Psychology

Psychology articles feature analysis about public health, policy, ethics, and society.

All psychology articles at Brownstone Institute are translated automatically into multiple languages.

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urge to control

The Urge to Control Others

By / / / 9 minute read / Articles
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Someone who believes that hearing or reading opinions that do not precisely ratify their particular way of viewing self and other is tantamount to physical harm or extinction has a very, very tenuous sense of identity and/or self-possession. What they are, in effect, saying is that when it comes to this thing called “me” that there is no semblance of a solid and autonomous self within and that they are, rather, a mere sum of the informational inputs delivered to their device at any given moment. 

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mass formation psychosis totalitarianism

New Thinking on Mass Formation Psychosis

By / / , / 20 minute read / Articles
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While the inner world of the Truth Speaker might be our last refuge, even if we feel we have nothing else and are completely overpowered by fanatical totalitarians who deny us all other space and companionship, we need to think and act much bigger. We are not that small or downtrodden, nor as isolated. We can win, and we will.

New Thinking on Mass Formation Psychosis Read Journal Article

The Selfish Collective

By / / , / 10 minute read / Articles
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A truly prosocial approach would not shut out all other goals and insist on one way forward. It would take into account the different priorities and viewpoints of various factions or individuals, approach them with respect, and ask how to best facilitate some sort of harmony among their needs. Instead of prescribing behavior onto others it would advocate for dialogue and open debate, and it would celebrate differences of opinion. 

The Selfish Collective Read Journal Article

Remember Those Who Cannot Speak

By / / , , / 6 minute read / Articles
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Remember this: every article you read on this site represents the views of thousands of learned and concerned people who are not in a position to speak. Every author here has taken risks and knows the stakes of the debate in which we find ourselves at the center. There is a silent group out there of highly intelligent people who are deeply grateful to all our supporters for making this opportunity to speak truth to power possible. 

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The Shame of the Covidians

By / / / 5 minute read / Articles
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Understanding all this makes it easier to think of those who provided the vociferous support for the government-imposed destruction of freedom of association, commercial freedom, bodily sovereignty, mass firings, record-shattering numbers of injuries and deaths and who knows how many future health complications with a greater degree of forgiveness and compassion. But I’m not there yet. 

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Did You Join the Conga Line?

By / / , / 6 minute read / Articles
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Empathy for small business owners damaged or ruined by the conga-line in support of lockdowns is almost nonexistent. Small businesses have been strangled. The owners have lost their dreams. They’ve lost their livelihoods; they’ve lost their savings. And, let’s not forget the last generation from which some of those businesses were purchased. That prior generation has lost their retirement plans. 

Did You Join the Conga Line? Read Journal Article

The Milgram Experiment Restaged, with Millions of Real Victims

By / / , , / 5 minute read / Articles
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These Milgramite “experimenters” and “teachers” knew exactly what they were doing. Indeed, many of them, like our President, clearly relished initiating and firing up a “stick-it-to-your-family-and-friend” movement among us. 

The Milgram Experiment Restaged, with Millions of Real Victims Read Journal Article

Germophobes to the Left and Right

By / / , , / 14 minute read / Articles
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With two years of overreaction to and media obsession with the myriad of ways that COVID-19 can kill or permanently disable people, there’s reason to believe a major subset of the population that was faithfully adherent to public health edicts about non-pharmaceutical interventions will remain mentally scarred.

Germophobes to the Left and Right Read Journal Article

Lockdowns, Closures, and the Loss of Moral Clarity

By / / , / 8 minute read / Articles
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Perpetual decline and fall is not inevitable. It is fixable but every powerful force out there, especially mainstream media, seems to stand against that. It is all designed to demoralize us and cause us to give up. We cannot accept this fate. There is still time, providing that we understand what is happening and the grave consequences of letting it all take place without a fight. 

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selfish delight

Selfish: The King of Covid Epithets

By / / , / 7 minute read / Articles
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We need pandemic policies rooted in human nature—policies that meet people where they are, not where some sanctimonious Twitter warriors decide they should be. Throwing the S-word around doesn’t earn respect or cooperation from the accused. Au contraire: when pelted with character-assassinating epithets, people double down.

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