“Mass Formation” – popularized by Mattias Desmet – is not in psychology textbooks. But we see examples of it every day as delusional mobs act like singular, hypnotized units: blindly following authority even when – to outside observers – they are obviously acting like cult members. GET DESMET’S BOOK: https://amzn.to/3U

Evil never looks the same from one generation to the next. We may be looking out for the warning signs that quietly led to World War II, but we’re just doing the same thing they did back then. So what does evil look like now? Glenn talks to Professor Mattias Desmet about how the chaos of COVID-19 parallels the totalita

Mattias Desmet, author of the book "The Psychology of Totalitarianism," joins me for a conversation on how money, incentives, and media help shape mass-formation psychosis. We also discuss how mass-formation psychosis has manifested historically, and ways we can become less susceptible to these catastrophic delusions.

Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology and Educational Sciences at the Ghent University, Belgium and a practicing psychotherapist. He is the author ofThe Psychology of Totalitarianism (Chelsea Green Publishing). Since he introduced the concept of “mass formation psychosis” into the arena of public discour

Why did large swaths of society suddenly buy into masking toddlers or restricting people from visiting their loved ones, even as they lay on their deathbeds? I sit down with Mattias Desmet, a professor of clinical psychology and author of “The Psychology of Totalitarianism.” Desmet is one of the world’s leading experts