Anti-Semitism and Emotional Disorder: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation

?J21?JE12S2

—

z

af2JPr2J2JJ

__ ____

p

I-'

r L

-1

_

r'i

__ _ __

ri

ZH •©n z I

r1 vri F

L

z

•

©

.

—

.

—

C ()

z

0

—

C

(I.)

0

3

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

STUDIES IN PREJUDICE EDITED BY MAX HORKHEIMER AND SAMUEL H. FLOWERMAN

THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY by T. W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunsik, Daniel J. Levjnson and H. Nevitt Sanford

DYNAMICS OF PREJUDICE A PSYCIIOLOGIL AND SOCIOLOGICAj STUDY OF VETERANS

by Bruno Bettelbeim and Morris Janowitz ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER A PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION

by Nathan W. Ackernnm and Marie Jahoda

REHEARSAL FOR DESTRUCTION

A STUDY OF POLITICAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN IMPERIAL GERMANy

by Paul W. Massing

PROPHETS OF DECEIT A STUDY OF THE TECHNIQUES OF THE AMERICAN AGITATOR

by Leo Lowenthal and Norbert Guterman Other Volumes in Preparation

SPONSORED BY

THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE SOCIAL STUDIES SERIES: PUBLICATION NO. V

ANTI - SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER A Psychoanalytic Interpretation by

NATHAN W. ACKERMAN and

MARIE JAHODA

HARPER

BROTHERS NEW YORK

ANTI-SEMiTISM AND EMOTIONAL DISOBDER

Copyright, 1950, by The American Jewish Committee Printed in the United States of America All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permLwion except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Brothers F-Z

FOREWORD TO STUDIES IN PREJUDICE At this moment in world history anti-Semitism is not manifesting itself.

with the full and violent destructiveness of which we know it to be

capable. Even a social disease has its periods of quiescence during which

the social scientist, like the biologist or the physician, can study it in the search for more effective ways to prevent or reduce the virulence of the next outbreak. Today the world scarcely remembers the mechanized persecution and extermination of millions of human beings only a short span of years away in what was once regarded as the citadel of Western civilization. Yet the conscience of many men was aroused. How could it be, they asked each other, that in a culture of law, order and reason, there should have survived the irrational remnants of ancient racial and religious hatreds? How could they explain the willingness of great masses of people to tolerate the mass extermination of their fellow citizens? What tissues in the life of our modem society remain cancerous, and despite our assumed enlightenment show the incongruous atavism of ancient peoples? And what within the individual organism responds to certain stimuli in our culture with attitudes and acts of destructive aggression? But an aroused conscience is not enough if it does not stimulate a systematic search for an answer. Mankind has paid too dearly for its naive faith in the automatic effect of the mere passage of time; incantations have really never dispelled storms, disaster, pestilence, disease or other evils; nor does he who torments another cease his torture out of sheer boredom with his victim. Prejudice is one of the problems of our times for which everyone has a theory but no one an answer. Every man, in a sense, believes that he is his own social scientist, for social science is the stuff of every day living. The progress of science can perhaps be charted by the advances that scientists have made over commonsense notions of phenomena. In an effort to advance beyond mere commonsense approaches to problems of intergroup conffict, the American Jewish Committee in May, 1944, invited a group of American scholars of various backgrounds and disciplines to a two-day conference on religious and racial prejudice. At

V1

FOREWORD TO STUDIES IN PREJUDICE

this meeting, a research program was outlined which would enlist scientific method in the cause of seeking solutions to this crucial problem.

Two levels of research were recommended. One was more limited in scope and geared to the recurring problems faced by educational agencies; e.g., the study of public reaction to selected current events, and the evaluation of various techniques and methods such as those involved in mass media of communication as they impinge upon intergroup relationships. The other level suggested was one of basic research, basic in that it should eventually result in additions to organized knowledge in this field. The first level frequently consisted of a large number of small studies, limited in scope and focused sharply on a given issue.

In practice, we have found that the "goodness" of our smaller studies was proportional to our ingenuity in so devising them that they, too, could contribute basically to knowledge. The chief difference between the two levels of research—sometimes loosely called "short-range" and "long-range" research—seems largely to be due to the immediacy of implementation of findings as program-related or unrelated, rather than to differences in methodology, skills and techniques. On both levels, it is necessary to pursue an interdisciplinary approach to research problems.

To further research on both levels, the American Jewish Committee established a Department of Scientific Research, headed in turn by each of us. The Department saw its responsibility not only in itself initiating fundamental studies in the phenomena of prejudice, but also in helping to stimulate new studies. The present series of volumes represents the first fruits of this effort. In a sense, the initial five volumes constitute one unit, an integrated whole, each part of which illuminates one or another facet of the phenomenon we call prejudice. Three of the books deal with those elements

in the personality of modern man that predispose him to reactions of hostility to racial and religious groups. They attempt answers to the questions: What is there in the psychology of the individual that renders him "prejudiced" or "unprejudiced," that makes him more or less likely

to respond favorably to the agitation of a Goebbels or a Gerald K. Smith? The volume on The Authoritarian Personality by Adorno, FrenkelBrunswik, Levinson and Sanford, based upon a combination of research

techniques, suggests one answer. It demonstrates that there is a close correlation between a number of deep-rooted personality traits, and overt prejudice. The study has also succeeded in producing an instrument for measuring these traits among various strata of the population. Within a more limited range of inquiry, the same question was asked with respect to two specific groups. The study on Dynamics of Prejudice,

FOREWORD TO STUDiES IN PREJUDICE

Vii

Janowitz, considers the connection between personality Bettelheim and by

Here the investigators were traits and prejudice among war veterans. of the war experience, with its complex able to examine the impact factor of major significance affecting anxieties and tensions, as an added Anti-Semitism and Emotional Disorder, by tens of millions of people. the case histories of a number of Ackerman and Jahoda, is based upon have received intensive individuals, from different walks of life, whostudy lies precisely in the special significance of this

psychotherapy. The availability of a body of evidence analytical source of the material, in the realm of the conscious and the dealing with phenomena beneath the established in more general rational, and illuminating the correlation authoritarian personality. terms in the basic investigation of the the social situation The other important factor in prejudice is of course the predispositions within the initself, i.e., the external stimuli to which Nazi Germany is the vivid dividual have reacted and continue to react. and it is to the understanding example of the effect of the social situation, thence to the present task of demoof the roots of Nazi anti-Semitism and Rehearsal for Destruction by Massing cratic reorientation in Germany that is directed. and Guterman, the role of the In Prophets of Deceit, by Lowenthal of persuasion, the mechaagitator is studied. The agitator's technique feeling into specific belief and nism of mediation that translates inchoate volume. As mediator between the world action make up the theme of that molds already existing prejudices and the individual psyche, the agitator into overt action. and tendencies into overt doctrines and ultimately the

placed undue stress upon It may strike the reader that we have psychological rather than upon the social aspect of personal and the preference for psychological prejudice. This is not due to a personal irrational hostility is in analysis nor to a failure to see that the cause of frustration and injustice. Our aim the last instance to be found in social explain it in order to help in is not merely to describe prejudice but to would meet. Eradication means its eradication. That is the challenge we understanding scienre-education, scientifically planned on the basis of

is by its nature personal tifically arrived at. And education in a strict sense for example, how the war and psychological. Once we understand, personality traits preexperience may in some cases have strengthened remedies may follow logically. disposed to group hatred, the educational psychological tricks in the arsenal of the agitator Similarly, to expose the victims against them. may help to immunize his prospective

Department of Scientific Since the completion of these studies the moved ahead into areas Research of the American Jewish Committee has

Vu

FOREWORD TO STUDIES IN PREJUDICE

of research in which the unit of study is the group, the institution, the community rather than the individual. Fortified by a better knowledge of

individual dynamics, we are now concerned with achieving a better understanding of group dynamics. For we recognize that the individual in vacuo is but an artifact; even in the present series of studies, although

essentially psychological in nature, it has been necessaiy to explain individual behavior in terms of social antecedents and concomitants. The second stage of our research is thus focused upon problems of group

pressures and the sociological determinants of roles in given social situations. We seek answers to such questions as: Why does an individual behave in a "tolerant" manner in one situation and in a "bigoted" manner

in another situation? To what extent may certain forms of intergroup conflict, which appear on the surface to be based upon ethnic difference, be based upon other factors, using ethnic difference as content?

The authors of the volumes and the many colleagues upon whose experience and assistance they have been able to draw have widely differing professional interests. This is immediately reflected in the various

techniques they have used,, even in the way they write. Some of the books are more technical, others more "readable." We have not sought uniformity. A search for the truth conducted with the best techniques of contemporary social sciences was our sole aim. Yet through all this diversity of method a significant measure of agreement has been achieved. The problem requires a much more extensive and much more sustained effort than any single institution or any small group such as ours, could hope to put forth. It was our hope that whatever projects we could undertake would not only be contributions in themselves, but would also serve to stimulate active interest in continued study by other scholars. With deep satisfaction we have watched the steady increase in scientffic publications in this field in the past few years. We believe that any study

that bears upon this central theme, if carried out in a truly scientific spirit, cannot help but bring us closer to the theoretical, and ultimately to the practical, solution for reducing intergroup prejudice and hatred. This foreword to Studies in Prejudice would not be complete without a tribute to the vision and leadership of Dr. John Slawson, Executive Vice-President of the American Jewish Committee, who was responsible for calling the conference of scholars and for establishing the Department of Scientific Research. Both editors owe Dr. Slawson a debt of gratitude for the inspiration, guidance, and stimulation which he gave them. MAX Ho1xnEIMEn SAMUEL H. FLOWERMAN

CONTENTS

FOREWORD TO STUDIES IN PREJUDICE

V

INTRODUCTION by Carl Binger

xi

xiii

PREFACE

I.

THE SETTING FOR THE STUDY OF ANTI-SEMITISM A. Cultural Climate and Social Research B. Value Judgments and Potential Bias C. Some Underlying Concepts 1.

2. 3.

1 1

2 S

Prejudice Normalcy National Character

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL ONSIDERATIONS A. Methodological Approach and Purpose of the Study B. Data Collection C. Specific Methodological Considerations 1. The Selective Character of the Material 2. The Development of Conceptual Tools III. THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM A. The Clinical Picture 1. Diagnosis and Symptoms 2. Emotional Predispositions to Anti-Semitism II.

Anxiety Confusion of the Concept of Self c. Interpersonal Relations d. Conformity and the Fear of the Different e. Reality Adaptation f. Conscience Development and Repression a.

b.

B.

The Cenetic Aspect 1. Relationship Between the Parents of the Anti-Semite ix

9

9 11 17

25 25

X

CONTENTS

2.

The Relationship of the Parents to the Anti-Semitic Patients as Children

3.

The Oedipal Struggle

C.

Anti-Semitism in the Service of Defense Mechanisms 1. Projection a. The "Selective" Anti-Semite b. The "Unselective" Anti-Semite 2. Denial 3. Social Aggression Substituted for Anxiety 4. Displacement 5. Reaction Formation and Compensation 6. Introjection

55

D.

Group Pressures and Intrapsychic Needs 1. The Social Determination of the Stereotype 2. The Social Determination of Anti-Semitic Manifesta-

73

3. 4. 5. 6.

tions Jewish Anti-Semitism The "Liberal" Anti-Semite

Contact with Jews Anti-Semitism in the Family IV. ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

86

V. APPENDIX: SUMMARY INFORMATION ON ALL CASES 95 VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 131 133

INTRODUCTION

THE AUThORS of this book have attempted to describe and to define, in a clinical study, an ancient, baffling, and perplexing social problem. Since their training and experience lies in psychoanalysis and social psychology

they have examined their material from the theoretical bases on which these sciences rest. This is their point of view, their stand. But they give full recognition to the importance of other ones—ethnic, for example, or economic. For anti-Semitism is a many-headed hydra. Each head that is cut off is replaced by two others, unless a burning iron is applied to the wound. The authors know how to use the cautery. But it will take a Hercules to do the monster in. You may say that Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Jahoda are prejudiced against anti-Semitism. Yes, in the same way that Pasteur was prejudiced against rabies; Koch against tuberculosis; Walter Reed against yellow fever; or Harvey Cushing against brain tumors. Each one of these scientists spent his genius, or his courage, or both, to attack an evil. The evil was disease. Their method of attack was the cool and careful method of science. But they had formed a prejudgment which might be stated in this way: "It is

better for man to inherit the earth than it is for rabid dogs or tubercle bacilli or mosquitoes."

In the same way Doctors Ackerman and Jahoda have formed a prejudgment. They consider anti-Semitism an evil; a symptom of social illness. They are courageous enough to do battle with evil, using the combined weapons of their respective sciences. Since the application of psychoanalytic theory to social phenomena is at its beginning this is pioneering work. It is important, however, not only for that, but also because in bringing reason to bear on certain irrational attitudes the authors of this book have struck a blow at once for freedom and for mental health. The day is now past when the true scientist can be indifferent to ethical values and moral judgments. If the quality of mercy is twice blessed, the quality of anti-Semitism bears a double curse. It curses him who gives and him who receives. In its country club and summer hotel guise it may appear only to enhance xl

Xli

INTRODUCTION

what Freud called "the narcissism of small differences." But even when it does not deprive Jews of life and liberty, anti-Semitism is an obscenity and a sin against the human spirit. In a world that appears, just now, to be entering a state of fission, how heartening to find two experienced investigators who have had the faith and patience to tackle so difficult a problem. They have done it with sldll and with dignified sincerity. Jew and Gentile alike owe Dr. Ackerman and Dr. Jahoda a debt for their labors. it is easy to be cynical. It is much harder to get down to work. CAnI BuccER

PREFACE

Tins s'rum is one of a series of interrelated investigations undertaken by the Department of Scientific Research of the American Jewish Committee. The idea for a study of this kind had arisen in discussions between Dr. John Slawson, Executive Vice-President of the American Jewish Com-

mittee, and Dr. Nathan W. Ackerman some time before the formal establishment of the Department. Based on his experience as a practicing psychoanalyst, and on his interest in social-psychiatry, Dr. Ackerman had suggested a collection of detailed case studies of anti-Semitic persons undergoing psychoanalytic treatment, and a collection of social service agencys' case studies of adolescents manifesting prejudice. When the Department of Scientific Research was first founded early in 1944, Dr. Max Horkheimer, its first director, who had for many years

been interested in the psychoanalytic approach to the problem of prejudice, enlisted the cooperation of a number of psychoanalysts in an attempt to design basic studies which might increase understanding of anti-Semitism. Dr. Ackerman was among those who, during this period, served as consultants to the Department of Scientific Research. The execution of this idea was somewhat delayed as a result of early organizational problems and of a lack of suitable personnel, but toward the end of 1945 the collection of case studies got under way. This proved to be a more time-consuming procedure than had been originally en visaged. This was due mainly to difficulties inherent in the study which are fully discussed in the body of the report, but also to the fact that the cooperating psychoanalysts were overburdened with work so that the

repeated interviews on one case often stretched over weeks, or even months. Furthermore, the period of data collection was simultaneously employed for continuous analysis of findings and for interpretation. The two authors were assisted in the collection and interpretation of data by Alvin Gouldner, a sociologist, and Bluma Swerdloff, a psychiatric

social worker. Arthur Brenner participated frequently in the regular sessions during which each case was thoroughly discussed. With the xlii

XIV

PREFACE

exception of one member of the team all had been psychoanalyzed. The

authors are indebted to their collaborators for their contributions to conceptual clarification of the study as well as for their indefatigable zeal in the process of data collection. The authors owe their greatest debt to the cooperating psychoanalysts

who so generously contributed their time and interest to this study, either by providing case material or by discussions of concepts and methods. The following psychoanalysts contributed case material: Drs. Nathan W. Ackerman, Jacob A. Arlow, Robert C. Bak, Edmund Bergler, Viola Bernard, A. Blau, Kilian Blulim, Franz Cohen, George Daniels, Jule Eisenbud, Harmon S. Ephron, Marynia F. Farnham, Sol W. Ginsburg, Andre Glaz, Frederick J. Hacker, Mary O'Neil Hawkins, Emeline Place Hayward, Henriette Klein, Henry Lowenfeld, Peter B. Neubauer, Geza Roheim, Irving J. Sands, Nathanial E. Selby, William V. Silverberg, and Otto Sperling. These analysts helped the authors develop appropriate forms of camouflage in order to safeguard the anonymity of their patients; to double-check this anonymity, each contributing analyst examined the final script. Drs. Heinz Hartmann and Robert Waelder gave valuable assistance by discussing the concepts and the methodology of the study at an early stage with the authors. Later, Drs. Ernst Kris and William V. Silverberg reviewed the manuscript and made suggestions and criticisms. The study has thus benefited from constructive advice from many quarters, but the responsibility for its final formulation and its shortcomings lies, of course, exclusively with the authors. Thanks are further due to Anna Kempshall of the Community Service Society, and Herschel Alt and Frederika Neumann of the Jewish Board of Guardians who made it possible for us to study appropriate cases in their ifies and who further enabled us to discuss these cases with the psychiatric social worker in charge of each case. NAThAN W.

Acxxsi

Muux JABODA

New York, June, 1949

"If the Tiber overflows into the city, if the Nile does not flow into the countryside, if the heavens remain unmoved, if the earth quakes, if there is famine or pestilence, at once the cry goes up: to the lions with the Christians!" TERTULLIAN

CHAPTER I THE SE1TING FOR THE STUDY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

A. CULTURAL CLIMATE AND SOCIAL RESEARCH This study of anti-Semitism, like the study of other contemporary social issues of some urgency, takes place in a cultural climate that is far from being dispassionate about such issues. A traditional concept of science —which is often uncritically transferred from the physical to the social

sciences—maintains that detachment from the issue is the most important qualification for one who desires to study it. We are opposed to this concept, which we believe is logically and psychologically untenable.

If the student of a social phenomcnon is part of the culture in which it occurs, his choice of position is limited: he is either for it, against it, or indifferent to the issue. And indifference to an issue which incites others to participation is obviously as well defined a position in terms of its relation to particular value concepts, as either one of the other two positions. On the other hand, even if the student is not part of the culture, he will nevertheless bring to his study those value judgments which he acquired in his native society. Psychologically, the demand for detachment is equally unsound. It presupposes an ability in the student to split his personality, to divorce his functioning as a scientist from his functioning as a human being, an ability which, fortunately, is none too common.

In spite of the frequent, though misguided, cry for this type of "objectivity," the actual output of research stamped by this dissociated pattern is comparatively limited. For as a rule, consciously or not, value judgments enter into every step of social research, from the selection of a

research topic to the methodology and to the final interpretation of results.

