Wiley: Ethos: Table of Contents

Charisma revisited: Or why narcissism matters

Jeff Bennett — Wed, 27 May 2026 21:13:47 -0700

Abstract

In 1990 Charles Lindholm published his landmark study of Charisma, shedding new light on a complex and controversial topic. Today, more than 30 years later, understanding charisma has become newly important as authoritarian leaders and populist politics have begun to reshape the global political landscape. This paper returns to Lindholm's original study to address the two phenomena Lindholm felt were most important – namely, the personality configurations of charismatic leaders and their followers and group psychodynamics. Unlike Lindholm, however, I approach these phenomena from the vantage point of intersubjective self psychology, a post-Freudian theoretical framework that is particularly well-suited for analyzing the popular appeal of figures like Jim Jones and the group dynamics that bonded the members of the People's Temple to the movement. To make this point, Lindholm's original case studies are referenced throughout the paper and a distinction between destructive and reparative leadership is made to highlight the difference between ‘leading’ and ‘trailing’ edge orientations as they pertain to charismatic leaders and their movements.

Divine intimacy, frustration and the madness of the city: Changing transhuman kinship in China

Keping Wu, Robert P. Weller — Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 -0700

This essay shows the affective resonances of the collision of gods, humans, and rapidly shifting landscapes in a newly urbanized part of Suzhou, China. The first section discusses how ties to spirits are not just metaphors or projections of human kinship, but literal parts of a kinship system that invoke responsibilities of care, based on links of both affect and blood. The second turns to how such intimacy is not always pleasant, and how the closest relationships to gods often begin with sickness and suffering, and in some cases with death leading to deification. Examples of these intimacies include Amei's painful calling to be a spirit medium (and thus a god's daughter) and her niece Xiangling's death and deification as the concubine of the god who took her. The last section turns to the rapid urbanization of the area over the past two decades, which has destroyed all the local temples along with the villages they served. This dis-placement has created a new affect of frustration in the daughters of the gods, due to the interruptions of their responsibilities of care. In the case of Xiangling's mother, the frustration spiraled into madness after the urbanization process destroyed the statue of her deified daughter. Integrating Navaro-Yashin's analysis of spaces of ruin with insights from scholars working on the emotional tensions built into intimacy, we reveal how the dis-placements of rapid urbanization have transformed those intimacies to create an affective and embodied ruination.

摘要

本文展现了在中国苏州新兴城市化地区, 神灵、人类与快速变迁的景观碰撞所产生的强烈情感共鸣。第一部分探讨了人类与神灵的联系并非仅仅是亲属关系的隐喻或投射, 而是亲属关系体系中实实在在的组成部分, 它基于情感和亲属关系的纽带, 赋予人们照护的责任。第二部分则指出, 这种亲密关系并非总是令人愉悦, 与神灵最亲密的关系往往始于疾病和苦难, 在某些情况下甚至始于死亡, 最终走向成神。例如, 阿妹痛苦地被召唤成为灵媒(从而成为神的女儿), 以及她的侄女香菱死后成为带走她的神的妾室。最后一部分则着重分析了过去二十年来该地区的快速城市化进程, 这场进程摧毁了所有当地的寺庙及其所服务的村庄。这种流离失所给神的女儿们带来了一种新的挫败感, 因为她们的照料职责受到了干扰。以香菱的母亲为例, 城市化进程摧毁了神化后的香菱的塑像后, 这种挫败感最终演变成了疯狂。结合 Navaro-Yashin 对废墟空间的分析, 以及研究亲密关系中蕴含的情感张力的学者们的见解, 我们揭示了快速城市化带来的流离失所如何改变了这些亲密关系, 从而创造了一种情感上的、具身的废墟。

Review of Allen L. Tran 2023. A Life of Worry: Politics, Mental Health, and Vietnam's Age of Anxiety. University of California Press, 196 pp. ISBN: 9780520392168

Edda Willamowski — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:30:30 -0700

Ethos, EarlyView.

Defrosting humanism: Losing my ethical worldview in the wake of October 7th and Israel's retaliation

Yael Assor — Tue, 26 May 2026 20:24:43 -0700

Abstract

This auto-ethnographic analysis describes the loss of my ethical worldview and my attempts to regain it following the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Israeli retaliation. On October 7th, I was unable to feel compassion for the people of Gaza or to take action against the Israeli retaliation, aspects that I used to see as foundational to my humanistic worldview. As I lost my intuitive understanding of humanism, I realized that it had become to me what Hannah Arendt defined as a “frozen” thought, a fixed and unquestioned concept. Drawing upon my attempts to “defrost” my humanistic worldview, this essay critically considers Arendt's theorization and offers an ethical perspective that is grounded on ambiguity rather than on clear and fixed concepts. Focusing on these internal processes also illuminates the moral atmosphere that enables an Israeli public discourse that largely facilitates the violent retaliation against Palestinians.

