The Political Psychology of Populism: Trump, Putin, and the Roots of Humiliation

This book examines the underlying social pathology of Trump and Putin’s political orientations. The assault on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Russia’s war on Ukraine in February 2022 both reveal a disturbing drift towards new forms of populism. Drawing on the theoretical insights of Sigmund Freud and Norbert Elias regarding the impulses of the masses and the social trauma triggered by the quest for lost origins, Trump and Putin’s populist policies are revealed in a new light: shaped by love and hate, feeding on the frustrations and resentments of the masses, the two figures--and their followers--are driven to violence. For these leaders violence even fuels belief in a renewal of democracy--a democracy by the people and for the people, at the service of the masses. It is based on the idea that a single, pure truth is the source of appeasement and well-being that excludes outsiders. The book is a continuation of work previously published with Palgrave (The politics of destruction) and is the result of several years of interdisciplinary research and a dialogue between psychoanalysis and the social sciences.

François Bafoil is Emeritus Research Fellow, Center for International Studies (CERI), Sciences Po, CNRS, Paris, France