Mastery and Retreat

Psychological Sources of the Appeal of Ronald Reagan

Bibliographic Data

ID6335937
AuthorsC F Alford (0000-0002-9948-2454, corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume9
Issue4
Pages571
Publication date1988-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-895X • E-ISSN: 1467-9221
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3791528
OpenAlexW2331389398
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited12

Freud claims that illusions are wish fulfillment fantasies. As such, they stem from our anxieties: With our wishes and illusions we seek to alleviate an anxiety. This paper examines the popular appeal of Ronald Reagan by considering the national anxieties that he addresses. Prime among these anxieties is a feeling of helplessness: that our economy and society are out of control. More precisely, the anxiety is that, out of a combination of complacency and fear, Americans have abandoned the quest for mastery and control over their collective lives. Reagan labels our national retreat, from collective mastery over the public world into the apparent security of private life and private solutions, a return to the traditional verities. In so doing Reagan calls our retreat a victory. He thus protects our collective ego from a tremendous blow: not merely that we have lost national mastery, but that we have abandoned its pursuit for a strategy of individual survival

Appeal · Political science · Psychoanalysis · American Political and Social Dynamics · Law · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Theater, Performance, and Music History

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