The Political Brain

The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation

By: Drew Westen

Narrated by: Anthony Heald

Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The Political Brain is a groundbreaking scientific investigation into how the mind and brain really work and how it affects the way candidates win and lose elections.

In politics, when reason and emotions collide, emotion invariably wins. In this landmark book, scientist and psychologist Drew Westen shows how electorates vote not with their heads but with their hearts, and how the marketplace that matters most is the marketplace of emotion - filled with values, images, analogies, moral sentiments, and moving oratory.

The first serious investigation into how emotions affect voter behavior, The Political Brain reveals how the political landscape would change if candidates began with a 21st-century understanding of how the mind and brain really work.

©2007 Drew Westen (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Drew Westen is a must read....we will win the Presidency if our candidate reads and acts on this book." (Howard Dean)
"This is the most interesting, informative book on politics I've read in many years...whether you're an interested voter or a candidate for public office, you have to read this book." (Bill Clinton)
"In the last several months, [Westen] has gone from a politically inclined nobody to a hot ticket." ( Los Angeles Times)

Really Bad

I'm shocked by the good reviews here. Probably a lot of the 1-2 starers are Conservatives angry to be called stupid. Well, let me be clear: I'm a liberal, this is a crappy book.

The this-is-why-the-other-side-is-so-crazy genre is incredibly overpopulated. I'm not trying to draw a false equivalence. This is not Ann Coulter screaming about how liberals support medicare because their daddies wouldn't spank them, but it is basically Drew Westen's armchair psychology. A lot of it is him imagining "if only Al Gore had said this", and indulging that fantasy way too long. For the record, this book came out before the 2008 election, and Westen puts his support behind John Edwards. So we know how that turned out...

Slightly better is the more recent book "The Republican Brain". That book at least has the advantage of being grounded somewhat in actual research. But in general, this whole genre is widely disappointing.

2022 Cringe

Perfect book for Bill Maher Democrats, people who considered themselves progressive two decades ago but refused to grow and develop as American society did.

Plenty of truly interesting studies in here that really do help you understand political psychology, but dogpiled with pretentious ramblings that serve little purpose to anyone except the author and his ego. It's a great look into the minds of those who have helped cement the word "smarmy" into the minds of the average voter, a word now synonymous with the standard establishment Democratic politician.

I do think that many of the strategies the author recommends that Democrats use in order to win elections are decent for the time. However it's clear that much of their practicality has vanished as we enter the second quarter of 2022.

Great performance by the reader, however.

Revealing

Contrary to its subtitle, The Political Brain offers scant examination of the psychology of political thought, and it is anything but objective or scientific. Nor is it, as suggested by the euphoric reviews of Bill Clinton and Howard Dean, a masterpiece of political science, the author misidentifies Minority House Leader John Boehner as a Senator. The book, nonetheless, is made worthwhile by its profound, if unintentional, insights into the workings of the U.S political system.

Westen clearly intends his book as a strategy guide for Democratic candidates. The problem, he explains, is that Republican, while incompetent in every other respect, have masterful political strategists who understand, unlike the Democrats, that voters cannot comprehend rational appeals and must therefore be pandered to on an emotional level.

The party of Old Hickory, Westen counsels, needs to follow the party of Lincoln in abandoning any pretense to rational, issue based campaigns. Instead, they must pander to the emotions of voters, who unlike elites such as Westen, are either too dumb or too impulsive to make informed decisions. The children's Story The Little Engine that Could, not well thought out and publicized policies, he advises, is an ideal framework for speaking to voters.

Westen's skills as a propagandist and insights into the minds' of voters are debatable. The unintentional insights his book offers into the cynical and self-justifying world of the partisan ideologues who choreograph American political culture are not. The cynical counsel of an esteemed, albeit publicly unknown, partisan apparatchik reveals more about American politics than any textbook or criticism from even the most astute observer could. This book is a must read, though not for the reasons the author intended.

Talk Radio Alternative

After listening through 2 hours of emotional clap-trap. I decided that if I wanted to hear an excessively verbose emotional diatribe I would tune on my radio to Michael Savage. I was very disappointed with this selection, not enough science but way too much partisan political whinning. I wasted my credit with this one. Total garbage.

More of a Liberal Political Rant than Science

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you eat, sleep and drink liberalism, then you might enjoy this book. Otherwise, save your money.

What could Drew Westen have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

If the author's intent was to champion liberal causes, then he succeeded. However, if he wanted to explain the role of emotion in politics, then he should focus more on the science behind the issue instead of his own political agenda.

Which scene was your favorite?

As a conservative, I initially enjoyed hearing the liberal standpoint. However, the author could not help but champion his pet liberal issues which quickly became old.

What character would you cut from The Political Brain?

The author. His personal pet projects should have been left out, and instead the author should have focused on the science of the political brain, which would have made a great book.

Any additional comments?

The author had a lot of good points, but those points quickly got lost in his endless liberal rhetoric.

Mean Left

If you are a conservative, prepare to be offended and amused at how the left just doesn't understand you.

The stereotypes of conservatives are juvenile, predictable and mean.

Very Bad.

This book is essentially the authors mental masturbation into how in debates against past Republicans how he would of attacked them.

I'm a Libertarian so I enjoy facts and reason as well as poking both sides of the aisle. The book repeatedly essentially says Democrats use facts and reason and Republicans are all feelings.

The real issue I have with this book is it attempts to give history lessons that are patently false.

"The Great Depression was caused by unfettered capatilism so we needed the hero FDR. " With no mention or understanding of the federal reserve or federal income tax that preceded it, nor apparently an understanding for what unregulated capatilism actually is. Here's a hint, we've never had it.

Also Reagan was a Racist because he used the code words "States Rights". I kid you not, it says that in the book. No other source or reason for why Reagan was a racist, he just was because code words....

He presents Democrats as the innocent perfect pure as the wind driven snow heroes bested at every turn by their own niceness and the evil Republicans who out play them.

The book spends very little time in describing the actual processes involved in decision making or how humans come to decisions.

In my personal opinion this book is an excellent case study of itself, in regards to being emotionally invested in a political ideology and how facts and reason clearly play very little role in the authors political affiliation.

unbearable

What would have made The Political Brain better?

Should have stuck to the science rather than going on political diatribe.

Would you ever listen to anything by Drew Westen again?

no

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The underlying concept about emotion in politics is sound.

Any additional comments?

I stopped halfway through it and did not finish it. I can count on one hand the number of books I did not finish.