The American temptation is to believe that foreign policy is a subdivision of psychiatry.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Kissinger criticizes the American tendency to overanalyze foreign policy using psychological frameworks.
- In plain terms
- Americans wrongly treat foreign policy like a therapy session.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid reducing complex international issues to psychological motives.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When is psychology useful in politics?
- How do we avoid bias?
Another view
Psychological factors can sometimes be relevant to state behavior.
More from Henry Kissinger
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