Books by Dr. Barbara Hort
Feeding Frenzy — 2025
A description of the ingredients that lead groups of ordinary people to do extraordinarily terrible things to other groups of people who have done them no harm at all.
Throughout human history, the most horrifying abuses of human beings have been perpetrated by people who acted in groups. We have long been aware of this fact, but the mass atrocities of the Holocaust drove social psychologists to identify the precise factors that lead to the appalling behaviors that are committed by people in groups...behaviors they would never commit as individuals.
Using science and storytelling, Feeding Frenzy explores this "Recipe for the Perpetration of Evil" — that is, the specific ingredients that produce the antisocial behaviors of human groups, behaviors that we might call "social vampirism." Feeding Frenzy then describes a specific vaccine/antidote that we can derive from this poisonous recipe, and it also suggests some methods for healing ourselves and our societies after we have been the victims (and even the perpetrators) of social vampirism.
Unholy Hungers – 1996
An eye-opening plunge into the reality of psychic vampires – those who rob others of their vital energy.
Too often we write off vampires as figments of the imagination — creatures only of myth, fiction, and nightmares. But, in truth, vampires exist among us. They are the people who have had no experience of love, who are compelled to hunger for power instead, and who rob others of their vital energy. Each of us has known a vampire, and probably more than one.
In this dark psychological study of the vampire archetype, Dr. Barbara Hort examines the reality of vampiric behavior through the lenses of old myths and their modern equivalents. She follows the blood-soaked vampire trail to such unexpected destinations such as “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Snow White,” and the hit Broadway musical “Gyspy.” Along this shadowy journey, Dr. Hort offers crucial insights into how psychic vampires originate, how they can seduce us into feeding their energy needs, and how we can protect our minds and hearts from their hungers.
Unholy Hungers: Encountering the Psychic Vampire in Ourselves & Others is a fascinating read for those of us who want to broaden our understanding of vampires and vampire myths, and the dark psychological reality that they are revealing. Purchase a copy today, whether it be for your enlightenment, entertainment, recovery, or...protection.
Hollow Crown of Fire - 2023
A guide to the discovery of meaning in our sufferings from pandemic disease, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
How can we find any “good” in the terrible suffering that has afflicted us during the coronavirus pandemic? In fact, how can we find the "good" in any firestorm of disease? It may seem hard to believe, but the pandemic suffering we have experienced can be made bearable, and even illuminating and transformative...but only when we discover its meaning for ourselves.
Dr. Barbara Hort weaves the ancient art of storytelling with history, science, and psychology to reveal the redemptive meaning of our pandemic suffering. Dr. Hort’s fascinating stories and insightful commentary help us see with new eyes the pandemic’s dark and painful challenges, illuminated by the light of a broader perspective and a deeper understanding.
Hollow Crown of Fire can ground us and reassure us about our recent suffering of pandemic proportions and also, rather surprisingly, the afflictions of our daily lives.