What really makes a person politically liberal? Why are some drawn like a magnet to such classic liberal tenets as moral relativism, dependence on government, redistribution of wealth, and a philosophy of victim-hood.
In the first book of its kind, renowned forensic psychiatrist Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr. argues in a penetrating analysis that liberalism is understandable only as a psychological disorder. His book, The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness, is destined to raise the bar of political discourse.
Firing at point blank range, Rossiter asks a question destined to launch a thousand arguments: Are liberals out of their minds?
"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Rossiter. "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."
Criticism of Rossiter's theses will have to take into account who he is, and the credentials he boasts. Far from a 'right wing radical,' Rossiter is a careful observer of human nature and its relation to individual liberty and social order. For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1500 patients as a board certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2700 civil and criminal cases as a board certified forensic psychiatrist.
"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation, and moral integrity -- as liberals do," adds Rossiter. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population -- as liberals do."
"And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over- regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character, and reduces them to wards of the state -- as liberals do."
The Liberal Mind analyzes the psychopathology of liberalism, explaining how the liberal agenda:
*Creates and reinforces perceptions of victimization
*Satisfies infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence, and compensation
*Augments primitive feelings of envy and inferiority
*Rejects the sovereignty of the common man and subordinates him to the will of the government
"The roots of liberalism - and its associated madness - can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood, and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind" notes Rossiter.
"When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains, and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."
Book Information:
Title: The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness
Publisher: Free World Books, LLC
ISBN-10: 0-9779563-0-X
406 pages plus extensive bibliography and index
Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., MD received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago and served for two years as a psychiatrist in the United States Army. He is currently in private practice in the Chicago area.
Dr. Rossiter is board certified in both general and forensic psychiatry. For more than forty years he has diagnosed and treated mental disorders, with a special interest in personality pathology and its developmental origins.
He has been retained by numerous public offices, courts and private attorneys as a forensic psychiatrist and has consulted in more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases in both state and federal jurisdictions. Dr. Rossiter has lectured to various groups on subjects ranging from psychotherapy to the prevention of suicide.
For more information about Dr. Rossiter's forensic psychiatry practice, visit www.libertymind.com and www.forensicpsychiatrist.com
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