Psychology and History

Guilt

Understanding the Contradictory Behavior of Michael Cohen

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on May 20, 2024

Why Michael Cohen is apologizing and atoning for his mistakes in the New York Supreme Court case against Donald J. Trump.

Persuasion

How Does Ideology Lead to Violence?

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on September 20, 2023

Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 people in 1995, was influenced by radical-right American ideologies.

Politics

How We Grapple With "Gunism"

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on July 28, 2023

How can we grapple with radical "gunism" and the mythology that surrounds it? It is little known or acknowledged that gun control actually existed in the early moving frontier.

Career

Retooling for Coping with the Assault on Democracy

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on January 4, 2023

Thinking of ourselves as survivors rather than victims can be the beginning of activism to maintain democracy.

Fear

Emotions We Must Deal with to Defend Democracy

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on December 6, 2022

What are the emotions most of us feel during the assault on democracy?

President Donald Trump

Does Trump Believe His Own Lies?

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on July 1, 2022

The process of the January 6 Committee is as important as the content, because it is democracy and factual reality in action.

Politics

An Insider’s Revelations About Russian Nuclear Threats

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on May 31, 2022

A Russian defector reveals the interaction of psychology and politics among Russian leaders, especially Russian attitudes toward their own nuclear threats.

Fear

Putin and Nuclear Threat: Appropriate Nuclear Fear

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on May 11, 2022

Can nuclear fear be appropriate?

Fear

Putin and Nuclear Threat: Imagery of Extinction

Robert Jay Lifton M.D. on April 27, 2022

The fear of nuclear weapons occupies a special dimension of danger.