Abstract
“Second Thoughts: Pseudo-Reality Between Hypnosis and Spectacle” expands the discussion of Endre Koritar’s and Robert Prince’s presentations in the 2021 International Sándor Ferenczi Network webinar series, Listening with Ferenczi (Koritar, 2022a; Prince, 2022). Beginning with a segue from Prince’s reference to Thomas Mann’s “Mario and the Magician,” the present paper expands focus from the dynamics of leadership to the grooming of followership along the pathway of image as the American national addiction to pseudo-reality, a fascinating and omnipotently expected, always disappointing entitlement (Boorstin, 1961). Political spectacle, ascendant in American executive, legislative, and judicial performance since 2016, functions as image—supercharged, with its guarantee of gratification powerfully overcoming disappointment.