Does such a state of affairs, then, place in question the ultimate

2

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

validity of all findings in the social sciences? Broadly considered, the answer must be: yes. Results are valid only in relation to three distinct factors: the limits of the cultural climate in which they were obtained, of the methodology utilized in their pursuit, and of the student who undertook the task. In a more specific sense, validity can be increased—at least its limitations can be indicated—by a definition of these three factors. Cultural climate and methods are extensively dealt with in the following chapters; in this introduction we shall attempt to define our own bias on the issue of anti-Semitism. We shall also define a few major concepts bearing

on the subject of anti-Semitism, which incidentally may reflect some aspects of the authors' bias. After all, the only safeguard against one's own emotional involvement is awareness of such involvement and its explicit admission.

B. VALUE JUDGMENTS AND POTENTIAL BIAS Both authors of this study are Jewish. Both believe that anti-Semitism in whatever form it appears is a symptom of social pathology, indicating

a form of social disorganization that menaces the stability, if not the very foundation of a culture, even beyond the suffering that it entails for its victims.

Both are convinced that decisive social action should and can be taken to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism, if not to cure all its adherents; and that the design of such action will benefit from an increased understanding of the functioning of prejudice. Such action must

be on a broad basis, attacking prejudice not in isolation but rather in connection with other social ills to which it is related. Indeed, one of the motives for undertaking this study was the concern for its potential pragmatic value. This, too, is the place for raising the question of possible professional bias, in one or both authors—one of whom is a psychoanalyst, the other a psychoanalyzed social psychologist. This study is based on the psychoanalytic method and theory of personality. The term "psychoanalysis" is, at present, being applied to a variety of theoretical systems which represent different degrees of departure from the original Freudian foundations. It is, therefore, essential to make some definitive commitment as to

the position of the authors with regard to the controversial aspects of contemporary psychoanalytic theory of personality. This includes the

THE SETTING FOR THE STUDY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

3

psychoneed for an explanation of the authors' preferential use of certain analytic terms. The psychoanalytic author, who had the usual professional training in teachings, is now an Asa Psychoanalytic Institute founded on Freud's Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Resociate Psychoanalyst at the theory, he accepts the major search at Columbia University. Concerning tenets of the Freudian conceptual system with certain specific modifications which have been suggested both by newer empirical research and by recognition of the pressing need for emphasis on the integrative functions of the total personality, more specifically, on the organizational functions of the "ego" and the role of defense in social adaptation. Because anti-Semitic motivation plays so central a role in the group

adaptation of certain individuals, the authors have seen fit in the discussion of the relevant psychodynamic processes to stress "ego" mechanisms and defensive reactions against anxiety. Psychoanalytic readers of this study will undoubtedly note its calculated avoidance of some tradional psychoanalytic terminology. This has no bearing on the authors' preference for one or another psychoanalytic school of thought. There is rather another reason for this: Basic psychoanalytic terms such as "ego" "superego" and "id" are not employed in exactly the same way, unfortunately, even by analysts of the same school. The clarification and standardization of terminology is an urgent task of great importance for the further development of psychoanalysis, a task which, however, is decidedly beyond the scope of this study. In the virtually unexplored field of applying psychoanalysis to the empirical study of a social issue, it has been deemed advisable to use terms which described as fittingly as possible the actual phenomena with which we dealt. C. SOME UNDERLYING CONCEPTS 1. Pnxjunicx. In its broad etymological sense, prejudice—prejudgment —is a term applied to categorical generalizations based on inadequate data and without sufficient regard for individual differences. Such prejudgments are continuously made by everyone on a great variety of subjects. By and large, such generalizations result in some economy of intellectual effort. But inherent in the process of forming prejudgments is the danger of stereotyped thinking. The stereotype is distinguished from the prejudgment only by a greater degree of rigidity. Prejudgment occurs

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER 4 where facts are not available. But stereotypy is a process which shows little concern for facts even when they are available.

Prejudice in its narrowest sense is distinct from prejudgment and stereotypy. It is a sub-category of prejudgment and it uses stereotypy but it is not identical with either. In the psychological context, as we shall endeavor to demonstrate through the evidence of this study, prejudice is a pattern of hostility in interpersonal relations which is directed against an entire group, or against its individual members; it fulfills a specific irrational function for its bearer. This implies that its motivation arises from causes other than the actual qualities of the group

against whom the prejudice is directed. If a person alleges that Jews are economically powerful, he is employing stereotyped thinking. He may be right or wrong; if sufficient facts are presented to him, he may change the content of his stereotype to saying: Jews are not powerful economically. But neither of these two statements is in itself a sufficient indication of prejudice. Only when there is evidence that his stereotypes are used as rationalizations for an irrational hostility rooted in his own personality are we talking of prejudice. That anti-Semitism in the cases here investigated is a prejudice in the sense of this definition, and not just a prejudgment or a manifestation of stereotyped thinking, is the main hypothesis of this investigation. Anticipating our presentation, we can state that this hypothesis has been verified. 2. Nomswcy. The prinipIes and concepts of dynamic psychology were developed clinically in the treatment of individuals who were emotionally

ill. The material upon which this study is based consists of case histories of people who were under psychoanalytic treatment or who were receiving case-work service from psychiatrically oriented social agencies; the question therefore arises as to whether the conclusions of such a study can have any relevance to anti-Semitism as manifested by "normal"

individuals. This in turn raises another question: Is not some antiSemitism "normal" in our culture? The answer to the first of these questions is that psychoanalytic psychiatry has fairly well demonstrated that the difference between the sick and the healthy personality is one of degree and quantity rather than of

quality. It is indeed impossible to draw a dividing line if other than extreme cases are considered. In the developing science of psychodynamics, of course, no less than in anatomy and physiology, basic concepts and principles have been evolved through study of pathological

THE SETTING FOR THE STUDY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

5

conditions, but they are equally valid and equally applicable both in sickness and in health. This conclusion is further confirmed by the successful application of psychodynamic principles to "case work" in social agencies serving all kinds of people in varieties of situations. It is corroborated, too, by the depth of insight which psychoanalysis has contributed to many other fields such as literature, sociology, anthropology, education, and mental hygiene. Indeed, concepts and terminology which

did not exist before the development and popularization of modern psychoanalytic psychiatry have become incorporated into the average person's everyday vocabulary and are unhesitatingly applied in his daily appraisal of the conduct of his family and friends. Thus the emotional mechanisms and motivations described by psychoanalytic psychology are present in all people, whether "sick" or "well," to some extent and at some depth. The second question is not so easily answered. Is some anti-Semitism nonnal in our culture? The issue is complicated by the fact that two entirely different concepts of normalcy appear to be in current use. In one case, individual behavior is considered normal when it corresponds to

what the majority of people do, or when it falls within the tolerated range of divergent behavior. This is the normalcy of the frequency distribution. In such a statistical sense, anti-Semitism is undoubtedly, and unfortunately, "normal"—at least, in some of America's subcultures. In the psychiatric sense, however, normalcy is another matter. Its definition derives from the theory and practice of psychiatry. Psychiatrically

speaking, the concept of normalcy refers to a condition of relative harmony between the various parts of the personality, and between the personality and the reality situation. Such a balance implies freedom from chronic intrastructural conflict. Under social circumstances approaching the ideal, the norm—the majority—will also approach normalcy

in the psychiatric sense. While some degree of anxiety exists probably in all cultures, it appears that in our culture, in this century, everybody experiences a particularly high degre of anxiety and develops many defense mechanisms. Psychiatric normalcy hence remains an ideal rather than a reality. Thus, a person who grew up in an anti-Semitic milieu without ever having seen a Jew, who was told by a Sunday School teacher that "the Jews killed Christ," and by his father that "Jews are commercially dishonest," might very well unfold a hostile attitude toward Jews. The test for the normaic!, of such an attitude lies in its reversibility when exposed

6

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

to facts. If such a person failed to reexamine this group judgment in the

light of his subsequent general education and realistic experience, and if it should be found on closer examination that the retention of such prejudgment fulfilled a personal irrational need, then he has lost his claim to normalcy in the psychiatric sense.

Again, if a man who has been injured by a Jew hates him for the injury and not for being a Jew, this is not a case of anti-Semitism. After having suffered successive injuries from several Jews, such a man may commit the logical error of making an oversimple generalization and consequently develop a negative expectation of Jews in general. If, how-

ever, he hates the Jewishness of all Jews in a manner which clearly does not correspond in any way with his realistic experiences, but which derives rather from some inner need of his individual personality,

then the clue to his anti-Semitism is to be found not in the objective facts of the case but in the distortion stemming from his own personality.

The dispute over the normalcy of anti-Semitism thus reverts to the question of whether or not anti-Semitism presents a prejudice in the sense of the previous definition of the term. For in the light of that definition,

prejudice may be the social norm, but it can never be normal in the psychiatric sense. Our evidence, by definition, excludes cases from which such "normal" anti-Semitism could be expected. It is certainly possible that some forms

of anti-Semitism are based on nothing but erroneous prejudgment or stereotyped thought processes. If modification can be achieved through a demonstration of actual facts about Jews or by rational discussion, these forms can legitimately be labeled as "normal." Most forms of antiSemitism, however, are rigid and do not yield to learning experience. Both categories, of course, require study, for both are socially dangerous.

Potentially the irrational form of anti-Semitism presents the greater danger to society. In this study we are expressly concerned with irrational anti-Semitism.

In spite of the vast literature on the subject, the concept of "national character" remains one of the least well defined terms used in the social sciences. Though its complexities certainly cannot be solved here, a brief reference to it nevertheless seems to be called for because the "Jewish national character" appears in many discussions' as a partial explanation of "normal" anti-Semitism. 3. NAT[ONAL CHEACTER.

1See, e.g., Parkes, James W.: An Enemy of the People: Anti-Semitism, New York, Penguin Books, 1946.

THE SEITING FOR THE STUDY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

7

There seems to be wide agreement that the concept of a national character is justified. Common history and common institutions mold the qualities of individuals exposed to them. But particularly in complex industrialized societies, the factors which condition character are so numerous and often so contradictory that no one individual or subgroup can ever be taken to represent the national character. Thus, frequency statements would have to modify sweeping generalizations about national character. For the time being, all one can say is that although characterological differences between groups and nations certainly exist, knowledge concerning their nature and frequency is as yet highly limited. The concept of national character is particularly difficult to apply to Jews. If national character is reflected by, and transmitted through, the

child-rearing practices of a people, then the Jews, who have in their dispersion inevitably absorbed elements of the many nations within whose boundaries they have lived, must be assumed to have developed more

than one national character. Yet there are irrefutable indications, cherished by many self-respecting Jews of different national origin as well as non-anti-Semitic Gentiles, that common character attributes fostered by a perpetuation of Jewish culture and traditions do exist. In the absence of conclusive evidence and in the full knowledge that this is an expression of a belief rather than a fact, it is here assumed that there are certain characteristics of personality which are typically Jewish. Centuries of life in the ghetto, of emphasis on study rather than manual work, of the experience of persecution in the living memory of so many consecutive generations of Jews—all these and other experiential factors cannot fail to have left their trace on the Jewish personality. Some of these Jewish characteristics are valued and admired by the Gentile world, while others, as for instance the Jewish overestimation of self or the defensive underestimation of Gentile intellectual ability, are understandably resented. Anticipating the results of this study at the moment, however, it can be stated that in no single case were these Jewish personality attributes the cause of anti-Semitic feelings. They were used, to be sure, but that use was in the nature of a rationalized justification for an antagonism which actually had a personal and irrational origin.

Whether one can scientifically speak of a single Jewish character remains uncertain. Assuming its existence, we wish to make simply this point: as far as we can see, only those who draw political or emotional gain from anti-Semitism ever conceive of the Jewish national character as the exclus-ive cause of anti-Semitism.

8

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

There is no doubt that a comprehensive examination of all aspects of Gentile relations with Jews would require the scientific study of Jewish character. Here, however, we deal only with a part of this phenomenon, namely the feeling of antagonism against the Jews. It remains for the future to investigate other aspects of the relationship of Jew to Gentile and Gentile to Jew.

CHAPTER II DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

A. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The problem of prejudice in general, and of anti-Semitism in particular, has heretofore been approached from many different perspectives. Philosophers, historians, sociologists, psychologists, and others, throughout the

history of the Christian era, have contributed a wealth of concepts, theories, and facts on the relationship of the occurrence of mass prejudice to other events in society. In offering this study, based on the psychodynamic approach, as an

additional contribution toward the development of a comprehensive theory of anti-Semitism, we are fully aware of the scope of knowledge which is already available. The claim of psychodynamic science, that it can amplify existing knowledge of such behavior and refute errone-

ous hypotheses, rests upon a specific interpretation of social processes.

Cultural traditions and social forces do not exist as abstractions. Although they have been profitably studied in isolation, they actually exist only in so far as they express themselves dynamically in the behavior

of human beings. Ultimately, therefore, a completely meaningful conception of social processes depends on an understanding of the expression of such forces through the behavior of persons singly and in groups. To achieve such understanding it is necessary to study the continuous and intricate interaction of intrapsychic tendencies and environmental forces as they shape and develop each other. The acquisition of such expanded understanding has been made possible through the evolution of the science of psychodynamics, and the development of specific methods for exploring the interaction between psychic forces in the individual and the social environment. The relative newness of psychodynamic studies of prejudice is, how9

JO

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

ever, not entirely due to the short history of psychodynamic science. After

all, such concepts have been in use for some fifty years, and during the last thirty years, particularly, the methods of psychodynamics have found increasing application in the field of psychotherapy. The reason for the failure of emphasis on the psychological aspect of anti-Semitism

up to now lies rather in the nature of the phenomenon itself. Whenever and wherever prejudice arises in its full force, supported by mass movements, its destructive impact is most conspicuous on the social structure and it is, therefore, viewed—by no means incorrectly—as being largely a social phenomenon. It manifests itself as a form of intergroup behavior; it expresses itself in stereotyped accusations which are part of the socially transmitted cultural pattern; and it produces social consequences of disastrous dimensions, as the world has witnessed during the last decade.

It is with reference to these social manifestations that the psychodynamic approach to the study of prejudice is even now brushed aside by some as irrelevant. In view of the magnitude and the social urgency of the problem of prejudice, such efforts at "microscopic" investigations are regarded at times as valueless, and even as dangerous. Certain people argue that this emphasis might serve to detract from the social, political, and economic concomitants of anti-Semitism, and diminish the demand for decisive social action against them.

The answer to such arguments is simply our conviction that intelligent counteraction against organized or sporadic anti-Semitism must be based on the fullest possible knowledge of its character, and that psychodynamic insight adds to such knowledge.

More specifically, the psychodynamic view itself is based on the consideration of the specific place of anti-Semitism in American culture. Psychologically, morally, and legally, anti-Semitism is neither outlawed nor imposed in this country. Under the same historical, social, and economic circmnstances some people, even within the same family, adhere to such an ideology while others do not. Where social compulsions to anti-Semitism are not overpowering, the question arises: What determines

this seemingly free choice of an individual, to be or not to be antiSemitic? Formulated in a deceptively simple way: Why is a person antiSemitic? It is the purpose of this study to seek an answer to this question.

As in all motivational studies, three types of behavior determinants are to be distinguished: 1. The functional determination or the purpose of the attitude;

DATA COLLECTION AND METhODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

II

2. The genetic determination or the history of the attitude; and 3. The circumstantial or external determination, or the impact of external factors on the formation of the attitude. While we shall treat each of these determinants consecutively, their constant interaction will be pointed out at every step. A more precise definition of the scope of this study will be possible only after the specific nature of our data has been described. B. DATA COLLECTION With the broad aim of this study in mind, a small number of psychoanalysts were first approached, and about a dozen preliminary case histories of patients manifesting anti-Semitic attitudes were collected. There was, at that stage, no attempt to obtain the same kind of information on every case. The psychoanalyst was completely at liberty to include any fact that seemed relevant to the patient's anti-Semitism. These informal and undirected preliminary interviews revealed many different aspects in the psychodynamic approach to the study of prejudice, and they served chiefly to direct the expansion of the investigators' original concepts. The ideas that emerged were condensed into the final recording schedule, which served as a methodological guide for the systematic collection of comparable data. FORM FOR THE COLLECTION OF CLINICAL DATA ON ANTI-MINORITY AND ANTI-SEMITIC ATTITUDES I. CharLwterization of the Patient's Anti-Semitism

1. Patient's statements about Jews (quotations) 2. Dreams about Jews and other minority groups 3. Verbal or behavioral anti-Semitism: i.e., Does the patient act out his anti-Semitism as well as verbalize it? Under what conditions and in what ways does he do either one or both? 4. Threshold of anti-Semitism: What stimulus is required to activate it? Is the patient anti-Semitic (a) only in analysis, (b) in his ingroup, or (c) before Jews themselves? If only (b), are there any ingroups to which the patient belongs in which he would not

anti-Semitism? Does he originate, respond to, or acquiesce to anti-Semitic remarks in his ingroup? If only (c), are express his

there any Jews before whom he would not express his anti-Semitism?

5. Fixity of anti-Semitic pattern: When did the patient first become anti-Semitic? In what ways, if any, has the pattern of the patient's anti-Semitism changed? What caused the change?

12

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

6. Specific or nonspecific anti-Semitism: Is the patient anti-Semitic toward individual Jews or the Jewish group as a whole? 7. Diffuseness of anti-Semitism: Is the patient against the Jewish group alone or against other minority groups as well? Which other minorities? Quote remarks made about them. In what ways are the patient's other anti-minority feelings similar to, or different from, his anti-Semitic attitudes? Is there any displacement of hostility toward a non-Jewish minority onto the Jews? What motivates this displacement? 8. Relative novelty of anti-Semitism in analysis: a. Transference manifestations—meaning and origin? Difference in anti-Semitic reactions reported by Jewish and non-Jewish analysts?

b. Periodicity? c. Intensity? d. Restricted to analytic relationship or acted out? e. Method of resolution? f. Residue, if any?

g. How are such transference reactions related to the patient's

previous attitudes toward Jews? h. What is the basis for the displacement of the patient's hostility? 9. Does the patient attribute his anti-Semitism to real causes; e.g., disagreeable personal experiences with Jews? In the anal yst's opinion, to what extent is this anti-Semitism rational, i.e., based on really objectionable features in some Jews? 10. Does the patient attribute his anti-Semitism to socioeconomic or religious influences—to competition, propaganda, education, etc.? Does the analyst concur? What is the analyst's explanation of the patient's anti-Semitism? Does the patient have any insight into the psychological functions, if any, of his anti-Semitism? 11. Specfficity of anti-Semitic symbols: Is there anything peculiar or idiosyncratic about the patient's attitude toward Jews? That is, in what ways does it differ from the culturally prevalent stereotypes regarding Jews? 12. Hierarchy of anti-Semitic symbols: Which of all the actual or alleged qualities of the Jews is most important to the patient? How does the analyst interpret this? 13. Which of the following alleged or actual qualities of Jews does the patient consciously or unconsciously attribute to them: Inferiority, superiority, weakness, oppression, enslavement? Invulnerable individual integrity or vulnerability? A solid sense of identity? Femininity or passivity? Castration or circumcision? The agency of oppressive social forces? The cruel destructive side of humanity? Loudness, demandingness, or vocalness? Aggressiveness? Moral or intellectual superiority? Insatiable, unbridled appetites? Exaggerated

CONSIDERATIONS DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL

13

Specify or passive oral needs? Success or failure? Isolatedness? the Jews conthe above qualities to whether the patient attributes sciously or unconsciously. identify With? 14. Which of all the above qualities does the patient Which does he attempt to deny? Consciously or unconsciously? Why?

