Democracy From The Grass Roots

About the Book

In an historic turn, grassroots America has overcome its apathy and cyclic reversion to the ways of the past, last induced by Islamic fundamentalism. Newly cognizant of its inherent interests, grassroots America has responded to the vision of Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton, and fl ocked to the polls. The emotions of politics take front and center. In Democracy From The Grassroots: A Guide to Creative Politics, we examine in depth the political passion of the grassroots and these emergent leaders. Beginning with an inspiring historical overview of grassroots politics in America, the author then guides us through its organizational structures—the political clubs, committees, councils, caucuses, and workshops wherein real people work to create real change. A chapter devoted to the analysis of issues, the systems which determine their resolution, and their role in the political campaign, serves to enlighten and motivate—the ideal lead-in to an exhaustive section on training. A concise summary integrates the hypotheses set forth about the role of grassroots politics in American social development. And in a unique and compelling twist, that model is then compared to the individual’s development as a person. Written by psychoanalyst, political activist and scholar Dr. Joseph Abrahams, Democracy From the Grassroots, A Guide to Creative Political Action presents the pioneering work of three decades in the grassroots trenches. At once a vibrant history lesson and a call to action, this slender volume is as lush in practical howto as it is in thoughtful refl ection and insight. The appendix is remarkable for its richly annotated bibliography and a revealing chronicle of the events and issues of American grassroots movements.

About the Author

Joseph Abrahams is a psychoanalyst, just ninety, who has been a follower of Freud’s way in the study of the human soul since early adolescence. Freud’s plumbing the human condition through painstaking work with troubled humans made sense to him. Analyzing their dreams to get to their core motivations made even more sense. But even earlier Abrahams found himself doing poetry, and interested in ballet and opera. Those interests went underground, in favor of science. Medicine was a compromise. Then, like Freud, he found psychiatry, and the realization that such study would have to begin with himself. Also like Freud he pursued his studies wherever they led. This volume is a preliminary report of the passionate search, based on his dreams and poems. A more formal exposition will come as An Extended Practice of Psychoanalysis. He is also hatching an opera on Virginia Woolf’s extraordinary life. He currently lives in San Luis Obispo, California with his wife, Elisabeth, a collaborator in his writing of books that stem from his career as a psychoanalyst: Turning Lives Around: Wartime Treatment of Military Prisoners, Politics from the Grassroots: A Guide to Creative Politics: The Messianic Imperative: Scourge or Savior?.