Hatred: The Psychological Descent into Violence

by Willard Gaylin

We all get angry at the built-in frustrations and humiliations of everyday life. But few of us ever experience the intense and perverse hatred that inspires acts of malignant violence such as suicide bombings or ethnic massacres.

In Hatred , Dr. Willard Gaylin, one of America's most respected psychiatrists, describes how raw personal passions are transformed into acts of violence and cultures of hatred. Such hatred goes beyond mere emotion. Hatred, Gaylin explains, is a psychological disorder -- a form of quasi-delusional thinking. It requires forming "a passionate attachment," an obsessive involvement with the scapegoat population. It is designed to allow the angry and frustrated individual to disavow responsibility for his own failures and misery by directing it towards a convenient victim.

Gaylin dissects the mechanisms by which cynical political and religious leaders manipulate frustrated and deprived people, leading to the acts of mass terror that threaten us all. Step-by-step, he leads us into an understanding of the psychological pathway to acts of terrorism -- an understanding that is an essential to survival in a world of hatred.

Hatred is a masterwork in Willard Gaylin's life-long study of human emotions. Writing for the educated lay audience in the eloquent, accessible language of his bestsellers Feelings and Rediscovering Love , he takes us to the very roots of hatred.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Diva Prestia · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 32%

continuing my journey in my smart girl nonfiction era part 8 ✨

ugh. i kept feeling myself being so disinterested in this. like to a serious extent. this didn’t feel educational or anecdotal in a way that made me engaged or motivated to learn. it felt repetitive. it didn’t present the information in a compelling way at all. not even in a somewhat interesting way. and that totally sucks because i was genuinely really interested in the subject material but couldn’t get past the boring ass writing. i kept thinking i wanted to keep reading cause of the upcoming topics but i just did not have the strength to go on

also, this continuously used male pronouns for referral to general humans!! no!! and it was kinda misogynistic and barely acknowledged women as being people!! double no!!

[Gregg Sapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe that in today’s online, distributed social environment, it is easier to make enemies than in the past. Anonymity of expression permits, even encourages vitriolic dialog, and the immediacy of both positive and negative response fuels an intensifying rancor. Ideologues communicate only with kindred spirits, who incite and legitimize their common prejudices. Divisions harden. Passions escalate. Civility doesn’t stand a chance.

Still, I wonder, perhaps naively, if Internet haters aren’t just blowing off steam. Beneath the surface bravado, they really do realize that it’s all just a game. Nobody actually hates anybody else, right?

In “Hatred,” William Gaylin (Columbia University) writes about a specific kind of hatred: that which leads to violence. He denounces a popular and common belief that, deep down, we are all capable of such vicious hatred, given the right combination of trauma and tragedy to push us to the breaking point. Instead, Gaylin argues that violent, obsessive hatred is a “severe psychological disorder,” off any spectrum that might be considered normal. Ideologically based hatred, whether from al Qaeda or abortion clinic bombers, is the result of deluded rationalizations so intense that they require harsh actions against a scapegoat. Because these people are so disturbed and unable to manage their own emotions, they create enemies and feel justified in acting out with lethal vigor against them.

The author develops his arguments by examining, in successive chapters, these people’s emotional and cognitive descent into hatred, their irrational attachments to target enemies, and how others can get sucked into their resulting cultures of hatred. He writes: “Hatred at is base is always a rationalization. It is a displacement to an identifiable other the source of personal miseries. Hatred is a disease, a social disease, and it is highly contagious.”

The roots of hatred must be exposed and uprooted, never excused. In doing so, we need to rediscover a moral fraternity that is humanity’s birthright. Nobody should be or have an enemy.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly making distinctions between paranoid schizophrenics, paranoid psychopaths and paranoid societies, as well as the necessary conditions for scapegoating and moving from blame to violence, Dr. Gaylin does a a good job trying to explain the Holocaust, Al-Queda, single terrorist actions and current and historical genocides. In the end, this topic is just too big for 247 pages, and would best be used in a group setting, where people can read, process and discuss it.

[Trisha Swed · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the worst book ever, and can be insulting, I also do not appreciate the religious undertones in the reasoning behind his claims.

[Raphi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ehhhh.. Kind of boring. Slightly interesting at times, but some of his claims are too bold and lack evidence.

[Rex Libris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gaylin gives us an interesting discussion on the subject of hatred, or how people can commit systematic, horrible acts of violence against others. The author starts by delineating the difference between anger and hatred. Anger is an ephemeral emotion, but hatred is an ongoing state of mind.

He further analyzes hatred and all of the elements that go into it. Hatred is a form rationalization and projection for one's own failures; the fault cannot be one's own, so therefore someone else is responsible. That someone else is the object of hatred, and it become permissible to act violently against him, her, or them as a matter of survival.

Some cultures allow for more garden variety hatred than others. The danger lies in what happens when a psychopath can harness that latent hatred and use it for his or her own crusade.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

앞부분 너무 재밌었는데 파트4정도부터 애매하다.

[Cathe Rine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful

[Avi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pseudointellectual psychology. Some semi-interesting ideas but swarming with bad theory.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

really well executed book looking at the psychiatry of hatred and how it interplays with prejudice, bigotry, scapegoating, etc. Well worth the read for anyone looking at the individual roles during intractable conflict where there may be an element of hatred at play.

[David Withun · Rating 2 out of 5]

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