II. General Clinical Data 1. Dates when treatment began and duration 2. Patient's presenting complaints The patient's S. Analyst's diagnosis and interpretation of disturbance. central conflicts. History of his illness. (a) home, (b) 4. Patterns manifested by patient's attitudes toward: (f) equals, (g) authority, college, (d) work, (e) school, (c) inferiors.

5. Physiological and neurological diagnosis, if any 6. The patient's idiosyncratic habits 7. His sense of humor dark, etc. Does he look 8. Appearance type, for example, short, fat, or think he looks "Jewish"? example, fussy, neat, well 9. Attention to personal appearance, for dressed, etc.

III. Brief Description of Patient's Character attitude toward moral 1. Describe the patient's moral structure; his conventionality. Rigid perfectionist, compulobligation, authority, sive, etc.

facade

or 2. What is the patient's concept of self? What appearance identity as an How stable is his feeling of does he wish to present? of individual? Define specific weaknesses and confusions in sense self, if such are present. What are their origins? manifest a neurotic S. What are the patient's major drives? Does he wealth, prestige, and neurotic drives for need for affection, or this? How power? What is their origin? What are the symptoms of individual's basic conflicts? I are these major drives related to the does the patient manifest a sado what ways and to what extent masochistic syndrome? have his first sexual 4. The patient's sexual adjustment: When did he Describe any experience? Describe his marital sexual experiences. perverse experiences he may have had. drinking, smoking, 5. How does he satisfy his other appetites—eating, etc. rely on? 6. What major patterns of defense does the patient which are im7. Other features in the patient's character structure portant.

14

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

IV. Outline for the Life History Environment into which Patient was Born 1. The patient's siblings, their age and sex 2. Family relationships: Mother-father, sibling-parents, father-patient, mother-patient, siblings-patient. Analyst's characterization and interpretation of these relationships.

3. Data on father: Age at patient's birth; occupational status and history; social status; religious affiliation; degree of religiosity; political ideology; attitudes toward Jews and other minorities; education; special interest; place of bfrth. Brief description of father's personality.

4. Data on mother: (same as for father) 5. Persons other than mother, father, and siblings in household (nurses, grandparents, etc.) Their relationship to patient. 6. Other persons frequently interacting with members of the patient's household. Their relationship with patient. Infancy to Adolesence

1. Patient's infant rearing experiences: Nursing, weaning, sphincter training, enuresis, infantile masturbation. Is there evidence that any of the above were culturally atypical? 2. Childhood: Friendships; first sexual knowledge—age at which this was acquired; circumstances, patient's reaction if known; type and intensity of patient's religious education. Outstanding events. 3. Group adaptation in adolescence: Shift in identity; control of sexual and aggressive drives; displacement of hostility. Adulthood

1. Education; present religion; changes in religion, if any, and degree of religiosity. Occupational history; social status; patient's political

views; degree to which patient is interested in politics; special

personal interests; attitude toward money. 2. Group activity: Social, civic, recreational, political, etc., groups to which patient belongs; major group activities. The approximate amount of time patient chooses to spend with other people. The intensity of his relationships with these other people; the approximate number of people the patient chooses to spend time with.

Does he originate group activity more or less often than he responds to it? 3. Own family experiences: Present marital status and marital history; concrete description of own family relationships—number and age of children, patient-child relationships, wife-child relationships, patient-wife relationship, and analyst's characterization and interpretation of these relationships.

4. Data on patient's spouse: Older or younger than the patient; religion; religiosity; occupational history and social status; education;

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

15

political ideology; attitudes toward Jews and other minorities; special interests. Brief description of spouse's personality.

V. Summary and Interpretation 1. Is anti-Semitism an expression of the patient's conflict patterns? If so, which patterns, and how is anti-Semitism interrelated with these? What is the genesis of these conflicts and of the anti-Semitic attitude? 2. What functions does the patient's anti-Semitism fulfill in his character structure? 8. What is the relationship between the patient's other anti-minority sentiments and his anti-Semitic attitudes, and how, if at all, does either one develop from the other? VI. General Background Data

1. Patient's age; sex; and place of birth (if foreign-born, age at immigration) 2. Case number 8. Analyst 4. Dates of interviews with analyst

This recording schedule was intentionally designed to be as comprehensive as possible. For example, Part I, Characterization of the Patient's Anti-S etnitLsm, includes conceptual items which go far beyond the type of data usually obtained in the average case study. Even though complete information on all items was not obtained in any single case, the comprehensiveness of the schedule proved to be an advantage because

it demanded a systematic approach to each case, with consideration of every possible feature. The cooperation of psychoanalysts was then enlisted on a larger scale. Accredited psychoanalysts in New York were first approached by a letter in which the research plan was outlined. Those who expressed interest

were then visited by a member of the research team. During the prolonged period of data collection, the authors were assisted by a trained psychiatric social worker, also previously psychoanalyzed, and a sociologist.

After some initial experimentation, it was found to be essential that interviews with the psychoanalysts should be conducted only by those members of the team who had been psychoanalyzed. This helped to establish quickly an atmosphere of confidence between the psychoanalysts and the research personneL In the first interview, the form of cooperation was discussed, and the collection of relevant data begun,

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

with full assurance given the psychoanalyst that all customary precau tions to preserve the anonymity of each case would be taken. The inter view procedure was essentially as follows: The psychoanalyst was first asked to describe a case of anti-Semitiso in a consecutive manner so that the interviewer would become familia

with the anti-Semite's life history. The interviewer then started to dis cuss the case with the psychoanalyst in terms of the items included ii the recording schedule. As a rule, these were prolonged discussions re quiring two or three meetings. During interim periods, each psycho

analyst's case was recorded in detail and discussed further by th

research team under the guidance of its psychoanalyst member. A tenth tive interpretation of the dynamic and the genetic aspect of every cas

was formulated by the research team and resubmitted to the psycho

analyst in the following interview for agreement or modification. The research team discussed each case again and again in terms of an: divergences of interpretation which might have emerged, and in term of its place within the general frame of the investigation. In addition to practicing psychoanalysts, another source of data wa tapped: two social-welfare agencies. In their case work, such agencie employ trained psychiatric social workers, usually under the supervisioi

of a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist. The hope of getting fror this source additional data on the environmental determination of ant Semitism was fulfilled at least in some cases. Data approximately coir parable to the psychoanalytic material were actually obtained. The di velopment of concepts leading to a psychodynamic interpretation of th

evidence, however, was based exclusively on the material obtained fror psychoanalysts about their patients. Case histories from social-servic agencies, where appropriate, are used in the text as illustrations. The procedure in gathering case material from agencies was essentiall

the same as that used in obtaining psychoanalytic material. The cas worker, when aware of the incidence of prejudice in one of her cient discussed the case with a member of the research team who afterward studied the written record in full detail. When all relevant informatio had been extracted, another discussion with the case worker complete the data collection for that case.

After discarding cases containing insufficient or contradictory informl lion, the material for this study consisted of twenty-seven cases obtaine

from psychoanalysts and thirteen cases obtained from social servic

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

17

agencies. A summary of the relevant information covering each case will be found in the appendix.

C. SPECIFIC METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The specific methodological problems which this study had to face arose out of the fact that the cooperation of practicing psychoanalysts was enlisted not for the study of psychotherapeutic theory or practice, but for that of a sociopsychological phenomenon. This means that material originally gathered in the process of therapy, and thus geared to that purpose, was to be used for another purpose, that of research. Such procedure is gaining increasing favor with the growing awareness by both psychoanalysts and social scientists of the need for coordinating

scientific results which are obtained by the application of different methods. This awareness grows in proportion to the demand for investigations which are problem-centered rather than method-centered. 1. Ti SELECrIVE CIi4rACrEE OF TEE MATE1IIAL.

Despite the ever-

widening range of people receiving therapeutic help from psychoanalysts, such people compared to the population as a whole constitute, in many

respects, a special group. First, they are emotionally disturbed personalities, and—to make this a characteristic truly distinctive from the rest of the population—they are aware of their disturbances to a degree that makes them voluntarily seek help. Furthermore, they are aware that psychoanalysis may provide this help. It is impossible to determine

how this selective factor influences the study of the psychological mechanisms of anti-Semitism. It may well be that the "lunatic fringe" type of anti-Semite, who acts out his violent feelings with little restraint, will hardly ever seek psychoanalytic treatment. More important, however, than the infrequent representation of the extreme type, is the possibility that less extreme forms of anti-Semitism are excluded because of the peculiarity of the source of our material. Some studies on prejudice have suggested that a certain rigidity and unwillingness to engage in introspection are frequently found in the prejudiced personality.' It is not impossible that those persons undergoing psychoanalytic treatment present marginal cases of even the mildly prejudiced population. This does not, however, impair the findings of this study, which is essentially exploratory in character. The demonstration of the patterns 1Harfley, Eugene: Problems in Prejudice, New York, King's Crown Press, 1946. Also, Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson and Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality, Vol. I in this series.

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

of interaction between intrapsychic needs and social forces is independent of any such considerations as frequency. This is also the answer to those who might question the value of the material because it is derived exclusively from emotionally disturbed persons in need of help. They assume that anti-Semitism in a "sick" personality is different in its motivation and functioning from anti-Semitism in a "healthy" person. As has been pointed

out earlier, modern psychiatry assumes that the difference between the "sick" and the "healthy" personality is one of degree and quantity rather than one of quality. Similarly, the geographical limitation of this study does not interfere with its purpose. The material stems almost exclusively from psycho-

analysts practicing in New York City and refers mostly to patients residing in the metropolitan area. Many of these patients, however, were brought up in other parts of the country so that the early development of a predisposition to anti-Semitism is not limited to social conditioning in an area with an exceptionally large Jewish population. Nevertheless, the manifestations of current anti-Semitism as they emerge from the case

studies must be regarded as being influenced by the social climate of New York. The cases collected from psychoanalysts are further defined in economic

terms, since most such patients belong to the upper economic income stratum. The selectivity of the cases in this respect was offset by cases from social-service agencies.

Of obvious importance for the validity of the material are those differences which were found in the accounts of Jewish and non-Jewish psychoanalysts who cooperated in this study. As far as the content of anti-Semitic accusations and the underlying psychodynamic mechanisms are concerned, no such differences were found. However, the patient's knowledge as to whether his psychoanalyst was Jewish or not influenced the timing and the intensity of his anti-Semitic utterances in analysis, especially in the "negative transference" phase. Following the resolution of the "transference hostility," no significant differences could be dis-

cerned. Finally, the preference of the psychoanalyst for describing patient A rather than patient B must be mentioned. To a certain extent his freedom of choice was limited by our insistence on a current case that

was well enough advanced to allow an interpretation of the basic eonfficts. This condition, however, was occasionally waived. Although it is possible that some accidental selective principle was at work here, the case studies themselves are so varied that there is no reason to believe

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

that the choice of the variOus psychoanalysts was one universal principle.

19

made according to any

In view of these selective factors the scope of this study can now be defined with greater precision: It investigates those forms of interaction between intrapsychic and social forces which result in anti-Semitism, in persons suffering from an emotional disturbance, who are aware of the disturbance and seek psychoanalytic treatment for its relief, who live at present in the New York area, and whose cases have been arbitrarily selected for contribution to this study by the cooperating psychoanalysts. 2. TuE DEVELOPMENT OF CONCEPTUAL TooLs.

Very early in the study

it became clear that some working definition of anti-Semitism was needed in order to determine whether or not a particular case was to be included. The following operational definition was adopted: Anti-Semitism is ang expression of hostility, verbal or behavioral, mild or violent, against the Jews as a group, or against an individual Jew because of his belonging to that group. This definition includes, of course, anti-Semitism that may become manifest only in the temporary "negative transference" phase to a Jewish psychoanalyst. It also includes the self-hatred type of antiSemitism that some Jews display. It will be noted that this definition is much wider than the definition of prejudice given previously. The study was begun with this broader definition for a good reason: to discover whether or not anti-Semitism is a prejudice in the psychological sense, that is, irrationally motivated, we had to extend our inquiry beyond the scope of this more limited definition.

Several psychoanalysts, mainly those who had had personal experience with Nazi anti-Semitism in Europe, felt that the broad scope of this definition was unacceptable. They refused to regard the "polite" anti-Semitism (the Gentleman's Agreement type) and the violent acts of the Nazis as expressions of the same phenomenon. Since they had not treated any anti-Semites of the latter type, they felt themselves unable to cooperate, assuming that these different forms of anti-Semitism represented distinct psychological entities which were not comparable.

In some cases, even though our definition of anti-Semitism was accepted, a preliminary discussion disclosed disagreement on the value of such an investigation from a strategic point of view, and this deprived us of the cooperation of a few more psychoanalysts. Two arguments were advanced in this connection: Some psychoanalysts, both Jews and non-

20

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

Jews, adhered to the idea that the less said about anti-Semitism, the better for its victims, and precisely because they had strong sympathies with the Jewish cause, they preferred not to cooperate in a study which in their opinion might antagonize Gentiles. The second argument concerned the question of the psychological approach to the phenomenon. Some analysts, as much concerned with the problem as those advocating a policy of silence, feared that our investigation might detract attention from the more fundamental social and economic causes of anti-Semitism. Such discussions were important in the development of concepts. The rejection of our definition as well as the rejection of the psychodynamic approach to anti-Semitism appeared to us, in a few cases, as rationalizations for the wish not to be concerned with anti-Semitism at too close a range, as an attempt to keep away from its horror and to avoid identification with its victims—in short, it seemed to be an expression of selfpreservation. The fervor of feelings of this sort expressed by some psychoanalysts gave us a dramatic demonstration of the intensely emotionalized nature of the subject of anti-Semitism. Conceptual clarification became both more difficult and more important once the readiness for cooperation had been established. The need for it was convincingly demonstrated by the great range of views among psychoanalysts concerning the frequency of anti-Semitism. While some psychoanalysts said that they had not encountered a single case of antiSemitism in all their practice, others declared that every patient they had

ever treated, whether Gentile or Jewish, showed some traces of it. Admittedly, many subjective factors enter into a psychoanalyst's selection of patients. More than one psychoanalyst, for instance, stated that he had refused treatment of violent anti-Semites. But these subjective factors in the selection of patients can hardly be regarded as the sole cause for the variety of views on the estimate of incidence. The amount of data on anti-Semitism that a prejudiced patient pro-

duces in analysis obviously depends on several factors. When antiSemitism is very near to the central personality problems or when the social conditions that go into the formation of that attitude are obvious, the amount of data will, of course, be considerable. But the amount of

data depends also on the psychoanalyst's interest and incentive for analyzing the motivation of this attitude. As the operation of this subjective factor must be assumed to have influenced the psychoanalyst's judg-

ment, his estimate cannot be taken as an objective indication of the incidence of anti-Semitic attitudes among his patients.

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

2I

From the outset, it had been our hope that the specificity of the antiSemitic reaction would be pursued in analysis—that its onset would be noted, its history traced, its symbolic role in the patient's development this was so in and its current psychological function investigated. While such detailed attenmany cases, several psychoanalysts did not accord it of our tion. In many instances what seemed to be a "neglect" in terms other, justifiable course of treatment when research project was the only first. It is conceivable, more urgent, symptoms needed to be taken up furthermore, that a successful analysis of a prejudiced person might make the prejudice disappear without ever involving a direct discussion of it. In some case histories, however, anti-Semitism may have received no attention in analysis for a different reason: peripheral anti-Semitism may have escaped the close, systematic attention of the psychoanalyst because he might have unconsciously assumed an accepting, matter-offact attitude toward this part of his patient's reactions. The same social conformity trend in psychoanalyst and patient might have induced both to regard some amount of anti-Semitism as "normal" in our culture, and not as a symptom needing special clarification. A few cases, consequently, were reported with such a paucity of relevant facts that it was necessary to exclude them from consideration. Among some psychoanalysts there was the tendency to present interpretations rather than facts. Such interpretations were given in analytic terms. At present it appears that psychoanalytic terminology is not sufficiently standardized to make such short interpretations meaningful. "Ego weakness," or other diagnostic terms were used with more or less divergent meaning by different psychoanalysts, so that it was impossible to compare any two cases on the basis of interpretative terminology. Even classical concepts like "Oedipal conflict" proved to be a handicap rather than a help. The statement, by some psychoanalysts, that antiSemitism in a given case was the result of an "Oedipal conifict," or "penis envy," represented a level of abstraction unsuited to the purposes of this research. This difficulty became especially clear in connection with our probing

for the motivation of anti-Semitism. Psychoanalysts are professionally interested mainly in the discovery of primary motivations. To them, the origin of anti-Semitism in a patient is often satisfactorily dealt with by describing it as the outcome of the Oedipal conflict. But from the point of view of this study, it is important to trace the path from primary motivation to the actual manifestation of the attitude. There are sub-

22

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

stantial reasons for the diIflculiy encountered in obtaining this type of information.

A patient who undergoes psychoanalytic treatment usually presents more data than a psychoanalyst can remember or put into notes. Short of a phonographic or stenographic record of analytic sessions (a procedure not used), nothing, not even the most painstaking note-taking, could guarantee completeness. The selective perception of a psychoanalyst while a patient is producing material is neither accidental nor arbitrary, but is influenced both by his theoretical frame of reference and his own emotional reactions. Apart from factors inherent in his personality, the selectivity in the psychoanalyst's attention is partly the expression of the vicissitudes of his professional training. This implies his acceptance of a specific theoretical system of personality dynamics, genesis, and motivation as evolved in his psychoanalytic education. Doubtless this selectivity is in itself an essential part of the therapeutic process, since the avoid-

ance of the two opposed dangers—getting lost in details or making

interpretations prematurely and thus losing the meaning of contradictory clues—is an essential part of the psychoanalyst's therapeutic skifi. Here, however, attention has been focused on the training-conditioned selectivity of the analyst's memory as one of the factors bearing upon the development of this research study.

