do a better job of connecting with voters at an emotional, gut level tha...more The dust jacket has one line that is at the center of this book: "The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works." Drew Westen uses this thought as a takeoff point in his book, "The Political Brain." He asserts that (page xv) "The political brain is an emotional brain."

One point that he hammers throughout the book is that Republicans do a better job of connecting with voters at an emotional, gut level than do Democrats. Ds tend to make rational points; Rs wed their points to emotional appeals, ending up doing much better. He provides examples from the Gore-Bush and Bush-Kerry campaigns. One interesting feature of the book is the author's development of how Gore and Kerry could have crafted statements to wed emotion to policy talking points in a way to, in Westen's view, would trump the Republican efforts. As an example of where Democrats have succeeded, he notes Bill Clinton's wedding of talking points to emotional appeals.

The discussion of neurosciences and how they tie into the argument is a bit underdeveloped. Westen does discuss some studies and notes some of his own research. Nonetheless, he could have elaborated more completely and made a more compelling case. He also addresses the evolution of what he terms "the passionate brain," in which (page 51) ". . .Feeling and thinking evolved together, and nature `designed' them to work together."

He discusses specific policy arenas and how Democrats have ceded the potent ground wedding emotion and thinking, from abortion to gun control to race to taxes. He takes Democratic consultants and campaign advisors to task. There is a bit of "conflict of interest," in some senses, since he also consults for Democrats. He is most explicit about one goal of this volume during his policy arena by policy arena analysis on page 380: "The central point of this chapter is that Democrats need to talk about values, morality, and faith again, but not by talking like Republicans. They need to offer a counternarrative that has as its core beneficence, tolerance, and humility, not hate, contempt, and dogma." That quotation surely provides a taste of Westen's passion and his political perspective.

One real annoyance with the book that I purchased. Each chapter is studded with numbered footnotes--but nowhere in the volume are the corresponding citations. One must go to a web site to get them. This keeps the volume shorter, but it makes it more difficult to check out citations. One might not necessarily be near the Internet while reading the book and wanting to check something out.

His call to realize that there is a passionate component to politics and political discourse, his linkage of evolution and brain structure and function to political thinking and behavior is well taken. There are some less than optimal elements to the book, as noted, but, overall, this is a provocative volume that will get readers to thinking.
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May 22, 2009 Gordon rated it 5 of 5 stars

In the 2004 Presidential election, George Bush beat John Kerry by “Swift Boating” him. Karl Rove, Bush’s campaign strategist, recruited a group of military veterans of the Republican far-right persuasion, who formed a group called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” and attacked Kerry for allegedly lying about his military record commanding a patrol boat in Vietnam and for collecting a Purple Heart Medal for a trivial wound. The star witness in the Swift Boat TV ads was a man who claimed he had actu...more In the 2004 Presidential election, George Bush beat John Kerry by “Swift Boating” him. Karl Rove, Bush’s campaign strategist, recruited a group of military veterans of the Republican far-right persuasion, who formed a group called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” and attacked Kerry for allegedly lying about his military record commanding a patrol boat in Vietnam and for collecting a Purple Heart Medal for a trivial wound. The star witness in the Swift Boat TV ads was a man who claimed he had actually treated Kerry for his “wound”.

There were a few problems here. The name of this witness didn’t match the names of any of the medical personnel on Kerry’s records. For such a supposedly superficial wound, it was hard to explain why Kerry still carried shrapnel in his body decades later. Kerry had returned to the US and become a prominent member of the anti-war movement, subjecting him to intense attack from the Republican administration and the right-wing in general. Yet none of these charges had come up then, at a time when the facts would surely have been fresh in everyone’s mind and their was plenty of motivation to use any unflattering information to discredit that "traitor", John Kerry.

Faced with this attack, the near-universal expectation was that Kerry would come back swinging immediately. He did not. He waited in dignified silence. He waited a full two weeks, then responded by having his campaign manager (!) send a letter to her Republican counterpart (!) requesting that Bush repudiate the attacks. Bush did nothing of the kind. Kerry and his campaign then tried to systematically refute the charges by presenting the facts, but it was far too little, too late. The effect of the attacks and their impact on voter opinion was devastating. In a close election, the Swift Boat ad campaign represented the margin of victory that brought the country four more years of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

The irony of this whole sorry episode is this: Notoriously, Bush had used his father’s political connections to get him into the safety of the National Guard (and then failed to show up for duty much of the time) while Cheney had obtained draft deferments FIVE times, explaining later that he had “other priorities” than going to war.

