The widespread protests and violence by leftists on all social levels including campus students in response to the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States is an example of people suffering from Post-Election Stress Disorder (PESD), the latest symptom of the anti-authoritarian transformation of American society.
Aside from engaging in social demonstrations, the syndrome consists in people huddling together in “support groups” bemoaning their fate and commiserating with each other.
For these protestors,Trump’s persona contains all of the characteristics of authoritarian figures that are reviled and feared by leftists.
What these protesters actually fear, however, is taking charge of their own lives and advancing themselves. They fear the opportunities that that they have to benefit from living freely in America.
A symptom of their underlying need for less personal and social freedom is that these protesters are oblivious – clueless – of the terrifying emotional forces within them that are underlying their protestations.
Many have a serious work disturbance. Contemptuous of others who know and work for what they want, they demand the exact opposite of freedom: greater security. There is a poorly disguised desire to be cared for by society because they are emotionally too crippled and irresponsible to care for themselves. A sign of their work disturbance is that the thought of working for what they want rarely occurs to them because they are too caught up in protesting.
Full of disdain for the police who risk their lives protecting them and others, and inflamed by the media to act out in socially destructive demonstrations, they often break the law and choose to side with criminals. Justifying their actions, through the morality of political correctness as a “moral right,” they accuse the hated authority figures of racism and worse. They would rather put their energy into protesting social causes and be mindlessly influenced by leftist ideologues than focus on what they can do to improve their lives – a sign of severe ocular armor.
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Neither Left Nor Right
The Emotional Plague
Charles Konia, M.D. 
Dr. Konia,
Thanks so much for this post. It’s a very helpful explanation and much appreciated.
Alexis Packer
Ms. Packer,
You’re welcome.
Dr. Konia
The presidential candidates, the media’s coverage, the election results and the reaction to those results by various people and segments of society, provide a wonderful opportunity for those well versed in and capable of functional thinking to bring some much needed perspective to Donald Trump becoming the President Elect.
The last week has been a window into the fundamental aspects of the following:
Armored human functioning
Healthy, life positive expressions that go against the current prevailing social agreements (the most important of those agreements being political correctness)
The predictable reactions from those most vested in the current social agreements (i.e. the media, most of the re-elected politicians, etc)
Because social anxiety and tensions have increased quite a bit during the presidential campaign, the general public may seek out much needed answers to the following questions:
What is political correctness? Many have become familiar with the term over the last few years and it gets tossed around in everyday conversation more frequently but very few have a real understanding about its true destructive nature
If it is so destructive, how did it become part of our social fabric and embedded in most of our social institutions?
Since it is an existing social agreement how do we get rid of it?
Why are we so divided as a nation?
Over the next few weeks and months the “health” expressed by the voters in the election of Trump for President will be under attack. I am pretty sure that Trump, in many ways, will not be prepared to deal with the problems he will face. In addition, it will be interesting to see how rationally or irrationally he responds to the attacks and to the challenges he faces in general. He has promised things that are beyond his or anyone else’s ability to deliver.
I hope that functional thinking will find its place in the public discourse and provide accurate perspective to the interesting and turbulent times ahead.
You are correct. The forces of the left are already circling around Trump to destroy what he wants to accomplish. He does not know what is in store for him because he does not understand the operation of the emotional plague.
It would be interesting to know if Trump or any of his advisors have ever read any books by Reich or anything along similar lines.
Cannot speak for that, but at a stump speech in Philadelphia back in 2007, FWIW, I handed Congressman Ron Paul a copy of Dr. Konia’s book ‘The Emotional Plague’ and asked that he deliver it to his son Rand.