Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry - Hardcover

by Robert Jay Lifton (Author)

Media track record: His previous book, The Climate Swerve, was reviewed in the Washington Post and excerpted in the New York Times. Lifton has been a contributor to the New York Times for over fifty years. He has appeared on many NPR shows, including Fresh Air. He has appeared in many TV and feature documentaries. He has been interviewed by both Stephen Spielberg's team for a Discovery Channel show on the Japanese suicide Aum Shinrikyo and also for a film by Errol Morris. His definition of cults is used by the hugely popular podcast CULTS in the opening of their show.

Credentials: He is one of the world's leading authorities on thought control and cult violence. He taught and practiced at Yale, Harvard, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He is one of the great practitioners of psycho-history, the combination of psychiatry and history. His ideas are often cited in articles and essays. He has been a prolific voice on Trump's psychological suitability to be president.

Blurbs/endorsements: James Carroll, Martin Amis, Bill McKibben, Judith Herman, Sherry Turkle, James Gilligan

Author Biography

A pioneer in the field of psychohistory, Robert Jay Lifton is a psychiatrist and author best known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform and cult behavior. He has written over twenty books, including many seminal works in the field such as the National Book Award-winning Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima, Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning The Nazi Doctors, National Book Award-nominated Home from the War, as well as The Climate Swerve, Losing Reality, and Surviving Our Catastrophes (all from The New Press). He has taught at Yale University, Harvard University, and the City University of New York. He lives in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.