{"product_id":"paranoid-publics-zahid-r-chaudhary-9781531511869","title":"Paranoid Publics: Psychopolitics of Truth","description":"\u003cp\u003eFacts and established truths are regularly denied in contemporary life. This situation has brought paranoid politics into the mainstream, from conspiracy theories like QAnon, to sex panics and assaults on public health measures, to election denialism and the rise of vigilante militias. \u003ci\u003eParanoid Publics\u003c\/i\u003e analyzes these phenomena as psychosocial realities enmeshed with emerging ways of determining truth. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eToday's paranoia cannot simply be blamed on the rise of social media or the recent surge of populist anger. Rather, as Chaudhary shows, both are fueled by preexisting psychosocial processes. Applying psychodynamics to analyze truth and politics, \u003ci\u003eParanoid Publics\u003c\/i\u003e foregrounds unconscious demands, wishes, and compulsions. Against the hope that progressive economic policies might dispel widespread disorientation and disillusionment, Chaudhary reveals how psychic realities mark politics as deeply as do self-interest and class dynamics. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eChaudhary takes up and reinvents psychoanalytic concepts to analyze how, for example, the personal liberty exercised through vaccine exemptions is paradoxically grounded in submission to the authority of the family and the state. Such politically consequential attitudes concerning truth emerge from a social order that they proceed to challenge. Making a case for psychosocial understandings of our current historical juncture, \u003ci\u003eParanoid Publics\u003c\/i\u003e radically expands our notion of the political.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Zahid R. Chaudhary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1531511864\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781531511869\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fordham University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/04\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.78lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.63d","brand":"Zahid R. Chaudhary","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47136470630655,"sku":"9781531511869","price":95.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_6504aa24-ffce-4f27-ace1-1cb1caaf1b85.jpg?v=1755023442","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/paranoid-publics-zahid-r-chaudhary-9781531511869","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}