With the exception of those patients committed to an ideology of political liberalism, who before analysis were painfully puzzled by thefr anti-Semitic prejudice, and of Jewish anti-Semites who were obviously involved in severe emotional cross-pressure, it was the psychoanalyst and not the patient who accorded the prejudice special atten-

tion. The patients, as a rule, were quite unaware that this attitude received special scrutiny. The psychoanalyst's purpose, however, was restricted to linking anti-Semitism to prime motivations. Thus he gathered data on the intrapsychic nature of the patient's confficts, and in doing so was able to discern the predisposing mechanisms for placement of hostility onto outside groups. In most of our cases the evidence for the intrapsychic determination of this particular hostility is, therefore, ample and satisfactory. This is not always the case, however, with group pressures and external stimuli which function as secondary motivation in channeling the hostility pattern into group hostility, and more specifically, into anti-Semitism.

This was especially noticeable with respect to the genetic aspect. A serious handicap in tracing the development of anti-Semitism in some of

DATA COLLECTION AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

23

external life cirthe cases is the lack of information on the history of cumstances. Often little is known about ideological influences during various stages of the patient's life: neighborhood contacts and circles of friends; the accepted norm in daily behavior that the patient shared with those around him; the first contacts with Jews, and the atmosphere of such contacts, at home or at school; books and newspapers read; group affiliations of the patient in various stages of his life; work conditions, economic problems and adjustments. In short, little is known about the daily experience of life unless it was conflict-laden and a significant expression of the patient's intrapsychic life. The task of the psycho-

analyst is to reveal to the patient where attitudes and early acquired behavior patterns have shaped his life. But the direction and coercion, overt or silent, that a person experiences under the conditions of modern civilization are too much taken for granted, and the individual slants they take in each case frequently do not receive special attention. As has been pointed out, this was one of the reasons for including cases from social-service agencies which are, by definition, more concerned with external life circumstances. The extent of this "neglect" varies considerably in individual histories. Well-advanced current cases proved to be more useful than those already terminated. Those for which notes had been taken were more useful than those in which the psychoanalyst had relied on memory alone. It is almost superfluous to add that those psychoanalysts who considered anti-Semitism "nonnal" had less data on the history of its development than those who regarded it as having irrational roots both

in society and in the psyche. Hence, each individual case was in some way incomplete. But every one which was finally included had demonstrated at least some aspects of the psychodynamics of prejudice. This brings us to the last, and most difficult, methodological problem, that of the interpretation of the necessarily uneven data. It lies in the nature of case history material that the elaboration of common basic elements is fraught with difficulties. The more detailed the information available, the more the unique qualities of each case stand out. That is why the attempt to emphasize some basic common elements for the purpose of comparison always implies the potential danger of a violation of facts. There is, furthermore, the dilemma of fixing the level of common denominators neither too low nor too high; for if fixed too low, the material becomes meaningless because it includes features corn-

24

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

mon to every psychological conffict, and if fixed too high, no case could

be compared with another. The guiding principle for the following formulations has been the attempt to evolve a meaningful syndrome of personality reactions even at the risk of not accounting in detail for those cases which do not manifest all elements of the syndrome.

CHAPTER III THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

A. THE CLINICAL PICTURE 1. DrGNosIs AND SYMPTOMS. An examination of the clinical diagnoses of these psychoanalytic patients reveals that anti-Semitism is not the concomitant of any one clinical category of personality disturbance. The diagnoses cover a wide range of disturbances. Anti-Semitic reactions are found in psychoneurotics of various types; in character disorders, perhaps more particularly of the sado-masochistic type; in psychopathic and psychotic personalities as well as in others with less precisely defined disturbances.1 The range of symptoms that led the patient to consult with a psychoanalyst or a social-service agency was, of course, even wider. It was striking to observe that many of the symptoms presented

by these patients were vague, and relatively lacking in structure and form.

On the whole, the complaints concerned a feeling of insecurity, loneliness, unhappiness, confusion, difficulty in finding friends or establishing a satisfactory sex life, absence or vagueness of life goals, inability to maintain interest, etc. Even in the few instances where the symptoms were concrete—the case material includes a few phobics, overt homosexuals, and alcoholics—the patients were apparently less troubled by the existence of some obvious disturbance than by the absence of something else which they could describe only in vague terms. One of the homosexuals, for example, consulted a psychoanalyst not because he wished to rid himself of his homosexuality, but because he felt a lack of fulfillment. Another patient, suffering from impotence, sought psychi-

atric help only out of a sense of duty to his wife, for he felt no conscious urge to be cured in this respect. In this broad range of diagnoses and vague symptoms, however, one type of disturbance becomes conspicuous through its absence. None of the cases manifested a genuine, deep depression. The absence of a uniform terminology, together with the fact that no clear-cut diagnosis was available in several cases, prevents a systematic account in this respect. 25

26

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

The material is, of course, unsuitable for drawing conclusions on a statistical basis about the incompatability of anti-Semitic reactions and a genuine depression. But the qualitative insight gained from the study of

all cases leads us to believe that the absence of depression in the material is more than an accident due to the limited number of cases. For the existence of an anti-Semitic reaction presupposes a tendency to blame the outside world rather than one's own self, and, dynamically, such a tendency is in contradiction to the self-destructive features of a genuine depression. It would seem that when the focus of punitive tendencies is directed back towards the self, the basis for anti-Semitic aggression no longer exists. The incompatibility of the simultaneous exis-

tence of anti-Semitism and a depression, with its classical dynamics of oppressive guilt and self-blame, does not preclude, of course, a depressive reaction before or after anti-Semitic manifestations in one and the

same individual. Such alternate patterns of depressive moods and outbursts of anti-Semitism were indeed reported in a few cases.2 While there is no correlation between anti-Semitism and the specific type of clinical diagnosis or specific symptoms, there is in general a correlation between the quality of personality distortion and the quality of antiSemitic behavior. The intensity and violence of anti-Semitic attitudes, as might have been expected, is in harmony with the degree of disturbance of a given personality. For example a man with some paranoid tendencies (Case I O) expressed the violent anti-Semitic feelings. He talked for hours about his raging hatred for the Jews. He exclaimed: ". . . a flare of anti-Semitism may come. I would welcome it. I wouldn't mind seeing the Jews slaughtered . . I'd kill all the Jews and Communists before they attacked me.. . the Jew is deformed.. . debased; . they are too intelligent, too powerful, they ally with the Negroes and spur them to revolt On the other hand, a patient (Case 18), with only limited disturbances which did not interfere with the functioning of his personality in obvious ways, and whose analysis was successfully terminated, acted throughout life as a champion of the Jews and all other suppressed groups. It was only in analysis, or when under the influence of alcohol, that he used the term "dirty Jew." .

•

Thus, the most crude and irrational forms of anti-Semitism have been linked correctly with psychopathic and paranoid personalities. Milder exanti-Semitism in such cases may well be regarded as an unconscious attempt to escape depression by changing the target for the accumulated hostility will become clearer when we discuss the function of anti-Semitism.

This case has been published elsewhere in full. See: Ackerman, Nathan W., M.D.: "Anti-Semitic motivation in a psychopathic personality: A case study," The Psychoanalytic Review, 34: 1, 1947.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

27

pressions of anti-Semitic attitudes occur in less sick personalities. The common denominator is, then, not a similarity of specific psychiatric symptoms, and certainly not an identical clinical diagnosis. The common denominator lies on a deeper level. It consists of the common presence of certain emotional predispositions. These must of necessity be general in nature, since they run across the entire range of psychiatric classifications. And these character tendencies and reactions, furthermore, are not in themselves necessarily specific for the production of anti-Semitism—they may as well be the dynamic basis for other irrational group hostifities. Undoubtedly, they can exist without anti-Semitism. But in our case studies, at least, anti-Semitism did not exist without these traits and dispositions.

An analogy might clarify this relationship: a child in a destructive tan-

trum must choose as the target for his destructive hate a person or an object which his mother has allowed to be part of his environment. The release of his destructive feelings is possible only if he discovers a suitable object within this limited range of choice. In some cases, almost anything within reach might do; in other cases, the child's specific mood and

motivation will determine his particular choice among the available objects. A person manifesting the character tendencies and reactions we are about to describe will, in similar fashion, select as the target for his attack something, or someone, made available by his culture. But here, too, there is often a relation between the specific motivation for hostility and the choice of the victim. In both cases, it is true, the choice is limited by external factors. But availability alone wifi not incite attack unless there are certain emotional predispositions. The predispositions are, then, a necessary, though not a sufficient cause for the development of antiSemitism.

What are these emotional predispositions and the related character traits? 2. EMOTIONAL PREDISPOSITIONS TO ANTI-SEMITISM.

a. Anxietj. As is characteristic of analytic patients, all the individuals

included in this study suffered from anxiety. In most instances, however, a large component of the anxiety was of a special nature: it was diffuse, pervasive, relatively unorganized, and not adequately channelized through specific symptom-formation. Generally it was not experienced as a conscious dread but manifested itself indirectly in various forms of social discomfort and disability. (This has already been indicated in dis-

28

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

cussing the vagueness of complaints and symptoms that these patients presented as motives for treatment.) A few illustrations of this pervasive anxiety may clarify the matter. Case 4: This woman patient manifests diffuse fear. She is uncertain and anxious about all aspects of herself. She is disturbed by her failure to get mar-

ried. She is nervous about her work performance. She is concerned about "Democratic Party" election victories. In short, every event serves as a means for attaching her anxiety to a pseudorealistic cause. Case 29: This man feels anxious about not having any friends, and lacks confidence in everybody. He fears women but, nevertheless, likes to pose as a great success with them. Though qualified, he is reluctant to accept a job for fear of not measuring up to it, and this fear characterizes him—he is afraid of failure, afraid of conflict, afraid of responsibilities. He does not know what to do or where to go or with whom to discuss his situation.

This continuous apprehension of injury throws over the lives of such persons a constant shadow; apparently they can perceive nothing in the

world around them except danger. If other people suffer, they react not with sympathy but rather with the fear that they too are destined for the same suffering. Such an unsympathetic and self-centered view of the world is illustrated by Case 12. This young Jewish woman is deeply anti-Semitic. She underwent a nose operation, and wore a cross-like ornament with the wish to be taken for a Christian. To her, all Jews are "dirty and objectionable." Whenever the Nazi

atrocities were mentioned in her presence, she trembled in uncontrollable fear. There was in her attitude no trace of sympathy with the victims, but a deep irrational conviction that every form of injury and persecution would sooner or later be aimed at her.

In other cases, patients display multiple and varied fears: fear of diverse forms of authority, of being hurt or becoming impotent, of being imposed upon in their professional fields, and so on. Socially, economically, emotionally, and sexually, they are plagued by this exaggerated sense of vulnerability. Often, these fears are not apparent on the surface, but analysis reveals their existence under a façade of superficial self-confidence. The general picture is one of weakness and incompleteness in total personality organization, and fear of injury in a vast variety of social contexts. Because of their inner weakness and negligible insight, these patients view the outer world as hostile, evil, and inexplicably hard. They fail to see any relation between their own personalities and whatever difficulties they experience. This is, of course, the result of projection—which will be discussed later.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

29

Authors of detective stories and murder mysteries know as well as psychiatrists that nothing is more terrifying than the unknown danger. When the dark and uncanny enemy becomes identified and can then be labeled, tension subsides even though the real danger may still exist in a quite different direction. It will be well to remember this in order to understand why people who suffer from such pervasive, diffuse anxiety cling tenaciously and irrationally to their anti-Semitism, once they have mistakenly come to regard the Jews as the cause of the evil. Unfortunately

for them, notwithstanding this specious identification of the "enemy," the anxiety persists. b. Confusion of the Concept of Self. Plagued by a vague apprehension of the world at large, these patients seem to derive little, if any, strength from their own personal identity. So confused and vague is their self-image that they do not seem to know who or what they are, what they desire, and what they can forego. This confusion carries over directly to the roles they play in life. With little regard for facts and the external situation of their lives they waver between feelings of inferiority

and superiority; between regarding themselves as strong or weak, and between considering themselves as members of this or that group, or as completely isolated human beings. In some cases they do not even waver between extremes; they simply fail entirely to organize their psychological identity. A bizarre, and at the same time, revealing example of this confusion of identity is offered by a patient (Case 2) who in his youth maintained the fantasy that he was not conceived and born in the natural way but was the result of a chemical experiment. So deep was his confusion that not even in the biological sense could he identify himself with other human beings. When he indulged in this fantasy, he saw himself outside the human species; at other times he made a supreme conscious effort to convince himself that he was human.

In another example (Case 30), a woman achieved an extraordinary rise in social status, emerging from the worst slum conditions of poverty and crime to gain a well-paid position as an executive.5 She was beset by anxiety, not knowing whether she belonged to the misery of her childhood or to the luxury of her early adult life. In the course of attempts to escape this conflict, she became unhappy and turned to alcoholism. This was terminated through prolonged hospitalization, but since the basic confusion of her self-image remained, she This case has been published elsewhere in full. See: Bak, Robert C., M.D.: "Masochism in paranoia," The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 15:8, 1946. The relationship of radical upward social mobility to the development of antiSemitic attitudes has been documented by Bettelheim, Bruno, and Janowitz, Morris, in Dynamics of Prejudice, Vol. 2 in this series.

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

30

soon hit upon anti-Semitism as another and equally spurious means to escape this conflict.

Changing life circumstances, as in this last case, are frequently made the surface symbols to which the patients attach their deep-rooted confusion about their own identity. Another woman (Case 1), had spent many years of her childhood and youth in Europe. When she returned to America, her native country, she did not know

whether to regard herself as a European or as an American. She consciously regarded this as an extremely difficult and painful position in life, about which she worried a good deal, without being aware that the surface character of this conflict was rooted in something more fundamental within her personality.

In this and similar cases a curious phenomenon can be observed: These patients do not seem to have achieved a clear separation of their indlvidual selves from the surrounding world. Unable to define clearly their individuality or at least to recognize themselves as comparatively stable entities, they attempt to achieve stability by utilizing props selected from the external situation. When they resort to one after another of a series of such props without effecting relief of emotional tension, doubts about

the identity of the self become painfully and plainly exposed. External life circumstances, however, have a double function in relation to the confused self-image of these patients. On the one hand, they form a constituent part of that self-image because no clear separation of the self from the external world has been achieved, and consequently as the situation changes, the self-image will inevitably shift and become confused. On the other hand, external life circumstances are used as convenient rationalizations for the origin of the identity conflict. Apparently the discomfort of not knowing who one is, as a self, becomes easier to face if the causes of this confusion can be attributed to outside factors.°

The existence of conspicuous differences between a patient's mother and father often serves as a convenient basis for rationalizing the patient'& conflict concerning his identity. Those whose parents were of different national origins, different social or economic backgrounds, or different religious affiliations, readily exploited these factors in building rationalizations for their conflicts.

In doing so, the patients are indeed very near to the cause of their troubles. The identity conflict within the individual is closely linked to °The tendency to blame the outside world rather than oneself accompanies all the reactions of the anti-Semite. We have mentioned it when discussing the incompatibility of depression and anti-Semitism; we meet it here and we shall find it later, as a dominant defense mechanism of these patients.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

the process of identification with the parents in early childhood. However, it is not the actual difference of group membership of the parents, but rather the basic emotional clash between them which accounts for the failure of the identification process and the resulting confused selfimage. This aspect of the phenomenon is elaborated more clearly later, in the section dealing with the genesis of anti-Semitism. These feelings of inner doubt and ambivalence toward one's own self are frequently too painful to be accepted without compensatory efforts.

Inferiority, weakness, dependency, a tendency toward compulsive submissiveness and basic passivity, are often concealed from the world and even from one's own consciousness. The apparent substitute for such awareness is a tendency toward compensatory self-aggrandizement. A few examples might illustrate such frantic attempts at ego-inflation. One woman (Case 1), tries to create the impression wherever she goes that she is a member of the social elite, although she knows very well—and suffers from the knowledge—that she is not. She takes great pains with her outward appearance, devoting considerable attention to clothes, coiffure, and cosmetics, trying to appear young and attractive, although actually she regards herself as neither. Another patient (Case 2), whose conflict of identity is manifested in the

phantasy of a "test tube" birth, thereby revealing that he considers himself banished from all humanity, is well aware of his deep anxieties. He has one overpowering wish—to appear to be a "normal," strong, and successful person. A third person (Case 15), lives as if he were an established and recognized member of the elite. He sees himself as popular with men and women and sought after by many social circles. Actually, he cannot remain for more than a short period with any group, since his alcoholism and homosexuality lead to repeated and unequivocal rejections. But neither these rejections nor his lack of friends seem to whittle down his habitually excessive self-aggrandizement.

One stinking manifestation of the confusion of the self-image is the tendency toward homosexuality. While there are only two instances of overt homosexuality, and one of bisexual behavior in our material, the fear of homosexual inclinations plays a considerable role in many cases. More or less openly admitted to consciousness, the fear of homosexual tendencies drives men and women to leave colleges or their jobs. It goaded one woman into wild promiscuity as a preventive measure to keep her from the danger of becoming involved with other women. Often it makes men fight against the authority of their superiors.

But it would be erroneous to establish a direct link between homosexuality and anti-Semitic attitudes, as has occasionally been done. Anti-

32

ANTI—SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

Semitism and homosexuality are related only to the extent that they are expressions of the same basic conflict: the confusion about one's own identity and the struggle with one's basic passivity. Both homosexuals and anti-Semites are confused about their identity; both want to deny their basic passive urgings. But these are two distinct expressions of one and the same underlying conflict; each may emerge independent of the other or both may appear simultaneously. Furthermore, there are, as has been shown, many other ways in which a confusion of the self-image can be manifested. Whatever the manifestation, however, such persons are particularly sensitive to the possession by anyone else of an unequivocal identity. Organized anti-Semitism, for example, has always shown an irrational concern for establishing Jewish identity. The Nazi regime, to achieve this end, employed the yellow stripe, the investigation of "Jewish blood" as far back as three generations, and the formulation of a pseudoscientific racial mythology in which a "Jewish race" could be labeled. The same irrational concern with Jewish identity is displayed by the American antiSemite, who as likely as not, will claim the ability to identify a Jew by looking at him. One patient, a commuter, whiled away the time during his regular train trips by "smelling out" Jews, and he reported greater success in this venture during the summer months. The function of this concern with Jewish identity will become clearer as we proceed. e. Interpersonal Relation& Because the self-image is unstable and confused, it is extremely difficult for these anti-Semitic personalities to achieve satisfactory interpersonal relationships. At best their capacities

permit them to establish little more than immature and incomplete human relationships. Such .precarious relationships are continuously endangered by attitudes of overaggressiveness or overdependence, both of which serve to estrange the other person. What is worse, often there is not even the capacity for such tentative, incomplete relationships, since fear and mistrust of other people make some of these patients uneasy, shy, and awkward in company. Quite a few have never known a relationship deeper than that of casual acquaintance. One woman (Case 1) who had shown a certain amount of surface aggressiveness in the achievement of her ambitious professional ends, is so distrustful of people that, apart from her work, she has scarcely any human contacts. Through her rigidity and timidity, she frightens people off, especially men. She cannot bear being close to anyone and particularly she hates the idea of sharing living

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

33

quarters. Nevertheless, she suffers so deeply from utter loneliness that she believes the one thing worse than being a Jew is being an unloved woman.

