Author: Drew Westen
Narrator: Anthony Heald
Unabridged: 16 hr 36 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Published: 08/01/2007
Categories: Nonfiction, Political Science
Drew Westen is a clinical and political psychologist and neuroscientist who has spent years studying personality, psychopathology (“abnormal” psychology), and political decision making. He is the author of The Political Brain and founder of Westen Strategies, a political and corporate consulting firm. He writes frequently for the Washington Post, Politico, CNN.com, Huffington Post, and New Republic and has made appearances on dozens of radio and television shows, including Anderson Cooper 360, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, and Hardball with Chris Matthews.
The book started off in superb fashion-tossing out psychological gems like candy to the reader, but the grotesque bias that clouds an otherwise intelligent person makes this a difficult read and an awful philosophy. Westen starts off by mentioning a study in which participants showed how people rati......more
This book could have been titled, "How Liberals Can Be More Effective When They Stop Relying on Facts and Begin to Understand Emotions of the Masses and What Drives Decision Making." I am a diehard liberal and really needed to read this book. Throughout his entire argument, Drew Westen drove home one......more
In the 2004 Presidential election, George Bush beat John Kerry by “Swift Boating” him. Karl Rove, Bush’s campaign strategist, recruited a group of military veterans of the Republican far-right persuasion, who formed a group called “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” and attacked Kerry for allegedly lyin......more
The thesis of this book is that voters make choices based on emotion ("gut") rather than on logical reasoning, and that Republicans understand this and use it to advantage in their ads and speeches, while Democrats, who believe that their policies and stands are the logical ones, emphasize the issue......more
The book’s simply awesome, but also “scary” for the newbies exploring the topic. It’s explaining by examples and in understandable manner not only how emotions could be triggered in marketing and political campaigns but also in our day to day social interactions. A great read.......more