Dr. Robert Jay Lifton & Jeremy Rifkin May 1989 Air date

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton & Jeremy Rifkin Air date: May 1989

Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.
In 2006, Lifton appeared in a documentary on cults on the History Channel: "Decoding the Past", along with fellow psychiatrist Peter A. Olsson[1].
His father was a physicst.
Contents
[hide]
•1 Education
•2 Biography
•3 The Wellfleet Psychohistory Group
•4 Theory of thought reform
•5 Studies of war and atrocity survivors
•6 Theories of totalism and the protean self
•7 Critiques of modern war and terrorism
o7.1 Notable Appearances
•8 Bibliography
o8.1 Lifton as editor
•9 See also
•10 External links
•11 References

[edit] Education
•Cornell University
•New York Medical College, 1948
•Research Associate in Psychiatry, Harvard University, 1956-1961
[edit] Biography
Lifton was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Harold A. (a businessman) and Ciel (Roth) Lifton. He studied medicine at New York Medical College. From 1951 to 1953 he served as an Air Force psychiatrist in Japan and Korea, to which he later attributed his interest in war and politics. He has since worked as a teacher and researcher at the Washington School of Psychiatry, Harvard University, and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he helped to found the Center for the Study of Human Violence.
He married the writer Betty Jean Kirschner in 1952 and has two children. Lifton calls cartooning his avocation; he has published two books of humorous cartoons about birds.
[edit] The Wellfleet Psychohistory Group
During the 1960s, Robert Jay Lifton, together with his mentor Erik Erikson and MIT historian Bruce Mazlish, formed a group to apply psychology and psychoanalysis to the study of history. Meetings were held at Lifton's home in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The Wellfleet Psychohistory Group, as it became known, focused mainly on psychological motivations for war, terrorism and genocide in recent history. In 1965, they received sponsorship from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to establish psychohistory as a separate field of study. A collection of research papers by the group was published in 1975: Explorations in Psychohistory: The Wellfleet Papers (see Bibliography; Lifton as editor).
On Friday October 3rd 2008, Lifton gave a lecture to 60 students at Yale University.
Lifton's work in this field was heavily influenced by Erikson's studies of Hitler and other political figures, as well as Sigmund Freud's concern with the mass social effects of deep-seated drives, particularly attitudes toward death.

Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of seventeen bestselling books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and are used in hundreds of universities, corporations and government agencies around the world. His most recent books include The Hydrogen Economy, The European Dream, The End of Work, The Age of Access, and The Biotech Century.

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[rabbinero]

What a terrible interviewer! Let the poor man speak!

[WilhelmDrake]

I think his analysis of "stages of consciousness" is pretty weak. If it's only used as a metaphor I don't have a problem, but as representing actual brain states, I find it unbelievable. Humans relate to the world depending on both environment and culture, which obviously changes with time and geography. I just find it hard to believe in actual "stages" of human consciousness or "brain states".

[TheHairyHeart]

Very interesting.

Thanks for the upload.