An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Analysis of the Psychological Side of Political Relations

The relevance of the study is due to the complication and signifi cant aggravation of political relations in the modern world. The purpose of this study is to analyze the so-called “emotional turn” in the study of political rela tions. Research methods: systemic, comparative and psychological approaches, as well as the author’s concept of the correlation of social with external natural and internal natural. The paper analyzes the concepts of “political emotions”, “collective emotions”, “geopolitics of emotions” from a philosophical point of view. We consider it necessary to distinguish: 1) political collective emotions, as short-term, based on a genetic program of behavior; 2) political collective feelings, including not only emotions but also interests, values and experience, and 3) mass consciousness. Since the group as a whole is always larger than the sum of its members, as long as collective emotions, collective feelings and mass consciousness diff er from the emotions, feelings and consciousness of the members of the group. Here quantitative characteristics go into qualitative. All three mental phenomena are characterized by collectivity (mass) and a high degree of solidarity: for collective emotions – short-term, for collective feelings – long-term, stable, for mass consciousness also short-term, while possessing such a high degree of solidarity that participants in mass behavior temporarily lose their individuality, become part of a single “human body”. Also, the general quality of mass consciousness and collective emotions is the transmission to each other by the type of “infection”, the feeling of unity of the group, the need for immediate action, limited dura tion. In contrast, collective feelings, which have not yet received due attention in social sciences, have common needs, values and experience and are characterized by stability, awareness that contributes to planned behav ior in political relations. The perspective of the study is the analysis of collective feelings in political relations, in domestic, including election campaigns, and interstate at the level of geopolitics. In the future, a comprehensive study of the impact on political relations of the psychological characteristics of political leaders and the electorate is possible

Collective responsibility · Consciousness · Feeling · Politics · Solidarity · Humanities and Social Sciences · Language, Communication, and Linguistic Studies · Sociopolitical Dynamics in Russia