Twilight of American Sanity

A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump

De: Allen Frances

Narrado por: Christopher Grove

“Unravel[s] the national psyche that brought our politics to this moment.” — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

A landmark book, from “one of the world’s most prominent psychiatrists” (The Atlantic): Allen Frances analyzes the nation, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly symptomatic of a deeper societal distress that must be understood if we are to move forward. Equally challenging and profound, Twilight of American Sanity “joins a small shelf of essential titles—Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land is another—that help explain why and how the Trump presidency happened” (Kirkus).

It is comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an exception—not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul. … What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and unprepared to determine mankind’s future? Trump is a symptom of a world in distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent. Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society—if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn’t crazy, but our society is. —from TWILIGHT OF AMERICAN SANITY

More than three years in the making: the world's leading expert on psychiatric diagnosis, past leader of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM (“the bible of psychology”), and author of the influential international bestseller on the medicalization of ordinary life, Saving Normal, draws upon his vast experience to deliver a powerful critique of modern American society’s collective slide away from sanity and offers an urgently needed prescription for reclaiming our bearings. Widely cited in recent months as the man who quite literally wrote the diagnostic criteria for narcissism, Allen Frances, M.D., has been at the center of the debate surrounding President Trump’s mental state—quoted in Evan Osnos’s May 2017 New Yorker article (“How Trump Could Get Fired”) and publishing a much-shared opinion letter in the New York Times (“An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump’s Mental State”). Frances argues that Trump is ""bad, not mad""--and that the real question to wrestle with is how we as a country could have chosen him as our leader. Twilight of American Sanity is an essential work for understanding our national crisis.

the bath water or the baby?

Allen Frances has a startling view of our current political debacle. He starts off with the premise that we have to own up to the fact that we elected this clown to be president and he represents the wishes of the American people. With the staggering number of professional leaders writing books that justify their leaving politics and giving up in disgust of having to do the bidding of this moron we must look into ourselves to find the cause of this modern day Greek tragedy. The roots of our problem rest in the disestablishmentarianism of the American people. we have turned a blind eye to climate change, working against even our allies in facing so many dilemmas and crisis. As any analyst will tell you things are not as simple as they seem. This books fresh perspective stops the bellyaching, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments that make up so much of politics these days and puts the onus on the reader.

An amazing book, one of a kind.

Rather than being a dismal book, focusing mostly on Trump (and the American sociopolitical landscape as it relates to him), Frances's gem is much grander in scale. It's about the human condition, and the existential crisis we face as Americans (and humans, generally) in the current age, with immensly engaging forays into modern history, ancient history, philosophy, religion, and (of course) psychology and psychiatry. Trump is a symptom, not a cause, and calls attention to much of what has come undone in America today. It unfolds elegantly, never becoming difficult to follow, and the narrator does an excellent job, reading at a good pace that allowed me to think about what I was hearing, and really comprehend it.

Required Reading

This is a very thoughtful analysis of our current political predicament. Although Dr. Frances is a psychiatrist, the breadth of his analysis reveals much more than just psychiatric wisdom. He has a solid understanding of history, ethics, biology, and mans place in nature. If there were a national book club, this should be on the reading list. Perhaps it won't change the hearts or minds of the 40% of Americans who would be willing to take a bullet from Trump on 5th Ave, but it might inspire some of the remaining 60% into action. Very well narrated, also.

Trump is not the problem.

Fascinating, unique insight for our being able to blame trump is. We elected him..we are.

Extremely important analysis ell narrated.

Everyone Needs To Hear This.

A psychiatrist makes the case that it doesn't matter if Trump is sane. The problem is our sanity. We elected him president knowing who and what he was.