Another patient (Case 2), is also oppressed by loneliness. His fundamental isolation started early in life when he considered himself an outcast in his own family. He never had boyhood friends nor any friends in later life. Although he had numerous sexual relationships, they never involved his tender emotions and offered but momentary relief for his aloneness. Despite all his longing for human contact, he becomes intensely belligerent at the slightest provocation— often without provocation.

Others have a more successful mechanism for disguising their incapacity to establish genuine relationships. But at best such disguises deceive the outer world and sometimes the self; they never lead to the establishment of warm, human relations. A man (Case 11), has a fine reputation for civic responsibility and leadership in his community. Hundreds of people come to him to discuss issues and seek his advice, but to him all this is nothing but a duty. He remains detached' and isolated, without any warmth, and gains small satisfaction from his popularity. At the height of his successful business career he now has only one wish, which reveals his deep resignation: he wants to retire as soon as possible.

The admission of such resignation is rare. Generally the patients make frantic efforts to establish human contacts, but their deep-rooted doubts about themselves frustrate their attempts even before they get started. Unwittingly they destroy every incipient relationship by wavering between extremes of behavior. One woman (Case 4), uses the same pattern over and over again. She attracts men through her seemingly submissive behavior, but as soon as they respond, she becomes aggressively hostile, refusing herself at the very last moment. She draws pleasure only from the fact that she has put a man "in his place," that she has "castrated" him. Yet she is unable to understand why no lasting relationship develops.

Shifts between ingratiating and aggressive behavior, shifts which are hardly related to the real situation but are produced mainly as a result of deep-lying insecurity and emotional confusion, lead to repeated failures

in social and personal contacts. The result of such failure is increased emotional isolation.

d. Conformity and the Fear of the Different. The absence of warm human relationships causes these patients shame and suffering. Consequently, what they cannot achieve within themselves they pretend to achieve on the social level by putting up a "good front" of sociability.

34

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

Ca8e 10 illustrates this point. On the surface, in group meetings, this man successfully pretends to belong whole-heartedly to a social circle. Indeed, he created that circle himself. He is polite, conforming to his group's standards, and he manages to make others believe in his interest and enthusiasm for people. Analysis reveals a very different picture. This man has renounced all values that signify a genuine group belongingness. He is convinced that "ours is not a loving world, it is absurd to think it ever could be. . . . I have nothing to give to this world . . . I have no faith in love or friendliness." He emphasizes in analysis that he has no interest in humanity, and that money is the only real security, with which one can buy service and devotion.

In most cases the strong emphasis on conformity to group standards is basically as shallow as it is in the above case. Ordinarily, this type of person seeks to reap the rewards of social conformity, but unconsciously his fear of submission is too great. His striving for acceptance is governed by the desire to appear like everyone else rather than to achieve genuine identification, and frequently he shifts from one group to another, overprotesting the strength of his allegiance to this or that cause according to the immediate situation. To the person beset by such a conflict concerning group adherence, those people who are supposedly "different," and who in addition do not seem to wish to abandon their difference, are an eternal source of provocation. The Jews appear to the anti-Semite as different from himself, and yet they appear to be alike among themselves. Hence qualities of uncanniness are attributed to Jews.7 On the one hand they seem to have the courage to be different; on the other, they seem also to succeed in being identified within a group. The very existence of the Jews, then, is a constant and painful reminder of the anti-Semite's own emotional deficiencies.

That is why the fear of the "different" is not in proportion to the extent of the objective, measurable difference.8 Rather it is in proportion to the emotional deficiency which produces the need for conformity and belonging. The "difference," as a result, is subjectively translated into an attack on group identity; the "difference" is consequently exaggerated, and the fear increases. Those anti-Semites who habitually assert that "some of my best friends are Jews" demonstrate their intolerance and extraordinary sensitiveness to "difference" by this transparent denial of hostility. The actual differThis quality of uncanniness is probably the result of unconscious projection on Jews which will be discussed later.

8 This idea has been formulated in an article by Ernst Kris. See: Kris, Ernst:

"Notes on the psychology of prejudice," The English Journal 35:6, 1946.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

35

does not register with them; it never crosses the threshold of their perception. They determine what Jewishness means according to their own arbitrary standard. Such a Jewish friend may be Jewish looking or non-Jewish looking, rich or poor, a native American or foreign-born, an assimilated or a non-assimilated Jew, and so on. These dichotomies can, of course, be combined in all variations, and produce different external stimuli. But, again, the reaction to "difference" is not in proportion to actual measurable degrees of difference, but rather to the implied threat to self-esteem contained in any difference. All prejudiced persons insist on conformity within their own group to the extent of trying to destroy the nonconformist. The "difference" of the outsider, on the other hand, has a special significance; it is exaggerated because it serves a specific psychological function. By emphasizing this "difference," the prejudiced person achieves, at least negatively, a sense of identification with his own group. By conforming to Group A, he gets at least the false security of feeling that he is not a member of the supposedily inferior Group B. Within his own ranks, however, to assert difference is hazardous. This insistence on conformity in one's own group is paired, on a deeper level, with an unconscious wish to rebel against one's own group. Since conformity connotes surrender of individuality, a person who represents "difference," even though passively, symbolizes strength, maturity, independence, superiority, and the ability to stand up against others unashamed of his own "difference." Such a person immediately looms as dangerous. He must not be tolerated in the ranks of the "ordinar,r" people but must be made an outsider. For the prejudiced person cannot bear the implied comparison. Because of the inherent weakness of his own self-image, the "different" person represents a potential menace to his own integrity—or whatever there is left of it—as an individual. The inevitable response is to attack the menace, the person who symbolence

izes difference.

"If only the Jews behaved like everybody else!" This frequent statement of the apparently reasonable anti-Semite, with its emphasis on conformity rather than on inherent merits or deficiencies of behavior, is an unconscious betrayal of what is wrong in himself. In one case, (11), where the phrase, "If only the Jews behaved like everybody else" was repeatedly used by the patient, the link between anti-Semitism, the surface wish for conformity and group-identification (coupled with the in-

36

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

ability to achieve it), and the resulting attitude of rejection of the "different," was particularly clear. To all appearances the patient was a highly successful businessman and a leading citizen in his community. He came to analysis because of his sexual impotence. At first he denied all anxiety about this symptom, maintaining that he was a happy, well-adjusted person who sought a cure only because he wanted to be fair to his wife. Although he had innumerable acquaintances and a busy social life, he had never developed an attitude of warm friendship. He played the role of leader and "trouble shooter," a fact which disguised to a certain extent his essential emotional isolation. This man accused the Jews of being emotional, uncontrolled, aggressive, and ill-mannered, in addition to being shrewd, capable, persistent, and industrious. Analysis revealed that early in life this patient had started to repress all emotion. His mother was a dominant woman whose rigid religiosity banned all feelings of ease and relaxation. Not even laughter was permitted in her house, and under her influence, emotionality and sex became symbols of evil. As a boy, the patient lived as though pleasure and "goodness" were incompatible. Pleasure was reprehensible and he decided in favor of goodness. But the repression was incomplete; and impotence, as the manifestation of the unsuccessful repression, was revealed in analysis to be accompanied by deep-seated anxiety about the threat of injury in sexual relations. Jews, who supposedly have the same abilities—persistence, shrewdness, intelligence— which the patient valued in himself, presented a source of deep irritation because they had apparently resolved the false conflict which had governed his

life. To him, they had the courage to be emotional, uncontrolled, and yet somehow "good." The injury to his self-esteem implied in this comparison was too strong to be faced. Therefore he defended himself by hating the Jews, and by an insistence upon conformity.

e. Reality Adaptation. The emotional deficiencies of these patients,

extending beyond the sphere of human relations, seem also to have impaired their capacity to establish a satisfactory relationship with external objects. Their very perception of reality is vague, dull, and indefinitely formed. Since there is nothing that interests them for its own sake, they rarely know what to do with themselves in their spare time. Drabness permeates their entire emotional adaptation to reality. Their affective responses seem shallow and colorless, and quite often restricted. In the analytic situation, however, they occasionally become imagina-

tively affective when they are dominated by the urge to restructure reality in accordance with their unconscious needs; such affective excitements often color the expression of their anti-Semitism. When it seems to them that they have discovered the Jew as the source of all evil, they resemble schizophrenics who have suddenly seen the light. In such fu-

tile attempts to restructure reality, they approach a state that is not so

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

37

much neurotic as psychotic.9 And yet so thoroughly imbued by drabness are some of these patients that they cannot produce the semblance of strong affects even against the Jew. Apart from such outlets as anti-Semitism provides, this lusterless quality prevails generally in such patients. It is not surprising that no evidence of clearly defined life-goals can be found in these persons. Unaware of what they want, they seem vaguely concerned with impotent desires to establish their relationship to the outside world.

In superficial contrast to this picture of general dullness and lack of spontaneity is the fact that these persons seem to have the trappings of success in at least the economic sphere. On closer inspection, however, it appears that they hang on to their professional activities not so much because of real interest in what they are doing but rather because the prescribed routine of a working day gives them the emotional support that they lack in themselves. Not the satisfaction of a job well done, but routine—and especially earning money—are the ends-in-themselves by which these individuals are dominated. The extent of their reliance on strivings for control and power is, of course, a clear indication of their basic insecurity. Bitterly competitive in feeling, they have an extraor-

dinarily low tolerance for realistic competition. They require proof that their rival is completely crushed. One woman patient (Case 1), had changed her profession four times, starting on a subordinate level and changing into related fields with superior status and prestige. Nevertheless, she does not seem to derive any gratification from her success or from the exercise of her professional skill. Although past forty, she is giving time and energy to training in order to achieve an even more finportant position. But, once achieved, this highly craved position loses it value for lack of any meaningful relationship to her way of living. Keeping herself occupied is important as a means of overcoming the drabness of her life. Since she treats work as a substitute for emotional depth, activity means everything to her and genuine achievement nothing. This woman accuses the Jews of being social climbers, vulgar, "pushers," low-class people who really do not belong in good society. According to her, they force an illegitimate entrance. Her rejec-

tion of the Jews is thus based on their alleged achievements and her deeprooted envy of their success in a sphere in which she herself vainly seeks gratification.

The selective perception of reality, described earlier, is thus matched by a selective adaptation to it. Although the break with reality is never complete, the rift is deep; so deep that such persons can hardly escape ° See

in this connection Simmel, Ernst (ed.): Anti-Semitism: A Social Disease,

New York, International Universities Press, 1936.

38

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

awareness of its existence. From this stems the frantic attempt to restore spontaneous contact with the real world. Anti-Semitic attitudes, however futile, signify one of these disguised attempts. f. Conscience Development and Repression. One further facet of the reaction pattern which characterizes these prejudiced persons is the quality of their conscience. Generally speaking, there is little evidence of a consistent value system protected by a well-developed conscience. Gen-

uine guilt feelings are sometimes entirely absent.'° More specifically, most of the patients do not appear to have overt guilt feelings about their anti-Semitism. (An interesting exception occurs, however, with that small number of persons who are committed to an ideology of political liberalism. These people do feel ashamed of their anti-Semitism.)1' Even apart from their absent or deficient sense of guilt about their antiSemitism, the political "liberals" and other anti-Semites provide ample evidence of an insufficient conscience development. Often not even the most elementary standards of decency are maintained, as abundant examples make clear. There is the wealthy businessman who cheats his newspaper dealer out of small change; the father who happily eats the candies

which have been entrusted to him for his children; the mother who leaves her small child alone at home because she feels like going for a walk. One patient, with great delight, reported to his analyst a fantasy, stimulated by his wife's slight indisposition, in which he imagined that she would die, and that he would then be able to sell her recently purchased mink coat. The price of fur coats having risen, he reveled in the idea of the profit he could make in this manner. In other cases, there is a definite guilt reaction which may perhaps be substantial in intensity, but which is unreliable and fickle in kind. This type of guilt reaction is often treacherous in interpersonal relations. In such cases, people tend to equate the Jews with their own conscience to

whatever extent it has been developed, only to reject both. This is most clearly expressed in the case of one woman patient, who sadly neglected her child. She had a great deal of personal contact with both Jews and Irish. "The Irish," she said, "want me to play and enjoy myself. The Jews want me to work, to be serious and punctual." Actually, in her way of life she followed the "Irish" (or what she believed to be "Irish") rather than the ways of the "Jews." This woman had a conscience, but it failed to operate in the discharge of her maternal responsibilities. 10 Hence the lack of genuine depression. A more detailed discussion of this group is reserved for the section dealing with group pressures.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

39

Another patient (Case 3), highly successful in a business career, hates the Jews for being shams and fakers who attained lofty positions by unfair means. What she projects onto the Jews is precisely what her conscience blames her for doing in her own career. She regards herself as a fake in the "successful" external aspects of her life. From one point of view, she is right. She pretends to be ambitious and serious, but in her deeper motivation she leans the other way. She is compelled by her conscience to make this pretense, but inwardly such behavior is conspicuously lacking in conviction. This contradiction in her personality derives from her relationship to her father. The guiding principle of her life was to do everything different from the way in which her father did

it; he was easy-going, unambitious, and irresponsible. Beneath her surface gestures of earnest endeavor, she has a deep craving to be like him and accepted by him. The pretense of contrast to her father serves her purposes, no matter by what means it is achieved. The fickleness of her conscience is demonstrated by the fact that she, nevertheless, continued to do what she knows she should not do. This evidence seems to point to an incomplete process of internalization of conscience.

Psychoanalytic theory suggests that in such patients the process of repression in some measure fails—a trend that seems to be borne out by the evidence of our case studies. The effort to prevent a particular impulse from entering consciousness is never sufficiently strong or consistent. Hence the frequent changes in manifest behavior between attempts to be ingratiating—a temporary repression—and overt hostility —the breaking through of the repressed. The effort involved in these frequent shifts, together with the difficulties created in human relationships by such unreliable and unpredictable responses, imposes considerable strain. Nothing is more understandable than the relief that such persons experience when they are under no social compulsion to repress hostility. Perhaps this is what occurs in some subcultures in the United States where anti-Semitism meets with no disapproval. Since the effort of repression is not required, there is no pain experienced in the failure to repress. In these instances, externalized and pseudo-objectively justified anti-Semitism serves as a safety valve—here one can let oneself go without getting into inner conflict.

Thus far we have described some of the emotional predispositions common to all of our cases. Each of these individuals is plagued by pervasive anxiety. Deeply confused in his own self-image, he derives no strength from his personal identity with which to face a menacing world. His personal relationships are shallow and unsatisfying. His group relations are characterized by an exaggerated surface conformity, beneath

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

40

which lurks a primitive, untamed hostility. Within his group the slightest indication of nonconformity appears as a threat. Outside his group, differences are exaggerated. Lacking a basis of genuine identification, he tends in a compensatory way to define his group status by reference to qualities

he does not actually possess. He achieves only a partial adaptation to reality, and is unable to develop spontaneous and genuine personal relationships. His conscience is underdeveloped and unreliable, his repressions incomplete and inecient, thereby necessitating recourse to the laborious tasks of conscious suppression.12 The full psychodynamic picture

wifi emerge only after the genetic aspects of anti-Semitism and the defenses against anxiety have been discussed. In the foregoing description of the emotional factors which predispose

the individual toward anti-Semitism, it has often been necessary to isolate emotional tendencies for the purpose of systematic presentation. It is self-evident, however, that they do not exist as isolated traits at all, but are dynamically interrelated within the personality. By way of dem-

onstrating this interdependence, a clinical picture of one patient will now be given in some detail before proceeding to the discussion of the genetic aspects of anti-Semitism. (Case 1): The patient is an unmarried woman of forty—tall, slim, and fair. Of her four sisters and two brothers, only two are married. Both parents were Protestants and exceedingly religious; her father was born in the United States, and her mother, the daughter of a clergyman, was born in Germany. Anti-Semitism here seems to be an expression of this patient's envy of the social status achieved by other people, especially by Jews. She assumes that the Jews are "low-class" people, that they are climbers who want to get ahead and improve their position. They do not belong in good society, but somehow worm their way into it, being "vulgar enough to push." (Thus they achieve a

status which she thinks is denied her.) In the negative phase of the transference she implied that the psychoanalyst himself came from the slums and concealed that fact by wearing good clothes. It was very diflicult for her, however, to voice her anti-Semitism. On occasion it would take her as much as fifteen minutes to formulate and express such a sentiment. She was born and raised in Bucharest, where her father taught at a theological school. She considers that her parents' marriage was an unhappy one. Her mother had married a man fifteen years older than herself in order to escape the domination of her own father. She had enjoyed her many children while

they were suckling babes, but had later regarded them as nuisances. The household had been dominated by her, with the father, a mild man, having 12

Recently,

Jean Sartre, in his Portrait of an Anti-Semite, has given an intuitive

description which contains many similarities to ours.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

41

little to say. The patient was outwardly submissive to her mother but inwardly rebellious. She felt unable to compete with her many sisters. She thought of

herself as a bad daughter and had feelings of guilt because of her hostility towards her mother and because she felt she had let her father down in what she termed a "war" against her mother. Outside the home, however, her father enjoyed considerable prestige as an American in European society, a feeling which the patient shared while growing up. Her father discouraged normal sex attitudes in his daughters, saying that a woman ought to think about being valuable to society rather than about marriage. Even when the patient was a mere child, he scolded her for showing affection toward a young man. In her childhood the family atmosphere encouraged an intense emotional

attitude towards Jesus. Life was a series of repentances in the sense that naughtiness was followed by reconciliation with Jesus. (Although she is a deeply religious person her feelings about God are ambivalent.) She is now a member of the Episcopal Church, which appeals to her especially because of the ritual of communion whereby she believes that she is forgiven for her sins; she receives communion infrequently, however, since guilt feelings are strongly

associated with it. She is otherwise not interested in the church services. Though attracted by Catholicism, she has resisted conversion. Her anti-Semitism, however, is never expressed in a religious context. She came to this country for her college education, and when faced with the choice of a women's or a coeducational college, she chose the former, taking a course in nursing. She became a nursing companion in a private family, and while there she had a flirtation with a man in the household but this did not eventuate in complete sexual experience. Nevertheless, her guilt feelings as a result of this incident were so strong that she left the family.

