Suicide Bombers
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Clio’s Psyche Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society The Psychology of Fear and Hatred Special Issue A Psychobiography of Donald Trump Fantasy Politics and an Imaginary Analysis of Hillary Clinton Obama’s Tears Medieval People and Anti-Semitism Spielberg, the Man and His Films Jewish Humor Volume 22 Number 4 March 2016 Clio’s Psyche Vol. 22 No. 4 March 2016 ISSN 1080-2622 Published Quarterly by the Psychohistory Forum 627 Dakota Trail, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 Telephone: (201) 891-7486 E-mail: [email protected] Editor: Paul H. Elovitz Guest Co-editor for Fear and Hatred: Joyce Rosenberg Editorial Board C. Fred Alford, PhD University of Maryland • James W. Anderson, PhD Northwestern University • David Beisel, PhD RCC-SUNY • Donald L. Carveth, PhD York University • Lawrence J. Friedman, PhD Harvard University • Ken Fuchsman, EdD University of Connecticut • Bob Lentz • Peter Loewenberg, PhD UCLA • Peter Petschauer, PhD Appalachian State University Subscription Rate: Free to members of the Psychohistory Forum $82 two-year subscription to non-members $75 yearly to institutions (Add $60 per year outside U.S.A. & Canada) Single issue price: $29 We welcome articles of psychohistorical interest of 500-2,000 words and some up to 3,500 words that have deeper scholarship. INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS: Clio’s Psyche welcomes original manuscripts that address individual or group issues from a psychological perspective. We are interested in contemporary and historical events. Childhood, family, group trauma, mechanisms of defense, personality, political psychology, psychic trauma, and psychobiography are of special interest. Our readers come from many fields so we avoid technical terminology. All manuscripts must include an abstract of a maximum of 150 words and 6-10 keywords that stress the psychohistorical aspects of the article. Authors should also include a brief biographical statement of no more than 100 words. Manuscripts should be composed on a word processor and sent electronically as a Microsoft Word document to Paul H. Elovitz by e-mail at [email protected]. Our style is based on the University of Chicago Manual of Style with some modifications which may be found on our website. Note we do internal citations rather than end or footnotes and we do not publish bibliographies. Back issues, excluding those published in the previous year, may be found at our website. There is a blind refereeing system so authors should try to leave out all identifying information from the manuscript itself. For additional guidelines for writing an article for Clio's Psyche visit our official website at cliospsyche.org. Copyright © 2016 The Psychohistory Forum The Psychology of Fear and Hatred Special Issue A Psychobiography of Donald Trump Fantasy Politics and an Imaginary Analysis of Hillary Clinton Obama’s Tears Medieval People and Anti-Semitism Spielberg, the Man and His Films Jewish Humor Volume 22 Number 4 March 2016 Clio’s Psyche Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society Volume 22 Number 4 March 2016 _____________________________________________________________________ The Psychology of Fear and Hatred Special Issue Hate and Its Ramifications . 225 Neil Wilson Hate, Like Love, Binds Us Together . .227 C. Fred Alford A Great Fear and Hatred: Suicide Bombers . 230 Marcia Anne Newton Reflections on Racist Nationalist Hatred in Yeltsin’s Russia . .235 Sebastian Job Dehumanizing Others, Torture, and Genocide: The Power of Hate . 240 Ruth M. Lijtmaer Why We Hate: The Easy Answer . 243 Merle Molofsky Portrait of a Terrorist . .247 Ira Brenner Revoking Citizenship: The Malaise Afflicting France . 249 Marc-André Cotton The Evolution of Rage . .254 Joel Markowitz Germanophobia and the Debut of the New Science of Propaganda . 256 James Allen Educating Against Hate . .262 Peter W. Petschauer Franz Herda: American-German . .268 Peter W. Petschauer Psychoanalyzing the Political Rhetoric of Fear . .269 Robert Samuels Donald Trump Gives Permission to Hate, Thus Easing Our Superegos . .273 Anonymous Page 230 Clio’s Psyche Conscience, Obama, Clinton, and Trump Reflections on Trump’s Celebrity Politics and Psychobiography. .277 Paul H. Elovitz Conscience, Superego, and Muslims . .286 Paul Salstrom Tears of Rage: President Obama and the Emotional Legacy of Newtown . .292 Ken Fuchsman Fantasy Politics and an Imaginary Analysis of Hillary Clinton . 296 Paul H. Elovitz Medieval People and Anti-Semitism Two Medieval Lives: Hildegard of Bingen and William Marshal . .300 Eva D. Papiasvili and Linda A. Mayers A Window on Hatred and Persecution . 307 Christina Stern Spielberg, the Man and His Films Steven Spielberg: The Quest to be a Moral Male . 312 Ken Fuchsman Ode to ET . .318 Irene Javors ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Masterpieces that Are the Through Lines for the 20th Century . 320 Tom Ferraro Book Reviews Jewish Humor . 