Our nation is stuck in a 50-plus year trajectory of increasingly toxic political polarization that is highly addictive.

It has been seeping into our families, workplaces and communities for decades, alienating us from one another and making us sick (anxiety, depression, addiction and political violence are all on the rise).

This is a first order problem. We will not be able to come together sufficiently as a nation to effectively address other epidemics of gun violence, inequality, climate change, racial injustice… without tackling this first.

The bad news is that the divide is deep, tribal and consequential – it has led to a strange form of American Psychosis.

However, our extreme forms of misery and instability bring a bit of good news, as they are a necessary condition for radical change.

Now, what we need is a vision for a way out.

This book offers this vision.

A case study from Boston in the 1990s offers a parable for what this might look like.