Does psychoanalysis have the potential to intervene in the proliferation of hate in society?

(*Schultz, 2023)

"I imagine," said James Baldwin, "one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain."

A key focus will be on the divisive and paranoiagenic role of hate amidst rising violence: racism, domestic abuse, child exploitation, climate crisis, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, fundamentalism, and fascism. How does hate hinder thought and understanding?

Can psychoanalytic thinking penetrate these dynamics? And ultimately, can it contribute to strengthening social bonds?

Does psychoanalysis have the potential to intervene in the proliferation of hate in society?

Allan Shafer, MA (Clinical Psychology), D Litt et Phil, Dr Allan Shafer, Clinical Psychologist, is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and a socioanalytic organisation consultant in private practice in Melbourne, and an international group relations consultant. He is a member of the Victorian Association of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists, was an Executive member of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Association of Australasia and a former President of Group Relations Australia. He has published numerous articles and chapters in psychotherapeutic and socioanalytic journals and books. Dr Shafer has directed or consulted on the staff of Tavistock-style group relations conferences in Australia, the UK, Europe, India, China, Israel, Poland and Taiwan. He was the associate director of the Tavistock Institute’s 2019 “Leicester Conference”.

Everywhere you look the cruelty of the human spirit is on display.

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