After several years at this kind of work, she felt that God wanted her to study social work and in spite of feeling some inner resistance, she attended school and received her diploma when in her thirties. Approaching forty, she decided on psychoanalytic treatment for two reasons: she recognized the poverty of her social relationships and she thought also that it would help her professionally. Her first choice, a non-Jewish doctor, was too busy and recommended the present psychoanalyst. Simply by coming to this country, the patient had lost the social prestige she had enjoyed abroad, and as a consequence has felt underprivileged. This has represented a severe and continuous hurt to her self-esteem, since her main pride is in her family and social position. In fact, she has never been able to decide whether her status here is that of a visitor or a permanent resident. Toward authority and toward those in her profession who display hostility, she is quite submissive. This pattern originated in her early family relationships, and though it is a source of annoyance, she is unable to do anything to change it. Her chief problem is a lack of aggressive courage and a lack of self-confi-

dence. The structure of her character is determined by her envy and her attitude toward this envy. She had always wanted to be a man, and feels that

42

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

being a woman is a disadvantage. Her envy of the social status of other people, especially of the Jew, is a special version of this feeling. More recently the patient met a Jewish man at a party. She had her first complete sexual experience with this man, with whom she considered herself to be deeply in love. She invested him with the role of a superior person, and had he loved her she thought she would have been very happy. But this phantasy was never fulfilled. After this sexual experience, the patient experienced profound guilt towards her unmarried sisters. There seemed to be a tacit agreement that none would do anything to arouse the envy of the others, and this particularly applied to

marriage. There is one married sister whom the patient envies because she has children. As for the other members of the family, there are indications that they, like the patient, have never had an adequate sexual adjustment. Apparently, the sisters also manifest the same type of anti-Semitism as the patient. Some years ago, the patient had a very close woman friend, with whom she lived. There was an element of homosexuality in this friendship, though never overt. During the analysis she started another relationship with a much younger woman towards whom she feels ambivalent because this friend is young and has several men friends. Her own attitude towards sex is highly ambivalent;

consciously she wanted to have sex relations but she has made it practically impossible for all but the most aggressive men to approach her. She has severe conflicts about masturbation. Somehow she does not seem to accept love, yet she insists on remaining attractive and becomes upset when she considers that she may be unacceptable to men. She thinks that it is bad enough to be a woman, but to be an unloved woman is even worse than to be a Jew.

On the surface, the patient chose a polite form of "country-club" antiSemitism. It does not play an important part in her conscious life, nor is it in its present form socially dangerous. Nevertheless, her anti-Semitism is deeply linked with the neurotic conflicts in her personality. In all her human relationships she is utterly insecure. She is upset by the idea of people living with her, and she does not allow them to come close to her. From this general insecurity and hostility stems her attitude towards Jews. The Jews form a particularly convenient outlet for her deep-rooted envy because, being subordinate in status to start with, they can make more open bids for social position than she; for her to make similar bids and thus to admit tacitly that her position is inferior would be an unbearable humiliation. Though her anti-Semitism seems to be primarily a social reaction to her group situation, it is nevertheless functionally related to her personality. Being an unaggressive person, she sees the Jew as "aggressive." Since she considers herself "dumb," and feels that people can "put things over on her," she thinks of the Jews as "very clever," and as exploiters. She apparently projects on to Jews the behavior and attitudes which she herself would like to possess and use to her own advantage.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

43

B. THE GENETIC ASPECT

The genetic approach to the study of anti-Semitism should provide answers to two questions: First, how do the relatively nonspecific emotional predispositions to this pattern of antagonism arise? Second, what is the development within the individual of this specific antagonism? Discussion is here focused mainly on the first of these questions, the origin of emotional predispositions to anti-Semitism, because we have

more evidence on this question. It should not be inferred from this, however, that the history of the established anti-Semitic pattern within the individual is of less importance. On the contrary, it is of considerable value to demonstrate the type, timing, and cause of the first anti-Semitic manifestation of an individual; to trace its development in the light of relevant psychological and social factors; to examine the flexibility or rigidity of the pattern, and perhaps even to predict the course of further anti-Semitic occurrences. But this kind of approach depends upon a highly specific collection of data, and in this respect our evidence is far from complete. Had our cooperating psychoanalysts been able to treat anti-Semitism as a clearcut, well-defined symptom, noting the onset and all subsequent relevant occurrences, such an approach might have turned out to be most profitable. This, however, was not generally the case. As has been stated before, the available material has serious shortcomings in this respect, especially with regard to external cultural influences contributing to the development of anti-Semitic hostility. Consequently, this study must necessarily focus mainly on the genesis

of the emotional predispositions to anti-Semitism. For this approach, there is ample material, most of which has been accumulated in the psychoanalytic rather than in the social-service cases. 1. RELATIONSmP BETWEEN THE PARENTS OF THE ANTI-SEMITE. Common

to every case of anti-Semitism collected for this study is the strikingly similar psychological atmosphere into which the patient was born. There is not a single example of a permanently well-adjusted marital relationship between the parents. In almost half the cases, their superficial respectability was violated by open quarrels, physical violence, divorce, or desertion. At best, only the semblance of a respectable family union was preserved through conformity to conventional standards. Basically, there was no warmth, affection, or sympathy between the parents; and

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER 44 what little evidence of the sexual adaptation between the parents is available indicates that sexual relations were unsatisfactory.

The mother of one woman (Case 1), told her adolescent daughter that she had married her much older husband only to get away from home. She shocked

her daughter deeply by intimating that should her husband die, she might quickly fall in love with another man.

The parents of a man (Case 10), had lived in a precarious relationship through the course of a marriage that was in large part a product of spite. Between the parents there existed an open hatred which occasionally erupted into physical conffict. When the boy was eight years old, the father deserted his family. The parents of another patient (Case 14), maintained such an excellent surface appearance of domesticity that they were regarded as a model couple. But there was actually no warmth between them. The father carried on numerous love affairs and the mother apparently renomced her feminine interests and sexual activity.

Generally, a sharp contrast characterized the parents as individuals. They were at cross-purposes on every possible occasion. In temperament,

ethical values, sexual attitudes, and social interests, father and mother seemed to represent different worlds. Even where such basic differences were not understood by the children, the fundamental hostility between the parents was inescapably felt. Frequently, such hostility was covertly shunted off into side channels, charging the family atmosphere with an unpleasant tension. Existing differences in ethnic origin, or social and religious background, appeared to be the area of sharpest overt conflict between these emotionally maladjusted parents. The Christian step-mother of a man (Case 25), whose father was Jewish, would say to her husband whenever she disagreed with him: "Don't act

like a Jew." The implications for the patient's later attitude toward Jewishness are obvious. But even where neither parent was Jewish, parental disagreements seemed to be attributed in the presence of the children to differences in group membership. The statement, "you are different" (implying "you are bad because of your difference"), whether relating to religious, ethnic, or social contrasts, was for many of our patients the first real awakening to the manner in which difference is sometimes treated in our culture. Such an emphasis had, from the child's point of view, one apparent advantage: group differences were tangible factors. They at least provided a name for the lack of ease, warmth, and unity in the family, which

the child perceived and from which he suffered, but could not under-

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

45

Thus, the absence of affectionate human relations and the existence of hostility, often rationalized as difference in group membership, represented the earliest childhood conditioning in human relations. stand.

This pattern seemed often to be reinforced by the sharp contrast between the parents as regards tendencies toward domination and submission. One parent was dominant and overaggressive; the other submissive, weak, and masochistic. More often than not, it was the mother who represented aggressive dominance.13 Although evidence concerning original parental attitudes towards having children before actual conception is, of course, scarce, a deduction is justified in view of the parental relationship which has just been described. Where there is little love and much conflict, children tend not to be regarded as a fulfillment of life, but at best as a compensation for disappointment, and at worst as unwanted additional burdens. 2. THE RELATEONSHIP OF THE PAnENTS TO THE ANTI-SEMITIC PA'rm1,rrs AS

The available evidence bearing on parental attitudes towards their children from birth on tends to support the foregoing assumption. The rejection of the child by one or both parents is the rule rather than the exception in these cases. CHILDnEN.

One patient (Case 2), experienced rejection during early childhood through the father's sadistic beatings and the mother's more subtle, but equally cruel, ridicule. In relation to his enuresis and a physical handicap (a congenitally exposed urinary canal), she told him again and again, "you are not like other boys."

Another patient (Case 4), also felt rejected by both parents. Neither the father, who was strict and remote, nor the mother showed the little girl any affection. The experience of rejection in this case was aggravated by the patient's sibling position: an older brother received more affection because he was a boy, while a younger sister was mentally deficient and thus required special

attention from the parents. The patient was assigned to the care of a nurse, and was unable to compete with her siblings. She was rarely the subject of parental concern. Another man (Case 10), also felt rejected by both parents. At a very early

age, he was left with his grandparents because it suited his parents' convenience, an early experience of desertion which was later to be repeated more drastically. When the patient was eight, his father deserted the family, and when he was sixteen, his mother, without any display of emotion, sent him 13 It is impossible to decide whether this is in accordance with a general cultural trend or whether this configuration is specific to our cases. However this may be, the aggressive dominant woman in our society is at variance with the accepted idea of

male superiority and presents an additional reason for conflict and difficulty in reality adjustment.

46

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

away to a near relative. During that short period of his life in which he had been with his parents, the patient had heard his mother express open preference for other little boys, unrelated to the family. The fact that some of these competitors were Jewish entered into the motivation of the patient's future anti-Semitism.

In several cases, the original pattern of sibling rivalry contributed to the later development of hostile feelings against Jews. In some cases, the early death of one parent contributed to the feeling of being rejected and deserted; in others, open desertion by a living parent, with all the misery that such action often visits upon the remaining parent and the child, left

a deep wound, with significant later effects on the patient's feelings about rejection.

Each rejection, whatever its cause or form, damaged the self-esteem of the child. The experience of not being wanted, of not belonging, was closely related to one of the predominant confficts in the adult antiSemite: the conflict about his own identity and the resulting confusion of his concept of self. The current cultural stereotype about "good Jewish family life" tends to excite the unconscious envy of anti-Semites who have themselves suffered from a lack of love and close family feeling. The parents' attempt to achieve through the child some form of compensation for their own personal disappointments is often expressed

through their narcissistic exploitation of the child, and leads in a more roundabout way to the same final result of rejection. One Jewish father (Case 16) projected all his own frustrated desires onto his son. From early childhood, he compelled the boy to study music. He alternated between exaggerated demonstrations of affection and great severity. He intervened in his son's friendships (for the son's "own good," of course). The mother was weak and ill, incapable of playing an active role in her child's upbringing. The child developed the idea that he was not wanted for himself,

but only for his achievement. He feared and hated his father in much the same way that he later feared and hated all Jews. A woman patient (Case 21) recalls bitterly an experience which made her feel deeply victimized by her half-Jewish mother. At the age of four, she and her brother decided to build their own toy train. When her mother heard of this plan, she went out and bought them an expensive electric train which overwhehned the children and gave them no pleasure. But the purchase satisfied the mother, whose vanity and social snobbishness demanded that her children should play with the biggest and most expensive toys. Such false indulgence

through gifts robbed this child of every chance to carry through what she

herself wished to do.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

47

To this patient, then, Jews symbolize everything that is self-indulgent, pleasurable, and hence vulgar. Of course, she did not consciously recognize the connection between these adult antagonisms and her childhood struggle with her half-Jewish mother. Both open rejection and narcissistic exploitation damage considerably the self-esteem and self-confidence of the child, who, consequently, feels unwanted, unloved, and unworthy. At the same time, the child feels that if only he were different perhaps his parents would like him. In this emotional context, both the passive dependent needs projected toward the parents and the related aggression, are fixated. Out of fear of parental aggression the child attempts to repress its desire for dependency and resorts to compensatory aggression, but this too must be repressed. The fear of parental aggression appears more than justified when one

considers the disciplinary pattern in these families. Even where one parent is indulgent, leniency is not consistent. Usually discipline is strict and often enforced by brutal beatings. Acceptance of the child is conditional on conforming behavior. Against this background, the rejected or

exploited child soon acquires skill in pretending, so that overtly he assumes a submissive attitude, beneath which rebellion and hostility continue to smolder. The pent-up aggression against the parent can be released, if at all, only through displacement. In some cases this aggression is partly diverted into the sibling situation. The anxiety about failure to compete with siblings is derived originally from the inability to pit aggression competitively against the parent. This is an important genetic factor for the later patterns of competitive aggression against Jews.

One of the first large tasks of conforming which a growing child experiences is the process of habit training. The manner in which this training is handled by the parents generally reveals to the child their basic attitudes. Occurring at this early, extremely pliable age, it exercises decisive influence on the child's incipient personality formation.

In several cases, the fixation of anal character traits in the patients could clearly be traced back to severe and early toilet training which was made a test of the parents' approval and affection. The following is a case in point: A young Jewish woman (Case 12), to whom Jewishness literally means dirt and who manifests many "anal" character traits, was toilet-trained ("housebroken") by the age of one. Otherwise completely left to the care of a governess, this child received recognition and attention from her parents only as she was

clean and obedient. This pattern dominated her attitude toward her parents

48

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

all her life. If she wanted affection she had to conform to their exaggerated ambition, especially that of her mother. She learned to read and write long before school age, composed verse and played the piano at five. Her entire personality was motivated by the wish to obtain, through adherence to this early

pattern of conformity, what she had experienced in her first training in infancy: the affection and recognition of an appreciative mother. Throughout her life she manifested an excessive concern with dirt, vacillating between disorderliness and exaggerated cleanliness. For her, Jewisimess signified something low, dirty, anal. Her anti-Semitism symbolized the rejection of the dirty parts of her self; to enjoy dirt meant to be deprived of her mother's love.

The attitude towards toilet training and dirt—as conditioned by the

parents—colors the later emerging sexual attitudes. Thus, the pre-Oedipal

experiences of our patients generally tended to fixate basic passivity, compulsive submission, and induced repression of the corresponding compensatory aggression. This passivity and the concomitant ambivalence

represented a strong hindrance to healthy Oedipal development and reinforced the later-appearing "castration anxiety" (fear of injury to the

sex organ or impairment of sexual pleasure). At an early age, the characterological predispositions for prejudicial attitudes are thus akeady apparent. The excessive tendency to conformity, even though on a basis of pretense, has demonstrated its value to the child in his attempt to master the dangers of parental aggression. This sets the stage for the significant conflicts which emerge in the effort ta establish personal identity.

3. Tins OEnII' STRUGGLE. The Oedipal conflict into which thes€ patients entered as children was intense, was characterized by an excessive amount of confusion and anxiety, and was never fully resolved. Th€ evidence for this, it should be stressed, is often only to be inferred froir later life patterns. A serious distortion of the process of identification witi

parents who offered neither acceptance nor love—so essential for thE successful mastery of the Oedipal conffict—is revealed. The most frequeni indication of this unresolved conflict is to be found in the attitude whici

these patients, even as adults, manifest toward their parents.

Several instances clarify this point with the emphasis on a disturbed rela tionship involving the father. One man (Case 2) reported that whenever h visited his parents, he was troubled by a vague feeling of some "unfinishe business" between him and his father, something he "wanted to settle"; thi: urge for vengeance on his father represented a deep and bitter preoccupation Another man (Case 7) had been so terrffied by his father that as an adult h roamed the world, for this was the only way he could feel free. His father'

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

49

presence suffocated him, and only when his parent was dead could he settle down. A woman patient (Case 2) had more or less consciously shaped her entire life so that it would be contrary to her father's; where her father had accepted almost everything but his family, this woman accepted little more than her family. Another woman (Case 14) manifested an unresolved attachment to her father by entering into a lifelong love affair with his friend. Other cases emphasize the mother as the key figure in the Oedipal conflict. One man (Case 9), who was utterly dependent on his mother's standards and values in adult life, bluntly asserted that he hated her. In the case of another man (Case 11), persistent dependence on his mother's values had been foreshadowed by his experiences of deep anxiety when, as a boy, he was repeatedly separated from his mother for varying periods of time.

These examples could be multiplied. A compulsion to imitate their parents, or, to use Tarde's phrase, "to imitate by opposition," is the dominant drive that characterizes the lives of these individuals. The cause of this trait lies in the incomplete incorporation of the pa-

rental images into the internalized conscience. The condition for the completion of this process is a genuine love-identification. Where the parents of these anti-Semites, through early rejection of the child, frustrate all attempts at healthy identification, the process of internalization of conscience is seriously hindered. Often the child's partial identification is with the weaker parent, who represents if not the kinder, at least the less menacing of the two. Such identification, leading as it often does to an identification with the underdog, is generally fraught with danger. Because of the need for protection by a strong person, the child tends overfly to renounce his identification with the weaker parent and over-

protests his alliance with the more aggressive parent. Here, too, the patient is ambivalent. Because of his fear and hate of the more dangerous parent, there is at best only a partial ambivalent identification with him. As a result the patient withdraws and the identification with both parents remains incomplete and distorted. This may produce lifelong indecisive-

ness and confusion as to sexual identity. The patient gives his wholehearted allegiance neither to father nor to mother, and correspondingly neither to male nor to female attributes. The relationship of this type of Oedipal experience to the later development of anti-Semitic attitudes is not simple. Some indications of such a relation have already been offered. There is, to begin with, the identification

with the weak, which is too dangerous to be maintained and for which an identification with the strong is later substituted. This is one factor that leads to anti-Semitic patterns based on a partially repressed identifi-

50

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

cation with the "weak Jew," this explaining the frequent discovery that the conscious rejection of the Jew_or what is envied in the Jew—is often paralleled in the unconscious by a strong identification with him. The deep-seated identification with the Jew because of his symbolic weakness,

his crippled, castrated state (circumcision) and defenseless position, is denied because of its danger to the individual's self and social position; and in its place there is substituted an identification with the attacker. Frustrated in their attempts to achieve identification based on love, these persons resort to partial identification based on hate and power. This defensive need to substitute identification with the strong is, of course, the result of the original failure of the child to compete with the parent's aggression. Only a few cases contain concrete evidence for this genetic link between

the thwarted identification attempts and actual anti-Semitism. One young man, for example (Case 6), presents the link rather clearly. This person, a member of the Nazi movement in Europe, hates his father and the

Jews for the same reasons. They are not only the same in content but are formulated by him in such identical terms that it seems almost unbelievable that he should have been unaware of the actual identity of these two forms of hatred. In this instance the dynamic parallel between the patient's attitude to his parent and the meaning of anti-Semitism is clearly visible.