The Bush campaign had given Kerry’s team a golden opportunity to score a knockout blow: to shine a light on the sorry record of his armchair-warrior opponents, their thread-bare ethics, and their willingness to send other people’s children off to die on the battlefield despite their unwillingness to serve when their own turn had come 30-some years before. Kerry’s team blew it.

And that story, in a nutshell, represents the core of the thesis of The Political Brain. It goes like this:
• Democrats think that the guy with the best facts, the best policies and the best logic will win. Republicans think that the guy with the best story line that goes straight to the emotions of the voters wins.
• Democrats think that negative campaigning is a bad thing. Republicans recognize that it doesn’t matter whether you go positive or negative – the idea is to tell an effective story that makes your guy look good and the other guy look bad.
• Democrats think elections are fought in the marketplace of ideas. Republicans think elections are fought in the marketplace of emotions.

If you like the application of psychology to politics, and if you like great political story-telling, you'll love this book. You'll also never listen to any political speech in quite the same way again.
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Nov 17, 2012 Ryan Anderson rated it 3 of 5 stars

I listened to the audiobook while driving from LA to Flagstaff on election day. The premise of the book, that people don't vote rationally but instead make their political decisions based on emotion is not really anything new. It was interesting to hear this liberal author calling in 2006 for a Democratic candidate who plays to people's emotions and doesn't just hide behind facts and figures. Enter: Barack Obama, stage left.

I liked his emphasis on how the brain is a bunch of interconnected netwo...more

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Nov 18, 2011 Mike Edwards rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: current-events, pop-social-science

Westen uses neuro-psychology to examine why voters are driven by emotional appeals. The book is very similar to Lakoff's "The Political Mind", although the research is better and the writing is worse. The biggest problem, however, is that the book takes a pretty arrogant tone at times. Westen writes from a position of "those people over there are irrational, which is why they make bad decisions." He tries to draw the audience into the conspiracy of the informed (by which he very clearly means li...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars

I echo Robert Kuttner's and Bill Clinton's comments : This is the most illuminating book about American politics I've ever read. The author is a clinical and theoretical psychologist who also has an incredible intuitive understanding of politics and the political mind. He argues that Democratic political strategists, like most economists, political scientists, and others, have been captive to a view of the mind that drastically underestimates the role of emotion, as opposed to rational calculati...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Cameron rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished

This book can be divided into two parts. The neuroscience part and the scathing assessment of conservative vis-a-vis liberal political tactics. From a scientific perspective, the author develops a well supported argument that the electorate votes their emotions, not their rational minds. He cites numerous studies and compelling examples to make this case. It will change the way you think about your politics.

If you can't handle liberal-biased books, then you might find the majority of the work di...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Jamie VW rated it 4 of 5 stars

There are moments in this treatise that I stopped and marveled at how intuitive so many of the theories are that Westen presents in this book. The real revelation of the book therefore is how ostensibly simple the ideas are in the book, yet how frequently in the world of politics (and, Westen argues, mostly in the Democratic Party), the innerworking of the mind is overlooked or ignore. On the surface, this book is pop science with enough of a personal connection to the author (who offers a serie...more

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May 19, 2010 Ray rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The unfortunate thing about Westen's book is that he probably is correct in describing how our brains respond to emotional political adds rather than on the basic facts behind them. Weston provides examples of well planned political speeches from the past, and effective political ads from previous elections (mostly all Republican ads), and explains why they grabbed the listeners on an emotional level. A life-long Democrat, Weston also bemoans the lack of effective responses or campaigns of the D...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Rod Hilton rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobooks, politics

Drew Westen's book, "The Political Brain," is illuminating and engaging. The author is an expert in the human mind, and has devoted his book to relating his understanding of the brain to the world of politics.

Westen talks about what people really look at when they evaluate politicians and candidates. He backs up his assertions with many studies and experiments, clearly laying out exactly how the human mind works when it attempts to "decide" who to vote for.

I learned a great amount about the huma...more Drew Westen's book, "The Political Brain," is illuminating and engaging. The author is an expert in the human mind, and has devoted his book to relating his understanding of the brain to the world of politics.

Westen talks about what people really look at when they evaluate politicians and candidates. He backs up his assertions with many studies and experiments, clearly laying out exactly how the human mind works when it attempts to "decide" who to vote for.

I learned a great amount about the human mind reading the book. When I look back and evaluate campaigns or candidates, I can now see exactly where they went wrong (or right) and what they could have done differently. I understand how my fellow voters think, and I've even gained a great deal of insight into how I think (though I didn't realize it).