324 Burton Norman Seitler Marks’ Important History of the Modern World . .326 Jacques Szaluta Reappraising the First President Bush . .329 Paul H. Elovitz Memorial Remembering Arno Gruen . 332 Joyce Rosenberg and David Cifelli Letter to the Editor Terrorists as the Other . .334 Tom Gibbs ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————– Bulletin Board . 335 Call for Papers . 337 Fear and Hatred Page 225 The Psychology of Fear and Hatred Special Issue Hate and Its Ramifications Neil Wilson—Psychoanalyst in Private Practice A psychoanalytic perspective on hatred can provide useful insights. Freud wrote about ambivalence toward the mother as the origin of the emotion of hate. Hate and love are experienced by all. Hate is aroused initially by the experience of being fed when breast feeding was once the almost sole method of nurturing the infant. Satisfaction is always temporary and deprivation is a given for all of us from the very beginning of life. This mix of satisfac- tion and frustration is played out at all phases of life, but is hardest to bear during the earliest. Caregivers control the instinctual de- sires of the infant. Obviously the emotion of hate is mostly antisocial. The ex- ception would be hating Hitler, Nazis, ISIS, killers, and such. However, experiencing hatred toward a loved one is filled with conflict and not often openly expressed. When working with patients in my psychoanalytic practice this issue is a common struggle. A shy grown man was on a crowd- ed train standing opposite an attractive woman. He was thrilled to be close to her and shyly eyed her. A man got on the train and stood in front of my patient, blocking his view of the woman. He became furiously angry at the man and fantasied that the man would have a heart attack, fall down, and he then could see the woman again. His hateful fantasy was readily interpreted as it re- lated to competitive feeling toward an older brother. The same patient dreamed that he had enormous power. He was given a contraption handed him by Donald Trump. It had a button, and if he pushed it all Muslims in the world would die. He was contemplating what to do when he suddenly woke up. He was embarrassed to tell me the dream. He also stated he was a secret admirer of Trump. He thought Trump stated and stood for all the ugly, hateful thoughts that many people have but never admit. He jokingly said that if he actually had control of the button he would never use it. Again, free association led to his powerful older brother who he idealized and secretly hated. In these examples ha- Page 226 Clio’s Psyche tred and jealousy of the brother are initially buried and slowly un- folded during treatment. Idealization itself is a mixed bag. It is such an extreme emotion that it hides all negative feelings. In psychoanalysis some patients tend to idealize the analyst. When this is slowly and care- fully analyzed the underlying opposite emotion will be revealed. Hatred not expressed and unconscious can lead to a maso- chistic lifestyle. The extreme of this process is suicidal thoughts or actual suicide. Freud labeled suicide as the symbolic murder of an incorporated family member and/or spouse. Suicide leads to the terrible suffering of all those close to the person acting this out. There is sometimes an actual awareness by the suicidal person of the hateful misery resulting from the awful act of self-destruction. In the West, ISIS is considered the worst purveyor of hate today. Killing innocent people and feeling justified is an affront to humanity. Their hatred and control of women is striking. Recently in Syria a woman was arrested for wearing clothing which was form-fitting and revealed her bodily curves. She was whipped, re- ceiving 25 lashes. When her veil was removed, makeup was dis- covered and she received an extra five lashes. This raises the issue of some of the sources of hatred in some Arab societies. The Qur’an states that newborns should be breastfed for two years. In discussion with Muslim colleagues they reported that most Arab countries have gotten away from that requirement. Two years of breast feeding may well lead to a sense of control over the mother. Often breastfeeding ceases when pain is inflicted by the infant biting on the nipple. I wonder if prolonged breastfeeding could be a factor in control and consequent hatred of women by ISIS. Slowly but surely women are becoming more liberated. For the first time in Saudi Arabia women just voted in a general elec- tion. Hatred is an underlying issue among certain diagnostic cate- gories, with paranoid people being a prime example. They deny and project onto others thoughts and feelings that they repress and attribute to others. For example, blacks in America were seen as dirty, promiscuous, pushy, etc., and in some cases still are. Preju- dice was, among other reasons, a convenient albeit unconscious style of relieving the hater of his own unacceptable thoughts and instincts. Hatred can lead to a temporary peace of mind.