The Political Brain: - The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

Drew Westen

PublicAffairs

2008

496 páginas

16h 32m

ISBN-10: B06XC73WD3

The Political Brain is a groundbreaking investigation into the role of emotion in determining the political life of the nation. For two decades Drew Westen, professor of psychology and psychiatry at Emory University, has explored a theory of the mind that differs substantially from the more "dispassionate" notions held by most cognitive psychologists, political scientists, and economists—and Democratic campaign strategists. The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works. When political candidates assume voters dispassionately make decisions based on "the issues," they lose. That's why only one Democrat has been re-elected to the presidency since Franklin Roosevelt—and only one Republican has failed in that quest.
In politics, when reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins. Elections are decided in the marketplace of emotions, a marketplace filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory, in which logic plays only a supporting role. Westen shows, through a whistle-stop journey through the evolution of the passionate brain and a bravura tour through fifty years of American presidential and national elections, why campaigns succeed and fail. The evidence is overwhelming that three things determine how people vote, in this order: their feelings toward the parties and their principles, their feelings toward the candidates, and, if they haven't decided by then, their feelings toward the candidates' policy positions.

Westen turns conventional political analyses on their head, suggesting that the question for Democratic politics isn't so much about moving to the right or the left but about moving the electorate. He shows how it can be done through examples of what candidates have said—or could have said—in debates, speeches, and ads. Westen's discoveries could utterly transform electoral arithmetic, showing how a different view of the mind and brain leads to a different way of talking with voters about issues that have tied the tongues of Democrats for much of forty years—such as abortion, guns, taxes, and race. You can't change the structure of the brain. But you can change the way you appeal to it. And here's how…

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Political Brain

Drew Westen, professor do departamento de psicologia e psiquiatria da Emory University, se propõe a trabalhar um tema muito interessante e atual, o funcionamento da mente na política. Inicia de forma instigante e interessante, ao anunciar estudos que comprovam que o ser humano age muito mais emocionalmente do que racionalmente quando se trata de política e eleições. O desenvolver do texto é, contudo, decepcionante. Primeiro por limitar o tema às eleições presidenciais americanas de um determinado período. Segundo pela abordagem em si. Boa parte do texto se concentra em analisar, segundo o seu ponto de vista, debates e falas entre presidentes e o posterior resultado. Em alguns momentos tira-se algum proveito ao citar estudos de psicólogos e economistas consagrados, como Kanehan, Skinner, Freud, etc. contudo, mesmo as citações, passam pelo lugar comum e óbvio já altamente tratado na literatura, sem acrescentar nada de novo. Em seguida utiliza um tratamento fortemente preconceituoso, simplista e limitado, classificando tudo em dois blocos, republicanos e democratas, chegando a sugerir se tratarem de 2 espécies diferentes. Muito se concentra em sugerir respostas ou mesmo perguntas que deveriam ser feitas pelos democratas em debates e campanhas, sobre temas polêmicos como armas, aborto, racismo, etc. Ao final, a impressão que se tem é que o autor tenta provar que a mente política é mesmo predominantemente emocional e não racional ao usar, ele mesmo, uma abordagem emocional e não racional para defender as visões democratas, com muito pouca ciência e, quando presente, fraca e questionável. Fica muito a dever sobre tão interessante e complexo tema.