Hating, Abhorring and Wishing to Destroy

Book excerpt: The kinds of hatreds that analysts have assumed make up part of the unspoken backdrop of Western civilization have now erupted into our daily foreground. This book, consisting of essays from eleven psychoanalysts, responds to that eruption. The five essays of Part 1, "Hating in the first person plural," take on the pervasive impact of structured forms of hatred – racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. These malignant forces are put into action by large- and small-group identifications. Even the action of the apparent "lone wolf" inevitably enacts loyal membership in a surrounding community. The hating entity is always "we." In Part 2, "The racialized object/the racializing subject," the essays’ focus narrows to an examination of racist expressions of "hating, abhorring, and wishing to destroy." A particular focus is the state of excitement attached to this form of hatred, to its sadistic origins, and to the endless array of objects offered to the racializing subject. In Part 3, "This land: whose is it, really?," its two essays focus on symbolic and physical violence targeting the natural world. We expand the traditional field of psychoanalytic inquiry to include the natural world, the symbolic meaning of its "trees," and the psychopolitical meanings of its land. This book offers a psychoanalytically informed guide to understanding and working against hatreds in clinical work and in everyday life and will appeal to training and experienced psychoanalysts, as well as anyone with an interest in current political and cultural climates.