Unfortunately, Westen's book is really two books. The first book is a rational, scientific analysis of the brain, a breakdown of various campaigns in America throughout history, and a discussion of what candidates need to do in order to effectively communicate their personalities and politics to the voting populace.

The second book is a biased diatribe against Republicans and an overly emotional plea with democrats to follow Drew's advice.

The first of these two books is phenomenal: scientific, accurate, and rational. The second of these two books is garbage: emotional, biased, and relentlessly irritating. To make matters worse, these two books are overlayed on top of each other inside of "The Political Brain," the content of the book suddenly switching between these two sub-books at random in a jarring, frustrating way.

It's a shame to see a scientific man fall victim to his own emotions and biases. I'm not saying Westen's personal political views are WRONG, but I am saying they have absolutely no place in a book that really ought to be scientific and fair-minded.

The plus side is that the switches from scientific book to political rant are so extremely obvious and transparent that you never have to worry about internalizing as scientific fact something that is really political opinion. The facts are backed up by studies, and the opinions backed up by emotional pleas. While jarring, the differences are so stark that it makes it somewhat easy to read the political nonsense with one skeptical eyebrow raised and simultaneously read the scientific information with an open, spongelike mind ready to absorb new information.

Like I said, the factual portion of the book is absolutely riveting - well worth a read for anyone interested in politics, cognitive science, or psychology. The opinion portion of the book is frustrating and tiresome, and the reader is forced to wade through it to get to the good stuff.

I wish I could say this is simply a matter of me having different political opinions than Westen, but the fact is that I agree with most of his opinions. I agree with many of his characterizations of the modern day Republican and Democratic parties, and I believe in a lot of the same values he espouses in the book. But the fact remains, even as I read opinions I agreed with I found it obnoxious I was reading opinions at all, embedded in an otherwise factual and intelligent book.

I recommend the book, but I also feel compelled to warn anyone reading it, particularly people of political persuasions that differ from Westen's, they are going to have a tough time getting through many parts of the book without hurling it across the room. Keep at it, it's worth it.(less)

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Jun 15, 2010 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, politics, read-in-2010

I seem to be reading a lot of nonfiction recently whose focus is a lot narrower than the ad copy suggests. The Political Brain is not the most egregious example of this, but Westen sets out to write a book about the impact of the psyche on politics and ends up writing about its impact on American elections. (The fact that these two things are seen as synonymous suggests that hegemony is alive and well.)

Westen provides a lot of interesting information about both how people perceive political issu...more

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Mar 13, 2010 Heather Denkmire rated it 5 of 5 stars

Ever wonder why otherwise intelligent people even consider supporting Sarah Palin? Why the "left" doesn't really exist anymore? Why Obama is considered "liberal?" Why the Right is RIGHT when they accuse progressives of flip-flopping and having no values?

Progressives haven't been paying attention to what it means to be human. That is, we have been stuck in the Enlightenment's view of the mind. The mind, the brain is not a dispassionate vehicle seeking facts and reason. Even reasonable and rationa...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Shane Quinn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: us-politics, politics, non-fiction

Very clearly articulated the theory and arguments to support the view that "political persuasion is about networks and narratives." Westen outlines the need to set dispassionate arguments (I.e., a reliance on rational argument and issues) as the background to a broader, emotional argument, rather than using the rational as the basis for political campaigning. As Westen writes, "people vote for the candidate who elicits the right feelings, not the candidate who presents the best arguments." In ma...more

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Jul 17, 2010 Will Marshall rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I've read at critiquing the failures of the Democratic Party to succeed in the United States. It also is good at explaining some of the ways in which the formation of the brain influences how people internalise political messages.

Where I think the book falls down is:
(i) some logical gaps - mostly made up, but some elements (e.g. structure of the brain) doesn't fit in as well to the rest of the book as it would lead you to believe)
(ii) caters more to male psychology than fem...more

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May 18, 2013 Brad Forbes rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is as good as political analysis gets. The book is designed to be read by people who want to help Democrats win elections and is witheringly critical of the (pre-Obama) Democratic campaign machine, and rightfully so. The gist is that Democrats need to actually, like, do and say stuff in order to win elections. You cannot stand idly by getting slammed again and again and not give people your own narrative. That is a formula for loss every time, as proven by Al Gore and John Kerry. Good writi...more

