The Politics of Denial

by Michael A. Milburn, Sheree D. Conrad

What is the driving force behind the rage of America's white males? Emotion appears to be playing a growing role in politics, as evidenced by vociferous opposition to welfare, abortion, and immigrants, as well as by the rise of the radical Religious Right, antienvironmentalism, and the increasingly neoconservative slant of American public opinion.
The Politics of Denial presents a compelling explanation of these phenomena, providing solid empirical evidence for the role of rigid, harsh child-rearing practices in the creation of punitive, authoritarian adult political attitudes.
The authors, social psychologists, show how both the political and the public policy processes in the United States are distorted by the unresolved negative emotions (such as fear, anger, and helplessness) that remain from punitive parenting and by the politicians and conservative religious leaders who exploit those emotions. Among the many public figures discussed are Patrick Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, and Billy Graham.

Genres: Politics, Psychology, Nonfiction

292 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Ira Therebel]

An interesting book on how physical punishment in childhood can influence the society. It talks about the concept of denial and shows punitive and authoritarian features of our society. It talks about how people are more interested in punishinh than improving when it comes to prisoners. How they support death penalty even though so many facts are agaisnt it. How people often have more anger at people who present them facts of climate change than at the damage itself. It also talks about things like racism and fundamentalism that also come from denial and rage.

I think this book will be very interesting for people interested in sociology, psychology or politics. It does present many interesting facts and researches that can make us think.

My only problem with it was that it did just talk about physical punishment in general. There is a difference between abuse, physical punishment without any explanation or punishment that was combined with a conversation to improve the behaviour. Would be interesting to see how this three different forms of punishment influence future denial, rage and punitiveness of a person.

[Jamey]

This is one of the most helpful things I've read on the vexing question of why poor people vote for Republicans who despise them.

[Kyle Profile]

“Many people who were physically and psychologically abused as children, as adults developed hostile attitudes towards others and denial of past and present reality”

Older book but a good read