הומניזם לאחר השבר: על קריסתן של וודאויות מוסריות

ניתוח אוטו־אתנוגרפי זה מתאר את אובדן תפיסת העולם האתית שלי ואת הניסיונות להשיבה בעקבות מתקפת חמאס על ישראל ב־7 באוקטובר 2023, והתגובה הצבאית הישראלית שבאה לאחריה. ב־7 באוקטובר לא הצלחתי לחוש חמלה כלפי תושבי עזה או לפעול נגד המתקפה הישראלית, מרכיבים שבעבר ראיתי כיסודיים לתפיסת העולם ההומניסטית שלי. כאשר איבדתי את ההבנה האינטואיטיבית שלי לגבי הומניזם, הבנתי שהוא הפך עבורי למה שחנה ארנדט הגדירה כ“מחשבה קפואה”, מושג קבוע שאינו מוטל עוד בספק. מתוך ניסיונותיי “להפשיר” את תפיסת העולם ההומניסטית שלי, המאמר בוחן באופן ביקורתי את התיאוריה של ארנדט ומציע אתיקה המעוגנת בעמימות ולא במושגים ברורים וקבועים. ההתמקדות בתהליכים פנימיים אלה מאירה גם את האווירה המוסרית המאפשרת שיח ציבורי ישראלי המקל במידה רבה על התגובה האלימה כלפי פלסטינים.

الإنسانيّة ما بعد الانهيار: عن تهاوي اليقينيّات الأخلاقيّة

يصف هذا التحليل الإثنوغرافي الذاتي فقداني لرؤيتي الأخلاقية للعالم ومحاولاتي لاستعادتها في أعقاب هجوم حماس على إسرائيل في 7 تشرين الأول أكتوبر 2023، والرد العسكري الإسرائيلي اللاحق. في ذلك اليوم، عجزتُ عن الشعور بالتعاطف مع شعب غزة أو التحرك ضد الهجوم الإسرائيلي، وهما عنصران كنت أعتبرهما أساسيين في رؤيتي الإنسانية للعالم. ومع فقداني لفهمي البديهي للإنسانية، أدركتُ أنها أصبحت بالنسبة لي ما أسمته حنه أرندت “فكراً جامداً”، أي مفهوماً ثابتاً لا جدال فيه. وفي محاولاتي لإعادة إحياء رؤيتي الإنسانية للعالم، تُحلل هذه المقالة نظرية أرندت تحليلًا نقديًاً، وتقترح أخلاقاً تقوم على الغموض بدلًا من المفاهيم الواضحة والثابتة. كما إنّ التركيز على هذه العمليات الداخلية يًسَلِّطُ الضوء على المناخ الأخلاقي الذي يُتيح الخطاب العام الإسرائيلي الذي يُسهّل إلى حد كبير الرد العنيف على الفلسطينيين.

Cognition in and out of the mind: Advances in cultural model theory By Giovanni Bennardo, Victor C. de Munck, and Stephen Chrisomalis, editors. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 2024. xxxvii + 419 pp.

H. J. François Dengah II — Wed, 20 May 2026 20:30:55 -0700

Ethos, EarlyView.

Can a lizard ride on a housefly?: Navigating uncertainty and moral life in an Accra Zongo, Ghana

Emily A. Williamson — Wed, 13 May 2026 21:39:58 -0700

Abstract

How can uncertainty become a resource for ethical life rather than a threat to it? Focusing on a Zongo community in Accra, Ghana—also known as a “traveler's camp” or “stranger's quarters”—this article examines how people use a creative form of communication called the practice of folding to sustain relationships shaped by conditions of uncertainty. I define this practice as a form of indirect communication that brings together opposing ideas, materialities, and geographies that are not typically associated with one another. Contributing to literature at the intersection of uncertainty, language, and morality, I argue that the practice of folding cultivates and sustains intersubjective uncertainty, inviting participants to keep doubt, questioning, and possibilities in active tension. It enables a particular form of ethical attunement I term an ethics of traveling-with—an obligation to continually shift perspectives in order to understand other points of view, thereby delaying or even refusing resolution. These findings offer new insights into moral life in contexts of fragility, improvisation, and interdependence, challenging the common assumption that moral striving necessarily seeks resolution, judgment, or evaluation.

Some reflections from my wonderful career in Psychological Anthropology

Thomas S. Weisner — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Ethos, Volume 54, Issue 1, March 2026.

Issue Information

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Ethos, Volume 54, Issue 1, March 2026.

Review of Global Perspectives on Parental Acceptance and Rejection

Muhammad Mussaffa Butt — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Ethos, Volume 54, Issue 1, March 2026.

An Archive of Possibilities: Healing and Repair in the Democratic Republic of Congo By Rachel Marie Niehuus, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 216 pp.

Nikhil Pandhi — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Ethos, Volume 54, Issue 1, March 2026.

