The Collective Mental State Examination as Predictive Tool for Assessing Unfavourable Political Outcomes

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to establish that the mental state examination, a fundamentally important part of individual psychiatric examination, also has a role to play in the diagnosis of situations that could have potentially harmful political outcomes for whole societies. This is because societies operate through a collective mental state which is in a state of constant variability and at times can present a situation of extreme vulnerability. Political leaders of an infinite range of intentions can work through the collective mental state to mine the bedrock of collective consciousness, where national identity resides, to produce outcomes that can hugely range from beneficial to disastrous.