As already suggested, early distortion of the identification process hampers the development of the conscience. The formation of conscience remains incomplete. While guilt reactions may be quantitatively intense, the internalized standards of right and wrong remain vague and unstable in quality. Punishment is perceived largely as coming from without rather than from within. Such a psychic tendency provides the basis for a denial

of guilt, and for projection onto the external world of that which is rejected in the self. In the main, however, the connection between this Oedipal experience and later anti-Semitism is indirect rather than direct. Unresolved Oedipal problems must be understood as leading to the conflicts, character traits, and weaknesses previously outlined. Overt anti-Semitic attitudes appear when the individual, mobilizing mechanisms of self-defense to combat or conceal his weakness, utilizes prejudice as a rationalized outlet for inner confficts and pent-up hostility. The genetic specificity is most obvious, of course, in cases where one or both parents are identified with Jews, so that in a concrete manner the concept "Jew" is built up simultaneously with the development of the

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

51

child's image of the parent. Cases of Jewish anti-Semitism, therefore, most readily reveal genetic specificity. The basic conflicts, however, are identical for the Jewish and the Gentile anti-Semite. By way of illustration, two cases will be presented at some length—one of a Jewish patient,

the other of a Gentile. (Case 25): The patient, forty years old, is a wealthy businessman who came to analysis because of selective sexual impotence; he was impotent in his marriage but not in extramarital affairs. He was born a Jew, but during his adolescence his father converted to the Episcopalian religion, and the patient now considers himself Episcopalian. He had a morbid fear of being revealed as a Jew. His anti-Semitism takes the form of hatred of all Jews. He considers them overbearing, aggressive, money-mad, and untrustworthy. He would dream of his Jewish analyst as a huge, bearded, eastern Jew, ready to strike someone down. When the psychoanalyst gave this patient an appointment on a Jewish holiday, the patient felt that the doctor did not take the holiday because, being a Jew, he wanted to earn money so intensely. In a period of positive transference to the analyst, the patient expressed pleasure because the doctor did not speak with a Jewish accent. In his business activities the patient was openly anti-Semitic. He refused to hire Jewish help, and he once got into a heated argument with a non-Jewish business associate who had a Jewish secretary. So strong were his anti-Semitic

feelings that he endangered a business deal with this associate rather than refrain from making anti-Semitic remarks about his secretary. Once the patient struck a girl friend because she had called him a Jew. He was for a long time on the verge of contributing to the Christian Front movement but finally decided against it. At one time he contributed money to an organization which worked to defeat the election of a Jew. The patient ended the analysis when his sexual impotence was cured. His attitudes towards Jews were still hostile, but less violent, and he had developed some guilt feelings about his anti-Semitism. He even contributed money to a college which did not bar Jews, something he would probably not have done before analysis. The patient's father was born abroad and came to this country as a young man. He developed a business which was virtually a monopoly so that the family was wealthy when the patient, the oldest of three brothers, was born. His father was extremely severe, remote, and harsh in his discipline, feared by the entire household, including his wife. It was customary for everyone to stand up when his father walked into the room. His father demonstrated the qualities which the patient later attributes to

all Jews: he was overbearing, money-mad, and aggressive. He would "rob him" of his allowance by way of punishment ("the money-mad Jew"). For violating the father's standards of good behavior, the children were often locked

in a room and given bread and water for days on end. His mother and the servants would sneak food to the boys, always in great fear of being caught by

52

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

his father. The signfficance of this aspect of the relationship between the parents is self-evident. It involves a weak mother and a domineering father, each with entirely different values and attitudes, and constitutes a union based on fear and domination. From early childhood on, the patient must have been aware of the rift between his parents and the absence of understanding and affection in their relationship. In retrospect, and by comparison with his father, his mother appeared to the patient as a kind person, but she was obviously too weak and vulnerable for the patient to identify with her safely. She was also born Jewish, and in contrast to his father identified herself as such, contributing to Jewish charities.

The patient claims that he was closer to his mother than the other children were. He recalls that when he was little, his father once went away on a business trip and he slept in his mother's bed. He hoped his father would go away often. His childhood was dominated by excessive fear of rejection by his remote, domineering father, whom he nevertheless wished to emulate, as his behavior in later life shows. The mother died when the patient was thirteen. The patient interpreted her death as a virtual desertion of him; she, too, was "untrustworthy." Soon after

this, the patient, his father, and brothers were converted to Christianity. The patient states that his mother would not have approved of this at all. Thus the

last accusation against the Jews as a group—they are untrustworthy and treacherous—is exemplified in his father's conversion soon after his mother's death. After the conversion his father gave large contributions to the church. Even before the change in religion, the family had not maintained any personal contacts with Jews, and neither in childhood nor throughout his school and college life did the patient become friendly with Jewish young men. After the conversion—which doubtless contributed to the patient's confusion about his own identity, and to the corresponding conflict of values—his father married a wealthy Christian woman who enjoyed great social prestige. The patient did not like his stepmother. He recalls that when she was angry at his

father she would say "Stop being a Jew." The patient, however, had little contact with his stepmother because he was sent to a boarding school. Most of his hostility was directed against his father. At that time he often daydreamed that he would go to his father's oce to denounce him as a Jew.

Apparently by that time the anti-Semitic pattern must already have been firmly established. What he hated in his father, he also hated in Jews as a group. Nevertheless, he shared much with his father. Being anti-Semitic served the purpose of a half-hearted attempt to deny part of his own self, the weaker,

more vulnerable part (mother), and to substitute identification with the stronger enemy (father). Although the patient was very successful in college and business, he derived from his success no real pleasure or satisfaction. It was extremely important for him to be accepted in socially high, non-Jewish circles in college. Later on, to gain prestige and affiliate himself with a group representing superior power, he joined a rich men's club. On the whole, his social life was dull and empty; he spent most of his life at his work. He led a shut-in existence, accumulating

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

53

and "counting gold," for he was niggardly about his wealth. With subordinates he was strict, exacting, and occasionally abusive. In this, too, he imitated his father's behavior. This confirms his anti-Semitism as being not only a rejection of his father, but also of elements of his own self, since he accused the Jews of qualities that both he and his father possessed. The patient was impotent in his marriage, but he attributed this to his wife's

money

lack of sex appeal and beauty, thus demonstrating his tendency to repress awareness of his own weakness and to shift blame to others. He was openly sadistic toward her. Throughout his marriage he had affairs with many women, each lasting for only a short period because of his fear of becoming attached to any one of them. With these women, whom he regarded as prostitutes, he was sexually potent, and in his sexual relations there was always a considerable display of sadism. Yet he never really enjoyed sexual intercourse, being constantly fearful of discovery and the resulting loss of prestige. The patient's main conffict is thus his unresolved Oedipal conflict, characterized by his open hatred for his father (the Jews), coupled with a tendency to be like him. His anti-Semitism reinforces, and is reinforced by, the attempt to deny parts of his own self and in so doing to project onto a group the essence of his own weakness and immorality. The second illustrative case, a Gentile (Case 29), is a client of a family service agency, a white collar worker aged thirty. He is married and has one

stepdaughter. He originally approached the agency for financial assistance, after having been discharged from the army as psychoneurotic. He manifested a host of psychosomatic symptoms, such as aching joints, difficulty in breathing, and a numb foot. The client has repeatedly expressed hostility against Jews. He blames his low

wages in the small concern for which he works on the fact of Jewish ownership. He has described his employers as being very "tight," and yet he considers them clever and expresses admiration for their ability to make money, to remain loyal to their families and helpful to their "race." But the Jews, he feels, are out for what they can get—and they get it. When they succeed in business they move to better living quarters, buy fur coats for their wives, and patronize the finest of restaurants. They stick by one another, and make good husbands and fathers. He knows a number of Jews, with whom he continually quarrels. This includes his stepdaughter's employer, some neighbors, and the doctors of a hospital which he attends as an out-patient. The doctors, he complains, do not really understand his ilness—he calls them "refugees and quacks"—and he often temporarily interrupts his relationship with them by discontinuing his hospital attendance. After a while, however, he resumes contact but gets into quarrels once again. He was born abroad. His parents died when he was an infant, so that he has no memory of them, but is genuinely anxious to discover something about them

and their background. He was brought up by foster parents who immigrated when the client was about twelve years old. His foster parents were supposed to have been good friends of his real parents, but he is uncertain of the motives

54

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

which inspired them to adopt him. On the one hand, he thinks it was due to their inability to have children of thefr own. He suggests that because they were "cheated" out of having this experience they treated him so miserably. On the other hand, he has a deep suspicion that he was an illegitimate child, and that his foster father is actually his real father. (Here again we note the confusion about origin and identity.) He never felt loved or wanted by his foster parents. He believed his foster father was sexually potent and indulged in numerous

extramarital affairs. The client suspects the same of his foster mother. He always was, and is even now, deeply terrified of his foster mother. He fears see-

ing her again because he says he might kifi her. As a child he hated his foster mother fiercely but repressed this hatred. She used to punish him severely and when angry she would tell him: "You are no good, just like your mother." On one occasion, after she had been nagging and chastizing him for some time, he jumped at her and started choking her. It was only the intervention of his foster father, he believes, that prevented him from killing her. When he was fifteen the miserable treatment reached a climax. After a particularly difficult day with his foster mother he found himself unable to eat and went off into a long crying spell. A doctor was consulted, and while the client is not sure of the exact diagnosis, he believes that the doctor said something of "an illness of the mind." About this time, finding himself no longer capable of drawing and painting, he was forced to discontinue his high school studies in art. Later he obtained a job as an usher in a theater, and with hard work he was able to rise to the position of assistant manager. A minor infraction of rules, however, cost him his job. He had enjoyed his position as assistant manager because, as he says, he liked being a boss and pushing people around, and for much the same reason he later enjoyed being a sergeant in the army. It is both interesting and significant that whenever something goes wrong he says like a child, "I didn't do it, he did." In general, he thinks that the only way to get anywhere in the world is to know the right people—this is one of his favorite themes. In a recent election he worked for a radical politician, not because of any particular political con-

viction but because he felt that by doing so he would be able to make the "right contacts" and get somewhere. Paradoxically enough, the client's ideology is conservative and anti-union. He dislikes Negroes, believing that they are dirty and given to violence. His anxiety is chronic and generalized; it is particularly evident in human

relations. He complains that people are talking about him when really he is talking about them. He frets over the red tape involved in his being awarded army compensation, feeling that he is being pushed around, that the army is "against him," and that they now want to rob him of his rights. He considers himself friendless and victimized by people whom he had considered his friends. While he likes to brag about being chased by women, he is, in reality, fearful of them. When his wife left him for a short period, taking most of the household goods with her, he felt terribly hurt because, he explained, it

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

55

so important for him to have a home. He is continuously frightened by his instructors and superiors, whom he always accuses of not being sufficiently was

understanding. He feels that he is not fulfilling his obligations as a husband and father. His wife, ten years his senior, complains about his stinginess. Apparently,

he wants a wife to be a loving, affectionate mother-figure, as a contrast to his

foster mother. Fear of failure, insatiable desire for power and "success," conflict with superiors, a chronically unfulfilled longing for warmth and affection, are the driving factors in this man's life, and they are also the basis for his deep envy of the Jews, whom he sees as possessing everything he himself lacks.

C. ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE SERVICE OF DEFENSE MECHANISMS

Thus far we have described the genesis of the confficts which predis-

pose a person to developing anti-Semitic attitudes. We wish now to show how such persons try to deal with these conflicts, in attempts to minimize their anxiety.

The syndrome of emotional predispositions and character tendencies that we have described cannot of course be considered unique in the anti-Semite. It exists in many persons and there is no reason to believe that all who share such characteristics wifi necessarily manifest antiSemitic attitudes. But the fact still remains that where anti-Semitism is demonstrated in the patient's cultural environment, individuals with this specific syndrome will utilize this handy prejudice for their own irrational purposes. Such persons suffer, as has been revealed, from a sense of loneliness, emptiness and privation. Their needs tend to be insatiable; they crave

intensely for that which they do not possess, and reject whatever is within their grasp. Basically they reject themselves and envy others. To find a semblance of balance in spite of their frustrations, they mobilize against their anxiety and self-hate a variety of defense mechanisms. In the interlocking pattern of these defenses, anti-Semitism seems to fulfill a functionally well-defined role. It represents an effort to displace the self-destroying trends in the personality. At the psychic level, anti-Semitic

hostility can be viewed as a profound though irrational and futile defensive effort to restore a crippled self. At the social level, it can be regarded as a device for achieving secondary emotional and material gain.

The anti-Semite, unable to resolve or reconcile the conflicts of his

56

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

emotionally parasitic self, flees from his painful, insoluble dilemma into a preoccupation with the outside world. He attempts to externalize his inner conflicts. He does this in the hope of forestalling progressive destruction of valued parts of his ambiguous self—a vain hope, because ultimately the anti-Semitism to which he turns in an attempt to find a way out of his conflicts only intensifies and makes more obvious the frustrations from which he seeks escape. Such a defensive response results inevitably in significant shifts in the equilibrium of unconscious forces. In utilizing anti-Semitic hostility as an emotional defense, the antiSemite employs a series of psychological mechanisms. Some of these defenses, such as projection, denial, substitution of aggression for anxiety, and rationalization, are inevitably brought into play, while others, such as avoidance, opposition, displacement, reaction formation, and compensation, play an auxiliary role and do not necessarily constitute a part of the anti-Semitic reaction. In the discussion which follows, the mechanism of rationalization is integrated with the treatment of the other defenses, since rationalization is so frequently used to implement these other mechanisms.

The mechanism of projection permeates the entire personality of the anti-Semite. From the psychoanalytic point of view, the character pattern in such persons favors "acting out," seeking the relief of emotional tension through impulsive expression, as an attempted solution of inner conflict. This basic tendency to externalize inner conflict tends to reinforce all those patterns of defense, in addition to projection, which lend themselves to exploitation in this direction. There is extensive interplay between projection and the auxiliary defenses upon which the antiSemite relies. The need to attribute to other persons or groups qualities and emotions belonging to the self arises when one cannot face in oneself the conffict created by the existence of these very same qualities and emotions. These accusations against the other person or group are then reinforced by the process of rationalization, a psychic device which provides a plausible justification for an act arising from unconscious mo1. PROJECTION.

tivation. The original ritualistic model for the concept of projection—the scape-

goat—sharply dramatizes the relationship between inner conflict and projection. At the height of pagan ritualistic ceremonies a goat, or some other animal, was consigned the sins of those participating in the cere-

mony and driven off into the wilderness to perish, together with its

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

57

burden of evil. In one particular respect, however, projection as a de-

fense mechanism differs from this symbolic act. It excludes by definition any clear awareness of the relationship between one's own conflict and the qualities one attributes to other people. The anti-Semites here under review use a great variety of rationalizations for their unconscious projections, the most common of which are the host of pseudo-rational arguments about Jewish "national character" and the alleged position of the Jews in society. But notice that the concept of projection does not involve the element of truth or falsity of the content of the projection. If a man who is accused of dirtiness is not in reality dirty, one may conclude with reasonable confidence that the accusation serves, and is motivated by, the

psychological need of the accuser. He projects upon the accused his own repressed attitude toward dirt. But even if, in a given instance, the accused person is actually dirty, that fact does not exclude the possibility that the accuser is nevertheless attributing to the accused a condition which he himself possesses but denies, rather than passing an objective judgment on that other person. It is, therefore, not the objective truth or falsity of the accusation, but the psychological motivation of the accuser which defines the mechanism of projection. This means that the actual qualities of the Jews as a group or as individuals are not relevant to a discussion of the pro/ective nuture of anti-Semitism. Even if there

were a basis in fact for the accusations made against the Jews, such accusations might, notwithstanding, constitute a projection on the part of the accusers.

Generally speaking, however, the nature of the accusations against Jews is such as to make obvious their projective character. The very inconsistency of the accusations reveals the irrational character of the projection. Not only will different people attribute different and mutually

contradictory characteristics to "the Jews" as a whole, but the very accusations made against them by a single individual are often entirely inconsistent. This is illustrated in the following examples: One man (Case 2) accuses Jews of being a powerful, international cohesive

group, and at the same time petty, contemptible, and small-time crooks. Another man (Case 10) regards Jews simultaneously as being degraded robbers and too ethical. A woman (Case 21) contends that the Jews are the incarnation of vulgarity; simultaneously, however, they are the symbol of a God-figure.

Even such blatantly inconsistent accusations are rationalized by these

patients, at least to their own satisfaction. Anti-Semites appear corn-

58

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

pletely blind to the logical flaw in the statement that Jews are at one and the same time tremendously powerful and petty crooks. Not only does their irrational need for projection make them impervious to logical reasoning, but they receive support for their warped ideas by a powerful force—the culturally conditioned stereotype of the Jew. The negative stereotype of the Jew, which has been developed in the Christian era and passed on from one generation to the next, is highly

elaborated and highly inconsistent. Culturally the Jew is seen both as "successful" and as "low class"; as "capitalist" and as "communist"; as "clannish" and as "intruder into other people's society"; as "the personification of high moral and spiritual standards" and as given to "low, primitive drives like greed and dirt"; as "oversexed" and as "impotent"; as "male" and as "female"; as "strong" and as "weak"; as "magically omnipotent and omniscient, possessing uncanny demoniacal powers" and as being "incredibly helpless, defenseless, and therefore readily attacked and destroyed." Whatever the original cause of this inconsistent cultural stereotype— it may well have been influenced by the complexities of Jewish history,

for throughout the centuries Jewish groups were forced to perform different social roles in different cultural settings while adhering to traditional and apparently strange customs—it is this historic feature that

makes the Jews a particularly suitable projection screen for modem man's conflicts. For the anti-Semite, the Jew is a living Rorschach inkblot. His alleged and sometimes actual qualities are so manifold and so inconsistent, so ambiguous and indeterminate, that the anti-Semite sees whatever he needs to see in the Jew.'4 The symbolism of other minority groups, more consistent and narrower in scope—for example, the Negroes or Mexicans—cannot be psychologically exploited in quite the same manner.

What do the patients project onto the Jews? The material contains evidence for establishing two theoretically distinct types of projection. First, there is the type of projection which selects for its content a few specific qualities from the culturally offered variety of accusations. Second, there is the type of projection which is less discriminating, in which

the anti-Semite dislikes the Jews because they are Jews, rather than 14 Adolf Hitler, in one of his notorious speeches, exploited the ambiguity of the Jewish stereotype in a clever attempt to make the Jewish "inkblot" so all-embracing that it could fit the needs of everyone in his audience. He spoke about two brothers,

one called Moische, the other Isidor: "Moische was a banker; Isidor a Commu-

nist..."

