HEROES OF HATE: a look at the psyche and myth-making in toxic political polarization

um olhar sobre a psique e a construção do mito na polarização política tóxica

Abstract

This essay is based on a reflection on the recent years of polarization in Brazil and the United States from a psychological perspective that, combined with political science, proposes an analysis of the trajectories to power of Jair Bolsonaro and Donald Trump under the concept of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey (condensed and more didactically structured by Christopher Vogler). Thus, considering that we live in a context of political polarization, of the affective and toxic type, which incites masses even outside of election campaign periods, the question investigated in the work is: from the perspective of individual and collective psychology, how does the process of heroization/mythification of political figures who spread acts and words that flirt with authoritarianism and aggression against opponents occur? In this way – and still supported by concepts from Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud – efforts are made to increase this investigation of the political psyche until the synthesis of what is understood as man-idea.