Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics
TRUMP's speech of January 2021, by which he moved his supporters to storm the Capitol, caused wide-spread concern. However, the psychological mechanisms that enabled him to mobilize the audience in the service of his agenda are not sufficiently understood. Employing depth hermeneutics, a psycho...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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FQS
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Forum: Qualitative Social Research |
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| Online Access: | https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/4029 |
| _version_ | 1797670272175702016 |
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| author | Hans-Dieter König |
| author_facet | Hans-Dieter König |
| author_sort | Hans-Dieter König |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | TRUMP's speech of January 2021, by which he moved his supporters to storm the Capitol, caused wide-spread concern. However, the psychological mechanisms that enabled him to mobilize the audience in the service of his agenda are not sufficiently understood. Employing depth hermeneutics, a psychoanalytic method based on examining the effects of the speech on a group of researchers, I reconstruct TRUMP's address to reveal tensions between its manifest and latent meanings and account for its effects. I argue that his systematic use of falsehoods results in a reversal of the everyday relationship between manifest and latent meaning: In everyday life, socially acceptable wishes and fantasies are given voice and reprehensible ones are relegated to a latent level. TRUMP, conversely, relies on falsehoods to fire up his supporters by evoking socially objectionable concepts of life and to make fact- and reason-based objections to his claims unconscious. The fears and aggression fueled by the dramatization of the current political situation affect particularly, though not exclusively, those listeners who, due to traumas experienced in childhood, are susceptible to TRUMP's coping strategy of authoritarian conformity.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:57:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f3057a529c8c40ad9aab1bf7dfc3f4c6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1438-5627 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T20:57:18Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | FQS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forum: Qualitative Social Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-f3057a529c8c40ad9aab1bf7dfc3f4c62023-09-30T06:35:12ZdeuFQSForum: Qualitative Social Research1438-56272023-09-0124310.17169/fqs-24.3.4029Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth HermeneuticsHans-Dieter König0Ruhr-Universität BochumTRUMP's speech of January 2021, by which he moved his supporters to storm the Capitol, caused wide-spread concern. However, the psychological mechanisms that enabled him to mobilize the audience in the service of his agenda are not sufficiently understood. Employing depth hermeneutics, a psychoanalytic method based on examining the effects of the speech on a group of researchers, I reconstruct TRUMP's address to reveal tensions between its manifest and latent meanings and account for its effects. I argue that his systematic use of falsehoods results in a reversal of the everyday relationship between manifest and latent meaning: In everyday life, socially acceptable wishes and fantasies are given voice and reprehensible ones are relegated to a latent level. TRUMP, conversely, relies on falsehoods to fire up his supporters by evoking socially objectionable concepts of life and to make fact- and reason-based objections to his claims unconscious. The fears and aggression fueled by the dramatization of the current political situation affect particularly, though not exclusively, those listeners who, due to traumas experienced in childhood, are susceptible to TRUMP's coping strategy of authoritarian conformity. https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/4029Donald J. TrumpSigmund FreudpsychoanalysisFrankfurt SchoolAlfred Lorenzerdepth hermeneutics |
| spellingShingle | Hans-Dieter König Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics Forum: Qualitative Social Research Donald J. Trump Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis Frankfurt School Alfred Lorenzer depth hermeneutics |
| title | Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics |
| title_full | Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics |
| title_fullStr | Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics |
| title_short | Performing as a Firefighter: Reconstruction of Donald Trump's Speech on the Storming of the Capitol Through Depth Hermeneutics |
| title_sort | performing as a firefighter reconstruction of donald trump s speech on the storming of the capitol through depth hermeneutics |
| topic | Donald J. Trump Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis Frankfurt School Alfred Lorenzer depth hermeneutics |
| url | https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/4029 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hansdieterkonig performingasafirefighterreconstructionofdonaldtrumpsspeechonthestormingofthecapitolthroughdepthhermeneutics |