The spiritual malaise afflicting the United States is no different in kind or degree from that which rent the life of Ireland in the struggle between Protestants and Catholics. There is a smug sense of superiority among us, to the effect that "...at least we haven't descended to the level of a religious war." Why? Because here the practice of religion has dwindled almost (but not quite!) to insignificance? Because only a small minority of Americans take their religion seriously? That would be to miss the point TOTALLY.

From a mental illness point of view, both phenomena -- current political strife in the US, and the Catholic/Protestant "troubles" of Ireland -- are instances of one singular dynamic. My essay Mass Insanity concludes with the following few paragraphs:

--snip--

Freud expressed deep interest in social questions throughout his career, and in later life came to focus on those questions almost exclusively, with works such as The Future of an Illusion (1927). Younger psychoanalysts studied the events of the Thirties in Germany and elsewhere, with a focus on the so-called "mass" movements of large groups of people. I want to cite, as my text for this post, remarks by one of them, Otto Fenichel (1897-1946) from his magisterial (and finally in the public domain) The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (1945):

When the child is forced through experiences to renounce his belief in his omnipotence, he considers the adults who have now become independent objects to be omnipotent, and tries by introjection to share their omnipotence again. Certain narcissistic feelings of well-being are characterized by the fact that they are felt as a reunion with an omnipotent force in the external world, brought about either by incorporating parts of this world or by the fantasy of being incorporated by it ("secondary narcissism"). Religious ecstasy, patriotism, and similar feelings are characterized by the ego's participation in something unattainably high. Many social phenomena are rooted in the "omnipotents'" promise to the powerless of the desired passive participation on condition of their fulfillment of certain rules.

While the study of authoritarian personalities produced much sociological data, this small snippet of psychoanalytic thought provides more of a sense of what makes such personalities "tick." I submit that the last sentence, above, "Many social phenomena are rooted in the "omnipotents'" promise to the powerless of the desired passive participation on condition of their fulfillment of certain rules." can shed light on, as 1 Peter 4:8 had it, "a multitude of sins." Who could be immune to the offer of that quid pro quo?

--snip--

I can't think of anything further to say on this point.