earth home to millions of species. we're saving. global indios tell stories of creative people and innovative projects around the world like to use the protect the climate boost clean energy solutions and reforestation. using interactive content to inspire people to take action. global one knows the multimedia environment series on g.w. . in today's d w interview i'll be talking with us a contrast in bestselling author hans joachim mounts about populism and the psychology of politics if you could talk like that you could join us ladies and gentlemen my name is tom. how much mr morris the austrian satirist karl kraus once remarked that psychiatry of people who have no wire is as long as there are people with wireless is there something to that. but of course we psychologists and psychotherapists are often accused of being self obsessed. and it's true that i for example speaking for myself i don't want to attack my colleagues i would never have become a psychotherapist if i hadn't wanted to understand my own problems. how did i become who i am what shape me what possibilities and problems too i have. so my training was a wonderful chance to shape myself to learn about myself and a person needs that if i want to understand other people i first have to understand myself. let's try to understand other people and their worries you know grow up in east germany a country that had no free elections it's kind of today we see free elections being won by politicians who don't care about democratic rights or even want to curb tell them we see it in turkey in poland in hungary and even in the united states. has democracy become a burden for many people based on. my look i distinguish between an external and internal you know in a psychological democracy. an external democracy is the pluralistic interplay of various forces. it can be installed from the outside as it was when the allied victories of world war two installed it in germany after nine hundred forty five and again when east germany joined the federal republic in the west in one nine hundred eighty nine and ninety. the problem i see is that too little attention was paid to internal democratization. there are always internal processes that frighten us that embarrass us that we don't. want to admit not to ourselves and much less to others. in this sense we are true democrats because we're always in danger of not accepting and integrating the psychological content of what we could call our own internal minorities and instead we persecuting and denounce them in others. so i project my own flaws on to others and . so yes the others are always to blame they have to change they have to understand me better. a soul the external democracy is in danger when it no longer has something fair to offer the majority of the people who live in it. one example of what i mean is the prosperity of west germany when it was rebuilt after nine hundred forty five. when survival of the lessons of. the present and what's going wrong with democracy and what may be behind that. the american president doesn't seem to put too much stock in democracy that he has admitted and even bragged on twitter that he spoke personally with f.b.i. director komi about investigations of people around him and about illegal contacts in russia that they had to gaza is by a distain for fundamental democratic principles. fundamentality. that's a good example of what i mean one we should take seriously is such a president has no inner psychological democracy. but the same is true of german politicians when they talk about the light and the dark germany meaning western and eastern germany. when they say certain groups are a disgrace for germany. look at us after they've denigrates certain people without dealing with the underlying reasons. that's what politicians. do when they have an opinion when in a problem that they don't want to look at or take seriously barmy more in these are . what problems do you see in the politicians you're thinking of because. i think narcissists are going into politics today. a narcissist is someone who always thinks he is more and better and who has to demean others made up their own shit. since that's the classic narcissistic complex and if we look at our political landscape as a problem we see that members of all parties say politics are the best with the only ones with the right solution and every other party is bad and has to be combated. alone but i am. but is this not especially true of donald trump he not only put samples down he sees critics not as legitimate opposition or people with a different opinion but enemies for example the media what does that say about him the media and the sector standing by and asked nervousness and. he's an extreme case of someone puffing himself up and needing to denigrate others. when it's a very conspicuous character trait in him but the question is why is such a person elected. the fog and how does such a person gain such a position of power. to tell us if. he has characteristics that seduce other people. he promises some kind of solutions and hope the people need in a critical societal situation would be seen as a minor position. that our western development so far far and which has been oriented toward external affluence rather than relations. and the competition that entails that has made society increasingly unjust in my opinion. with. many many people are disadvantaged who are excluded from the successes that went on for the majority for decades and when. and then someone gets power whose message is we're number one with the greatest i promise things will get better for years in. the first place. for he claims there are simple solutions to the problems we have to solve global ization social injustice migration in our dealings with islam. and that lose people into hoping he's the one who will end all our problems and mention for free. is. it is appropriate i understand but in america even trump voters must be disappointed and by now he can't deliver much of what he promised does not alarm voters and us from fact that even an issue. of. well it does seem that he's lost prestige as a figure of hope in the hope. of a lot but that doesn't alarm people so much because our lifestyle is externally oriented toward affluence and material growth remember tough and i was. for more. when that reaches a limit. and i think we already recognize that there is a climate catastrophe and environmental destruction is increasing social injustice wars over resources migration resulting from poverty and war then we have a dire problem. than we'd better if we ask ourselves how can we survive if we couldn't get in by the early. and when someone comes along and says i'll solve it i know what needs to be does close the borders change globalization. and it creates the impression that he could solve the problems by treating the symptoms occur he says super many people that's a glimmer of hope and. that really what we really need is a fundamental change that will be very difficult for all of us. there for you. as a so voters don't want to solve problems themselves of course there's an interplay there's an old saying every country has the government it deserves so there's always an interplay when a system breaks down we tend to say those guys are the culprits we've seen this before the nazis are to blame the communist functionaries this kind of attack can't apply to east germany because there wasn't any choice. on the surface it looks like it doesn't apply how long to be keep our mouths shut why did we take part in fake elections you mean we the east germans yes we east germans i still regard myself as an east german. we hardly ever dared protest we tolerated the system we participated and sometimes i think we passively let it collapse. i'm not so convinced that we had a revolution. the system simply collapse the system is quite happy we took part through passive resistance but we weren't open about it. so i think all of us east german should ask ourselves why did we conform the farmer's forms and why did we vote in the rigged elections and march in the state organized demonstration why did we learn to say yes to things we knew were wrong. and. q mr mansour for us to conclude as we always do by asking our interview guest to complete three sentences you just said you would advise people not to make themselves so dependent on material things. does that ever happen to you. in society sure in a sense i benefited from westernization from east germany's becoming part of the federal republic. and of course it was very nice to be able to buy things i didn't even know about before human form is kind of in if people no longer make use of their right to vote. then as a politician i would be very worried. because that means something is being avoided prevented quietly protested or defiantly refused and that's also a symptom of a societal problem. if i were a politician i wouldn't get a good night's sleep until i understood why people no longer exercise their right to vote. and i looked for ways to revive people's interest in the elections this increased and that would mean i'd have to change and improve politics so that i can reach people again offer and of progress on most of it to show the. damage to induce more people to cherish democracy again we should. listen and try to understand what moves people with it. instead critics are defamed and intimidated. and in this way we refuse to acknowledge justified protest and criticism. and all criticism has an element of truth truth that is often unpleasant of. us hans joachim thank you very much. phlox humax highlights. the past. because region just never gets enough last. lifestyle up during. the highlights of the odds. for sarah willis to. join her on a journey as musical discovery. this time. in a manner. the cubans dance to music called song and i'm here to find out all about it i'm feeling in my doubts this is well. in the forty five minutes of. lying dormant shell to leipzig the biggest favorite seamlessly got all the best goals we've got all the action the double is the home of job and the ball shared experience every match if someone does league of the weekend cheer on g.w. . it created movie milestone. it was an instrument of propaganda and persecution. it underwent a bankruptcy and restructuring. but it still turning out films today the germans biggest and oldest film company. a cinematic history from the german empire to the present. here so far starting february eighteenth. i want to welcome to our highlights show with the best picks of the week here's a look at what's coming up. colin neary champ you know will mean.

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