Learning not to help in Nanjing and London–Cultural elaboration of empathy in childhood

Anni Kajanus — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Abstract

Helping is one of the key features of human sociality. The ethnographic record is pervaded by accounts of people doing things with and for each other from an early age. Developmental psychology has shown that by the time children begin to walk and talk, they already display helpful behavior in many situations. These findings suggest that the propensity to help is biologically based, rather than directly taught. While doing research on children's cooperation in Nanjing, China, and London, UK, it became clear to me that school-aged children were socialized into not helping, rather than helping. This raises the question: what are some of the cultural and psychological processes shaping this core human behavior? To address this, I bring together three levels of culturally grounded analysis: helping behaviors, the cognition of empathy, and its emotional underpinnings. Drawing on cultural ontologies of personhood, I show that in London, children are expected to be generally helpful, but not at a great cost to themselves, while in Nanjing, there is less emphasis on general helpfulness, but highly costly helping is expected in particular relationships.

Open wounds: Further proof that the detained‐disappeared existed in this world

Kiyoshi Nakaoji — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Abstract

This theoretical and ethnographic paper examines how the finding of accurate reports about what happened to the detained-disappeared supports the psychological stability of the families of the missing. Drawing on a number of Winnicott's theories (the transitional object, transitional phenomena, and a sense of aliveness), alongside my field research in Chile, I will consider how the absence of a corpse, a death without ritual, and a mourning process without cultural support has affected the families of the detained-disappeared. Furthermore, I will contemplate how receiving an accurate report of events has helped families to come to terms with their loss. I hypothesize that texts can have the function of a transitional object in the process of recognizing the death of loved one. If the truth can be substituted by the written word, the void left by the disappearance has the chance to be filled. In this study, fieldwork was conducted at the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared in Santiago, through which 52 families were interviewed. Research was also undertaken in Parral where the German colony Colonia Dignidad has had a strong influence on the community since its creation in 1961 to the present day.

Résumé

Cet article théorique et ethnographique analyse comment l'accès à des rapports fiables sur le sort des détenus-disparus soutient la stabilité psychologique de leurs familles. En mobilisant les notions winnicottiennes d'objet transitionnel, de phénomènes transitionnels et de sentiment de vitalité, ainsi que mes recherches de terrain au Chili, j'examine comment l'absence de dépouille, de rituel mortuaire et de cadres culturels de deuil a entravé la reconnaissance de la mort. Je montre que la réception d'un rapport précis peut aider les familles à affronter la perte. J'avance que certains textes fonctionnent comme objets transitionnels : lorsqu'ils parviennent à offrir une forme de vérité accessible, ils créent une présence symbolique capable de combler le vide laissé par la disparition. L’étude repose sur cinquante-deux entretiens menés à l'Association des Familles des Détenus-Disparus à Santiago, ainsi que sur une enquête à Parral, marquée par l'influence persistante de la Colonia Dignidad depuis 1961.

Abstrakt

Diese theoretische und ethnografische Studie untersucht, wie der Zugang zu verlässlichen Berichten über das Schicksal der inhaftierten Verschwundenen die psychische Stabilität ihrer Familien unterstützt. Unter Rückgriff auf Winnicotts Konzepte des Übergangsobjekts, der Übergangsphänomene und des Vitalitätsgefühls sowie auf meine Feldforschung in Chile analysiere ich, wie das Fehlen eines Körpers, eines Rituals und kultureller Trauerrahmen die Anerkennung des Todes erschwert hat. Zugleich zeige ich, wie präzise Berichte den Familien helfen, den Verlust zu verarbeiten. Ich argumentiere, dass Texte als Übergangsobjekte fungieren können: Wenn das geschriebene Wort eine zugängliche Form von Wahrheit bietet, kann es die durch das Verschwinden entstandene Leere symbolisch füllen. Die Studie basiert auf zweiundfünfzig Interviews bei der Vereinigung der Familien der Inhaftierten Verschwundenen in Santiago sowie auf Recherchen in Parral, das seit 1961 von der Colonia Dignidad geprägt ist.

Lost futures and “starting from zero”: Affective experiences of downward social mobility among refugees and asylum seekers in Spain

Jacqueline Wagner — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 06:53:12 -0700

Abstract

This article examines how refugees and asylum seekers from the upper and upper-middle classes in their countries of origin contended with the prospect of downward social mobility in Madrid, Spain. Notably, downward social mobility involved losing not only material resources but also social status, opportunities, and imagined futures. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at an official refugee and asylum seeker reception center in Madrid, I argue that this process of coming to terms with their new socioeconomic positions represents an experience distinct from acculturation or integration, and I assert that it comes with its own unique set of affective experiences, including feelings of distress, injured pride, threats to identity, and disruption to existing life plans. Furthermore, the pace of downward mobility impacted the dynamics of loss for refugees and asylum seekers. This has implications for broader psychological anthropological examinations of how people grapple with change and upheaval in their lives.