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Nov 13, 2008 Nick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Drew Westen is a psychologist and a passionate Democrat. The Political Brain takes apart every major political contest since Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan and explains why, if only they had listened to Drew, and punched back hard at Republican smear tactics, Democrats would have won. Westen's analysis is pretty shrewd, and his second-guessing of lackluster campaigns like Kerry's is spot on, but I would have found his ideas more persuasive if he had been less partisan. In his book, all Repub...more

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Jul 12, 2008 Pat Simen rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is absolutely fantastic. It combines the stuff that I work on in my research (how emotion affects decision making) with an analysis of failed Democratic political campaigns of the past. Aside from Clinton's successful campaigns, this guy Drew Westen really seems to nail what went wrong with all the presidential campaigns against Republicans since LBJ. Namely, that Republican campaigners know what voters respond to, and Democratic strategists frequently don't, and that is: how to mold p...more

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May 29, 2009 mark rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: All voters (citizens)

Shelves: nonfiction

This book, for all its insights, is mistitled. A more appropriate title might be: How Republicans dominate the undecided middle in America. Which is ironic, because the author understands "framing," or-- how to manipulate what a person sees. Westen's book is all about the unseen, another irony. The book is too long, another irony. The author, a Ph.D. in clinical psychology falls short in still another element of persuasion--he fails to expound on just WHY Republicans are so ruthless and vicious,...more

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Jun 30, 2010 Ericka rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People concerned with politics and humans

I'm still in the middle of this, and though I like it, I'm a bit concerned about some of the language of the book. However, these issues aside (and lets see if they are answered by the end of the book), I would recommend this to everyone running a democratic campaign, as I think there are some excellent lessons to learn from this book.

Current questions:
1. what's with the uber masculinist language? is this the brain scientist speaking or the southern man?
2. has he just taken thagard without any...more

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May 23, 2009 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this book was great. It identifies how Republicans have manipulated the American public successfully enough to create the Reagan- George W era, and how Democrats have been brain dead, hoping that reason will prevail over an electorate that is voting on the basis of emotion. If Democrats get their mind around this, it will be tough to be a Republican and be taken seriously, which ultimately should help rebalance and reform the Republicans into something more than ideologues.

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Nov 14, 2009 Paul Jellinek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Drew Westen, an Emory University pshycologists, uses brain mapping and other neurological measures to demonstrate conclusively that politics is all about emotion. He then shows just as conclusively how Democratic candidates and strategists have missed this point for decades--at great cost to their own fortunes and the nation's. Eminently readable, this book was required reading among Democratic candidates and strategists in 2008. The result speaks for itself.

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Apr 19, 2013 Jay Payne rated it 4 of 5 stars

As an engineer, I tend to think of things as black and white and try to use logic to guide my thinking as much as I can. Growing up, I always remember learning how important rhetoric is but never understood the extent it had on people at a subconscious level. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys politics as it opened my eyes to things that I always knew were important but didn't understand to what extent.

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Jul 14, 2012 Colin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Westen does it. He manages to convey empirical psychological evidence in a clear, enticing narrative. Poignant and straightforward, he lays out the framework for how voters make decisions and the resulting actions campaigns, especially Democratic ones, need to take to win elections. The book offers relevant examples, stories, and speeches that convey Westen's thoughts and replicate his points. I recommend this read to anyone interested in the topic of politics, or even human decision-making and...more

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Feb 25, 2011 Ryan Miner rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: psychology-politics-emotion

To understand politics is to understand how thy subconscious interprets politics. Drew Westen writes on how emotions in politics collide, and who ultimately wins as a result. The Political Brain has become the Bible of all political consultants who seek to understand how move an electorate. I could read Westen's book hundreds of times and learn something new every time.

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Apr 23, 2008 Justin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Although the author is long-winded and less clever than he thinks he is, he advances a timely and compelling argument that intelligent politicians, and democrats in particular, need to change up their political game. In short, they need to avoid coming across in interviews and debates as a cerebral policy wonk (Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry) and emotionally connect with the average American (Reagan, W. Bush, and hopefully Obama). This isn't an earth-shattering revelation, but the author takes the app...more

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May 11, 2012 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

In which Drew Westen, in 2007, makes the case that Democratic candidates need to tap into values -- say, like Hope and Change -- in order to win a presidential election.

But seriously, there is a lot of sharp political campaign analysis, if a disappointing lack of focus on anything other than electoral politics to drive change.

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“In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins” — 2 people liked it

“The road to victory is paved with emotional intentions.” — 1 person liked it

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title link	preview: The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/853648.The_Political_Brain?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348135462l/853648.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/853648.The_Political_Brain?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation by Drew Westen[/url]

The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

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