The Mechanisms of Totalitarianism: Delusional Contagion and Totalitarian Drift
- Ariane Bilheran
- Jul 7, 2023
- 5 min read
Bilheran, A. "Les mécanismes du totalitarisme 1: Contagion délirante et dérive totalitaire", in Bon pour la tête, 07 juillet 2023.
How can we explain mass adherence to ideologies in totalitarian systems, and the irrational actions they command?
How can we explain mass adherence to ideologies in totalitarian systems, and the irrational actions they command? More than ten years ago, in my business consulting work, I coined the notion of "delusional contagion" [1] for the literature on psychosocial risks and suffering at work. I concluded that harassment was the masterpiece of the paranoiac [2]. The traditional clinical observation is that paranoiac delusions are contagious: This contagion is challenging because it is capable of operating on a large scale, through the creation of ideologies, that is to say, "out of touch" linguistic discourses, as far removed from the truth as from the reality of experience, which lead to the persecution of individuals, groups or masses.
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