Charisma in Politics, Religion and the Media : Private Trauma, Public Ideals

What are the origins of charisma? Are these the same in the various forms of public life, in politics and the media as well as in religion? In this new and radical interpretation of charisma, David Aberbach argues that the basis of charisma in all its forms must be found in the often-obscure symbolic intersection between the inner world of the charismatic and external social and political reality. As illustrations of various facets of this argument, he provides general analyses of charisma in politics, religion and the media as well as individual studies of Churchill, Hitler, Krishnamurti, Bialik and Chaplin. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Political Charisma: Crisis and Paradox....Pages 1-16 Churchill in 1940–1: The Fragility of Charisma....Pages 17-24 Hitler: Charisma and Racism....Pages 25-33 Charisma and Religion: From Ecstasy to Democracy....Pages 35-44 Krishnamurti: Reluctant Messiah....Pages 45-58 Paradoxes of a ‘National Poet’: The Strange Case of Bialik....Pages 59-73 Charisma and the Media....Pages 75-88 Chaplin: Of Crime and Genius....Pages 89-101 Conclusion....Pages 103-108 Back Matter....Pages 109-121 David Aberbach. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 109-114.