For Immediate Release

“THE MIND OF WATERGATE UPDATED” ADDRESSES TIMELESS ISSUES OF UNCONSCIOUS CONFLICTS IN POLITICS AND LARGE GROUP PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Leo Rangell, M.D., renowned psychoanalytic author, theorist and practitioner, will be featured at the discussion group, “The Mind of Watergate Updated: The Ego in Politics and Public Opinion,” during the American Psychoanalytic Association’s 95 th Annual Meeting to be held in Washington, DC from June 14, 18, 2006 at the Hilton Washington.  Members of the media are invited to attend the discussion on Thursday, June 15, 2006 from 4:45 – 7:15 p.m. at the Hilton Washington. 

From the beginning of his professional life, which spans 65 years of the “Century of Freud”, Dr. Rangell has felt there is as much psychopathology in the external culture as in the internal lives of the individuals he was treating. With his analytic eyes and ears on political life since the McCarthy era, dispelling the myth of the Freudian analyst living in an ivory tower, he became a “Nixon watcher” the moment the new, young candidate for Congress appeared on the political scene against the popular incumbent Jerry Vorhees. Nixon went on “not to defeat his opponent but to kill him”. Dr. Rangell was not surprised at the Watergate 25 years later, but took on its ongoing investigation as his “extra patient” in the early seventies.

From his book, The Mind of Watergate: An Exploration of the Compromise of Integrity (1980),  came “the syndrome of the compromise of integrity” as on a par with neuroses in human affairs. Dr. Rangell identifies this type of psychopathology, besides in leaders, in the population that elected a man as President by a landslide whose nickname for a quarter of a century had been “Tricky Dick”. Since that time, Rangell has applied psychoanalytic understanding to a succession of public events from then until now. It is not the tip but the base of the population pyramid that gives stability to the national mood. The public affects outcomes and gets its wish more than it knows. Rangell has demonstrated the role of public opinion from Presidential elections to the Hill-Thomas hearings, Iran-Contra, the O.J. trial, rape cases of the famous, Kennedy-Smith, Mike Tyson, Kobe Bryant, all events that glue millions to the television screen.

Group pathology reflects the individual, and individual conflicts determine group behavior. The paranoia and irrational behavior of the mass supporting the immoral actions of leaders has profound effects on individual lives. The moral conflicts present today, besides in politics, in business, corporate life, sports, even academia introduce dissonance into human life.  Insight and knowledge about the causes of human action are tools psychoanalysts can apply today to amend moral convulsions and revulsions at both the individual and group levels, said Dr. Rangell.

At the time of Watergate, the psychoanalytic field paid little attention to moral conflicts and focused solely on internalized sexual and aggressive conflicts.  Dr. Rangell’s introduction of conflicts of integrity was ground-breaking and is timeless. Sex, aggression and problems of integrity have dogged the last 4 or 5 Presidents up to the present one. The beam of insight can illuminate them all. By focusing on group psychopathology, Rangell helped move psychoanalytic understanding from individual treatment to its applications in mass behavior.

Theodore J. Jacobs, M.D., and Daniel H. Jacobs, M.D., members of the American Psychoanalytic Association, will facilitate the discussion.  Members of the audience will be encouraged to participate in the discussion.

For more information regarding the discussion group, “Dr. Leo Rangell on the Mind of Watergate Updated: The Ego in Politics and Public Opinion” or other scientific sessions at the American Psychoanalytic Association’s 95 th Annual Meeting, please call 212-752-0450, ext. 21, or send an email to deder@apsa.org.  Members of the media should direct their inquiries to Dottie Jeffries at 212-752-0450, ext. 29, or send an email to djeffries@apsa.org.

The American Psychoanalytic Association is a professional organization of psychoanalysts throughout the United States and is comprised of approximately 3,500 members.  The Scientific Meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association are intended for the continuing education of the members and other registrants.  Visit www.apsa.org for more information.

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