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

59

because of this or that alleged quality. The former type may be distinguished by its higher degree of rationalization. But a more important distinction is the contrast of basic motivation. The motivational source for anti-Semitic hostility in general derives both from specific personality disturbance and nonspecific group pressures. But the "selective" antiSemite appears to be motivated more by his individual emotional distortions; the "unselective" more by group pressures. It must be emphasized here that actual cases of anti-Semitism do not demonstrate one or the other motivation, but rather a fusion in varying degrees of both levels of motivation. a. The "Selective" Ar&ti-Seinite. An outstanding example of projection of specific qualities onto the Jews has already been quoted. One patient (Case 11), as will be remembered, hated the Jews because they managed to be both "good and happy," while his own personality conflict represented an unsuccessful attempt to renounce the search for happiness for the sake of "goodness." For him it would have made little psychological sense to rationalize his anti-Semitism by accusing the Jews of being either capitalists, communists, "low class," or exploiters. Neither would it have made sense to hate the Negroes or the Catholics, because the very combination of qualities that was meaningful to him as a pro-

jection target is not contained in the cultural stereotype of either of these groups.

This case clearly illustrates the usual futility of a neurotic defense pattern. Projection represents in one aspect an attempt to externalize a conflict and thus escape from it. What this man achieved was a projection onto the Jews of paradoxical qualities which functioned as a constant irritation, an incessant reminder of what was wrong in himself. The same failure of the defense goal of projection is demonstrated in a number of other cases, as for example, in that of the woman patient (Case 3) who accused the Jews of being shams and fakers, capable of attaining grand positions by unfair means. She herself was engaged in a highly successful business career. Analysis revealed that this woman continuously accused herself of having achieved her business success with-

out any real merit, of being a "faker" who "bluffed" her way into a position of prestige. The dramatic irrationality of these projections becomes especially clear

when the alleged characteristics, as applied to a Jew, are disparaging, but as applied to a Gentile are a measure of achievement in this culture. This is illustrated by a man (Case 6) who accused the Jews of being

6o

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

successful, sexually potent, and clever—qualities ordinarily admired in this culture. The personality confficts of this young man can almost be deduced from these accusations without further information. Analysis, however, provided the information needed to bear out such speculation. This man was a failure in his work and a failure with women; he feared sexual impotence, and he considered himself incapable of competing with his father. Similar examples can be found with ease. Perhaps it is not superfluous here to add that in no case were the patients conscious of the link between their own conflicts and the content of their anti-Semitic accusation, however obvious the link may appear in the examples given. At the beginning of analysis, all these persons were convinced that their antiSemitism, if they were aware of it at all, was justified by objective observation. b. The "Unselective" Anti-Semite.

"Unselective" anti-Semitism is expressed either in name-calling alone—"dirty Jew" or "kike" are typical

examples—or in an almost unlimited number of accusations. In these cases, projection is used to externalize diffuse hostility. A sixteen year old Irish boy (Case 33) is a client of a social-service agency. His anti-Semitism was revealed in a conversation with his psychiatric social worker, in the course of which he asked about her religion. When she told him that she was Jewish, he was taken aback. Until that time he had had a fairly good

relationship with her. He then stated that the Jews really "are not bad," and wondered why they call themselves Jews. To him, calling a person a Jew was tantamount to an insult. When the worker inquired about the basis for his objections to Jews, he found it difficult to express himself. After a pause, the thought occurred to him that they are smart, conniving, and get the best of things because they are so smart. This boy had had virtually no contact with Jews. As an active member of a neighborhood gang, he had apparently accepted uncritically the anti-Semitism

of his cultural subgroup. He had given the matter so little thought that he actually considered the word "Jew" to be merely a bad word, without specffic meaning, which no one in his right mind would apply to himself. Reference to his life history reveals that he was beset by deep anxieties. Although his confficts became manifest through behavior disorders in school, they actually centered around his ambivalent and severely disturbed relationship to his mother, which aroused deep hostility toward—and rejection of— himself. When his gang offered anti-Semitism as an acceptable and well-estab-

lished outlet for his need to project his self-hatred, he accepted it wholeheartedly.

Presumably, this boy's self-rejection could have been equally well projected onto Negroes or any other underprivileged group. This Un-

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

6i

selective form of projection, employed as a defense against anxiety and self-hatred, is as futile and insatiable as selective projection. No gang fight against Jewish boys, no amount of name-calling, wifi succeed in achieving more than a momentary relief from inner tension. In one man (Case 5) the unselective form of projection is manifested through his accusing the Jews of virtually everything. This patient is a complete misfit —being an alcoholic, an overt homosexual, and incapable of earning his own living. In order to support his urge for compensatory self-aggrandizement, he projects his profound self-rejection onto the "lower" people. He finds little to choose between Jews and Negroes. He firmly believes that mankind has been permanently arranged in an unalterable hierarchy, and that Jews and Negroes, uiilike himself, are at the bottom. As is to be expected, cases of unselective projection of "badness" onto

an outside group express very clearly the pretense of conformity and its correlate, the rejection of the "different." An adolescent girl (Case 34) unwittingly became friendly with a Jewish girl. When she discovered that her friend was Jewish, she could not get over her surprise. "But she is exactly like all the other girls!" Her anti-Semitism, motivated by her wish to conform, had consisted in regarding all Jews as "different" simply by definition.

This is not the place to discuss the weight and sequence of the historical events that have resulted in an image of the Jew so multicolored that it makes him eminently suitable as a universal projection screen for the personal conflicts of modern man. Earlier religious connotations of what the Jew stands for—the "Christ killer," the forces symbolized in the devil, the ritual murderer, and yet God's "chosen people"—have changed in name in accordance with the secularization of our culture, but not in substance. Today, often devoid of religious connotations, the Jew nevertheless remains the symbol of what man fears: his own weakness, his own dark impulses, and his own conscience. vicious a cycle. A neurotic defense against anxiety constitutes fully achieves its aim of relieving Projection, as has been shown, never guilt and anxiety. Hence other auxiliary defense mechanisms are mobilized. Their application, similarly unsuccessful, produces effects which 2. DENIAL.

make further support necessary, thus reinforcing once again the need for projection. This interplay of defense mechanisms is particularly marked between projection on the one hand and denial on the other. The term denial is here reserved for attempts to rid the self of those of

6z

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

its constituent parts which are unwanted. Such attempts may be character-

ized by any degree of consciousness or lack of it. When unconscious denial (repression) fails, the manifestations of this failure penetrate into consciousness. When this happens, the person must expend conscious effort in disowning the unwelcome qualities (suppression). The differential levels of consciousness at which the process of self-negation

takes place have important secondary effects in the whole defense systemL.

In a previously discussed case (Case 11) the sexual and emotional components of the self were denied. Impotence and anxiety were the conscious manifestations of this unsuccessful attempt to rid the self of unwanted parts. The patient then had recourse to the mechanism of conscious denial, as a means of dealing with his anxiety. He denied being concerned with his symptoms and pretended to seek a cure only out of consideration for his wife. His simultaneous effort to escape his conflict by projecting the "bad" qualities onto the Jews failed. On the contrary, the Jews represented a hated reminder of his own conffict. In such cases, recourse to the mechanism of denial must always be increased to compensate for this failing result of pro/ection. In this vicious

cycle the inevitable damage to the integrity of the self—in this case, impotence—becomes progressively greater. The means chosen for lessening anxiety ultimately creates more anxiety.15

Anti-Semitism appears to serve the purpose of fortifying every step in the defense pattern. A denial sounds more convincing when it is substantiated by the rejection of an external group which is alleged to have

those qualities which the anti-Semite wishes to renounce or deny in himself. The patient (Case 11), who accuses the Jews of being emotional, hopes to divert suspicion from the fact that he himself yearns for the freedom to express his own emotions. He is like the thief pointing his finger at an innocent bystander and shouting "Stop thief!" The link between these defenses against anxiety and anti-Semitism can be demonstrated even more convincingly. In many cases, there is evidence of an identification with the qualities of the Jewish group even before or at the very moment the urge to deny them arises. One man, for example, once witnessed a scene in which a Jewish man was threat-

ened with a beating. At that moment, he felt as if he were himself 15This description of interaction between several mechanisms is not meant to imply a temporal sequence. Projection, on the one hand, and denial, on the other, have their own causes. Their manifestations reveal different trends in the personality. Unconscious denial is one instance of the general process of repression.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

63

But the identification with the victim—for which there were good reasons in his psychological history—was too painful for him to endure. Thus, he shifted to an identification with the aggressor. From that incident stems the violent anti-Semitism that he later displayed. Basically, he felt as weak and helpless as the Jewish victim. For fear of being a victim, he attempted to deny his weakness. This denial, he hoped, would be convincing if he stood on the side of the aggressor. Nobody would dare to accuse him of being as weak as a Jew—which is actually the way he saw himself—if he joined the ranks of anti-Semites. Often the motivation for denial reflects a wish to conform. This implies a passive submissiveness to externally imposed rules in order to win acceptance. Having submissively denied parts of their own individuality, such persons feel deep resentment against anyone who does not do likewise. They demand that other persons should conform to the same restrictions. The demand for conformity of others is thus a result of partial self-denial. From this point of view, the fanaticism with which some anti-Semites try to convert others to their point of view becomes understandable. They are afflicted with the compulsion to convert lest they themselves be converted; that is, admit to themselves their submissive position, their passivity which entails danger, their fundamental identification with the Jew. For such conversion would expose their weakness, leaving them defenseless and open to attack. 8. Sociu AGGRESSION SuBsTITu'rso FOR ANxIE'rY. The anxiety which sets off the whole chain of interdependent mechanisms of self-defense continues unabated. It derives from an inner feeling of weakness in dealing with the dangers of the outer world. As has been shown, the patients' insight into the actual basis for this anxiety is negligible. Although they do not admit their fears, they nevertheless organize themselves instantly and continually to attack the imaginary, externalized dangers. Their anxiety drives them into aggression. Aggression represents an effort to shift from a passive to an active position. For at least that limited time, during which they try to intimidate others, they may escape the need to face their own anxiety. We have already discussed a social-service agency client (Case 29), who suffered from a pervasive anxiety, a deep feeling of unworthiness and unlovableness. Wherever he was, he felt unwanted. Even where he was qualified, he feared competition. Jews he regarded as being "out for Jewish.

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

64

whatever they can get; economically successful, clever; they stick to one another, are good husbands and fathers": in short, they possessed exactly those attributes he longed to have himself. His anxiety was sharply heightened by seeing others who seemed to possess what he lacked. Hence he resorted to attacks against Jews. Some of his neighbors were Jewish; so were his wife's employer and the medical staff at the hospital where he went for treatment. At every occasion of contact he would get into quarrels with these Jews. He called the doctors "refugee quacks"; whenever in the presence of Jews, he seemed driven to assert himself through attack and argument. Another social-agency client (Case 30) suffered from a deep conffict

about her own identity. During her life she had risen from her origin in a semi-criminal milieu in a slum area to an executive position in business. Her first attempt to deal with her problems expressed itself in excessive drinking; here her aggression was turned inward against herself. During a period of hospitalization for alcoholism, the addiction was cured, but her deep unresolved conflict and anxiety persisted. After she left the hospital, she became overtly anti-Semitic. Now her aggression had turned outward. She resorted to social aggression in an attempt to

relieve her anxiety. The Jews were "exploiters"; the Jews "wanted to humiliate her."

The manner in which such persons handle their aggression is consistent with their overall weakness. Only in psychopathic personalities or borderline psychoses (in this culture) is there a complete lack of restraint in implementing anti-Semitic aggression. Otherwise, there exists a pattern of control which is, nevertheless, incomplete and erratic. Thus one finds in most cases a labile pattern, in which social aggression alternates with overt anxiety manifestations and a tendency to retreat. AvoBMNcE OF CONTACT. The former client (Case 29), for example, illustrates the interdependence of social aggression with secondary defense reactions. After suffering a competitive defeat, he would cease all contact with Jews, thus resorting to the mechanism of avoidance (withdrawal) •16 Soon, however, the mounting pressure of anxiety would com-

pel him once again to seek an action outlet, so that after a while he would set aside his trend toward avoidance and return to open attack. It appears that such persons, with their "parasitic ego," waver in their orientation to reality between two confficting trends, either to attack the 16

The

term avoidance is used here as psychodynamically synonymous with the

mechanism of emotional withdrawal.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

65

or avoid contact with them. Like straws in the wind, these antiSemites are tossed about because of their inabffity to make a clear-cut distinction between their own selves and the surrounding world. This puts them at the mercy of inconsistencies which stamp their culture, inconsistencies which are ultimately reflected in their own behavior.

Jews,

Lacking well-established internalized standards, they are likely to affiliate themselves with groups which give them pseudo-strength by providing

outlets for their hostilities. Consequently, they feel attracted to available anti-Semitic organizations, but in spite of their need for such hostil-

ity-determined group membership, their insecure dependent nature is also influenced by the broader, more idealistic American culture pattern which condemns aggression against minority groups. Whether they indulge in open attacks upon the Jews, or whether they resort to avoidance, is a matter which depends upon circumstances rather than on their per-

sonal values. Since both sets of reaction to Jews seem to offer the immediate advantage of protection from exposure to potentially dangerous situations, situations in which their weakness might be revealed, both types of defense are alternatively exploited for concealment of their essential isolation.

In one instance the tendency toward avoidance was displayed prominently. This patient (Case 10) reduced contact with others to a minimum, for he despised not only himself but all symbols of contemporary life as well, and, consequently, retreated into an idealization of a previous era. His tendency to withdraw, however, was masked by a superficial manifestation of interest in a variety of subjects. No such camouflage was utilized by the highly successful broker (Case 11), who had one consuming wish: to withdraw—he intended to retire as soon as possible—from relationships with all people. Many other patients shun personal contacts with Jews in every conceivable way. One such patient (Case 2) gave vent to his violent anti-Semitic feelings only during analysis, because he dreaded the vengeance of the Jews. OPPosrrxoN.

The tendency to withdraw is closely associated with the

tendency to oppose. These people are not only against the Jew—they are against themselves and everyone else. This reliance on attitudes both of avoidance and opposition serves to strengthen the primary defense pattern of substituting aggression for anxiety. The relief of tension, however, is less satisfactory where avoidance or opposition are employed.

66

ANTI-SEMITISM MD EMOTIONAL DISORDER

Overt social aggression will therefore tend to appear whenever the culture permits it without painful consequences, particularly if it is displaced from its original target. The opportunistic vacillation between aggression and avoidance in the expression of anti-Semitism was explained by a number of patients as "good manners." They unloosed their social aggression when Jews were not present but otherwise avoided the subject. The application of their "good manners" was undoubtedly facilitated by the desire to avoid the possible unpleasant consequences of overt aggression.

A clear example of the defense mechanism of displacement is provided by the only colored person among our cases

4. DISPLACEMENT.

(Case 28). This woman, born in the deep South, was filled with animosity against the white culture, and when she approached the social-service

agency for financial help, she anticipated even more humiliation than that which she had already endured. But to admit her hostility against all whites was realistically too dangerous, particularly since she was being advised by a white psychiatric social worker. She, therefore, displaced her hostility onto the Jews. When the agency did not provide her immediately with all the funds she needed, she snapped back: "Things would be different, I'm sure, if my baby were Jewish. The Jews get everything." Her resentment of the agency's probing into the details of her personal history was also displaced onto the Jews; she expressed her conviction that a Gentile investigator would never have asked as many questions as the Jewish social worker did. All Jews in New York, she said, were "nosey, bad, mean and sly," and the fact that she had received a baby carriage from a Jewish woman did not alter her views. This is understandable in view of the function of such a displacement. 5. REACTION FORMATION AN]) COMPENSATION. Depending on the stand-

ards of the group by which these patients want to be accepted, social aggression as well as avoidance may sometimes turn out to be inopportune. They may be asked to attend a party or to work in a situation where Jews have positions of prestige. As an alternative to avoidance or aggression, they may then resort to a reaction formation which, accord-

ing to circumstances, may become more or less a permanent pattern in their attitude towards Jews. A reaction formation is a tendency to express overtly the exact opposite of the original attitude. Like all other defense

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

67

mechanisms, it gives itself away by its lack of completeness or by irrational exaggerations. One patient (Case 18) was a militant champion of the Jews, except when under the influence of drink or in analysis, and then he found himself, to his own consternation, using terms like "dirty Jew" and "kike." This man had suffered a crippling accident in his early childhood. In spite of good surface adjustment, he had never been able to accept his crippled state. On the basis of his own handicap he identified with the weak underdog, the Jew; but basically he rejected both the Jew and himself. In order to escape the self-rejection inherent in his anti-Semitism, he resorted to reaction formation and became a militant champion of the Jews.

While this case reveals the nature of a reaction formation, it is almost unique in our material because of the near success of the defense pattern. In most other cases the futility of the effort is much more obvious because of its limitation to specific occasions. By way of denying their hostility, these patients frequently display outwardly submissive and ingratiating behavior, and, in fact, may even be submissive and ingratiating toward Jews if their social security is thereby enhanced. One patient, who had expressed anti-Negro feelings as violently as antiJewish feelings, referred, during his analytic treatment, to the pianist Hazel Scott as "Hazel," although he had never met her. This was definitely done

not in a contemptuous but in an urbane way. He wished to impress the analyst with his "broadmindedness." However, such "tolerance" was apparent only where persons of prestige were concerned, a prestige he hoped to share vicariously by pretended familiarity. The alternation of defense mechanisms is clearly shown by the man (Case 2) who had once felt identified with a Jewish victim. At two different places of work, this man had had Jewish superiors and in both cases he started the relationship with excessive submission and ingratiation. When this did not result in "reward"—money, social prestige, or love—his anti-Semitism broke through with renewed violence and fresh rationalizations.

As is to be expected in cases of such quickly shifting patterns, the wish to remain in good favor with a particular Jew in no way interfered with the general tendency to castigate Jews as a group. Closely linked with reaction formation is the compensatory mechanism. The link between the two consists in the identity of their immediate goals: the achievement of power, status, money, social advantages, and privileges of all sorts. A compensatory mechanism is the attempt to achieve

in special spheres gratifications which outweigh the frustrations of inherent deficiencies. Since this is a neurotic defense mechanism, its goal

68

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

is never achieved. The shallow pseudo-quality of the compensations these patients seek to achieve is related to the relative emptiness of their essential selves.

A truly successful defense would be expected to lead to genuine sub-

limation, a result which (perhaps with exception of Case 18) never appeared within our material. Perhaps one expression of these compensatory drives is the economic success of most of these patients, testifying to their quasi-strength, selfsufficiency, maturity, and superiority. Frequent in our evidence are compensations in the direction of external appearance and class snobbery. The patients pay exaggerated attention to clothing; the women long for glamour, hoping to belong to the "best society" and trying to excel others in conspicuous consumption. Here again they overtly assert complete agreement with dominant cultural trends. Whether they achieve their goal in reality, or have to restrict themselves to vicarious experiences and reflected glory by attempts to associate with those who are successful, is not too important. In one way or another their striving for success is based on an attempt to get away from their essential selves. What compensatory mechanisms aim to achieve in the sphere of social status, introjection attempts on the psychic level. