The Relation of Personality in Politics

While searching for information regarding social phobia, I stumbled across some interesting information. Information regarding the psychology of politics, I was negligent to such a concept until this point in time, and immediately I began searching for this information, rather than my previous interest. This paper will give a general viewpoint on politics from a psychological standpoint. Initially it will discuss political philosophers, and how their beliefs could have shaped the political system today. Second, the paper will look at personal attitudes in relation to politics, consisting, particularly of one’s values and beliefs. Lastly, the paper is going to provide an outlook on the issue from the psychodynamic approach of psychology, particularly through the opinions of its founder, Sigmund Freud.

In the study of political philosophy many infamous names come about, although we are only going to look at the ideas of seven of them. Some of the earliest ideas of political systems were centered around Greek city-states, approximately between 750-500 B.C. Kagan, Aristotle, and Plato all provided very useful ideas to the understanding of political systems, but here we will see the for the first time how personal beliefs have influenced politics today. While Kagan believed that in order for life to be suitable for man life must be biased on justice, Aristotle believed that life could be good for man only if his life was in a community with others. This is not an attempt to prove or justify any beliefs, but to simply show the relation of personality. These two philosophers felt strongly about these two necessities for success in a community/political system, but yet neither of the ideas were the same. They both required different th...

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...es that when politics are in mind, personal values should be taken out of the picture as much as possible, in order to base political beliefs solely off of the best interest of the nation, and the most respected outlook among citizens.

Works Cited

Bowen, D. (1968). Political behavior of the American public. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill publishing company.

Eulau, H. (1969). Behavioralism in political science. New York, N.Y.: Atherton Press.

Eysenck, H. (1974). The psychology of politics. Great Britain: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co. Ltd.

L.N. Rieselbach, G. B. (1969). Psychology & politics. U.S.A.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Rieselbach, L. (1969). Psychology & politics. U.S.A.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Spranger, E. (1928). Types of men. Halle: M. Niemeyer.

Stone, W. (1974). The psychology of politics. New York, N.Y.: The Free Press.