Hi all,

First off - please consider donating to Randall Yip's AsAmNews! He has a $30K matching grant for donations from Nov 1-Dec 31, and his site is essential, daily publication on Asian American news. Funding will help support an on-the-ground reporter for Maui's recovery, and other specific initiatives for Asian America. I subscribe to the daily digest, and the headlines alone keep me abreast of Asian America. Donate here.

One longread for your weekend. I appreciate the tools of deconstruction, and we have to "break it down" - but we also have to recognize that critique alone does not help us build anything up. I try to both name the problems in discourse, and construct something better, in this 7000 word essay. I think it will be a good foundation for the year to come, and well worth your time. Thanks for taking a look!

MOSF 18.12: Election Season 2024: Deconstructing the Trump/Far-Right Playbook and Propaganda, and Constructing a Positive Response From Our Shared Humanity and Reality – East Wind ezine (December 1, 2023)

2024's consequential election season looms. Psychiatrist Ravi Chandra takes a look at the Far-Right playbook and the choice between autocratic and egalitarian-in-progress choices, with a focus on psychology, propaganda, and dangerous influences that are amplifying chances of violence.

 

Includes:
Part 1 – Preface
Part 2 – Mechanisms of propaganda
Part 3 – Examples from Trump’s Agenda47
Part 4 – Interlude, on Gaza and our divided political psyche
Part 5 – Our divided political psyche, examples from abroad, and potential consequences (including an aside on Žižek)
Part 6 – Analysis of Project 2025, the GOP and Far-Right playbook
Part 7 – Conclusion: the GOP/Far-Right and Trump are dangerous influences that enhance an ecosystem and permission structure for violence; we must counter this with reason, compassion, and love
Part 8 – For further viewing, reading, and references

And a much shorter one from Psychology Today:

Can We Downregulate the "United States of Amygdalae?"  (November 14, 2023)

Events in Israel and Gaza are a globally felt collective trauma, with distant people concerned not only for those in Israel and Gaza but also for their safety at home.

My prior articles on Israel-Gaza and trauma and healing might be helpful as well:

Previous Posts of interest on Israel-Gaza 

Keeping a Cool Head and Warm Heart During a Crisis | Psychology Today,  October 17, 2023

As a psychiatrist, I am most concerned that there are individuals and institutions that do not yet have enough distress tolerance, insight, compassion, and relatedness to prevent even worse outcomes.

Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis, and Society in a World Held Hostage | Psychology Today, October 24, 2023

During the war in Vietnam, Venerable Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh was asked if he was from the North or South. He replied, half in jest but wholly earnest, “I am from the middle.” He actually was from the middle, the city of Huế, but he was also emphasizing his third way of nonviolence and peacemaking, far different from either opposing faction.

Previous 4 part series on trauma and healing

Four part series on trauma and healing, with two posts specifically about JA intergenerational trauma, and three connected to Tsuru or Tadaima (JAMP) events, published Sept-Oct 2023 (mostly at Psychology Today, with 2 cross-posted at East Wind eZine with better images) Three of these have associated YouTube videos, and two have associated podcast episodes.

1. Dr. Satsuki Ina on Japanese American Trauma and Healing (Psychology Today, September 26, 2023)
2. Cultivating Sense of Self to Cope With Trauma and Life (Psychology Today, October 3, 2023)
3. MOSF 18.9: On Creating Transitional Spaces to Heal Intergenerational Trauma (EAAPAAO Part 5) The conversation is available as an audio podcast with added music and intros and outros on SoundCloud and Apple Podcasts and on YouTube.) (October 7, 2023, with a version cross-posted at Psychology Today.)
4. MOSF 18.11: Abusive Power and Megalomania Perpetuate Racial, Cultural, Transhistorical, & Intergenerational Trauma (Part 2) (October 15, 2023, with a version crossposted at Psychology Today.) A podcast version of this talk (with added music and intros and outros by me) on Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts, as well as YouTube.

In addition, this post goes along with the series:

What Do We Feel When We Feel Close? The Dim Sum Dialogues | Psychology Today (September 19, 2023)

A discussion about creating communities that share distress, with links to associated podcast on YouTube, SoundCloud and Apple Podcasts The podcast includes that famous scene from THE FAREWELL about East and West, with a discussion.

Warmly,

Ravi