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The challenges faced by our world feel unprecedented. Stark political divides, racial violence, the changing climate, a global pandemic—the list goes on. Whether or not the current tumult is truly extraordinary is almost beside the point, as it is the subjective experience of overwhelming uncertainty that seems to define the present day. Our divisions appear stark and immutable; the path to unity hopelessly obscured behind propaganda and rhetoric. Into this context, Large-Group Psychology: Racism, Societal Divisions, Narcissistic Leaders and Who We Are Now, by Dr. Vamik Volkan offers a unique conceptual framework for not only understanding the origins of these conflicts, but for moving towards a more peaceful future.
Large-Group Psychology explores the psychology of the societal divisions so prevalent in our world. Informed by his personal experiences as a “voluntary immigrant” to the United States from Turkey in the 1950s, and his subsequent career as a psychoanalyst and psycho-political consultant, Dr. Volkan offers a novel perspective to explain these conflicts. Dr. Volkan has spent decades engaged in international diplomacy, promoting peace, reducing conflict, and resolving trauma. In this book, as in many of his previous publications (Volkan, 1988, 2004, 2014), he brings his considerable experience to bear in providing a framework for making sense of the current socio-political climate.
He begins by discussing his personal motivations for studying large-group psychology, rooted in his childhood experiences as a Cypriot Turk while Cyprus was a British colony. He notes that such an examination is not traditional for a psychoanalyst, but it feels appropriate here given the inherently personal nature of the topics at hand. It is also consistent with current social psychology guidelines, which emphasize the importance of considering one's own prejudices and privilege before attempting to understand the experiences of marginalized groups. Large-Group Psychology provide