Mind Viruses

In 1872, Fyodor Dostoevsky published a novel titled Demons, about a catastrophe that ensues from the nihilism that became prevalent in Russia in the 1860s. A group of young men incite chaos as they try to stage a revolution. In Dostoevsky’s portrayal, they seem possessed by the doctrines they espouse. In a 1957 essay, the Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, made similar observations about “subversive minorities” in the West who are animated by “chimerical wish fantasies” that may rapidly spread like a contagion and develop into “psychic epidemics.” In the United States today, we see the sort of “psychic epidemics” that Jung warned about—that is, fervent belief in ideas or doctrines that were, until recently, considered to be irrational. These doctrines seem to possess the minds of the believers, rendering them unable to think about complex problems. Instead of calm discussion, they are given to hot emotional outbursts and violent behavior. Critical thinking is replaced by mindless slogans a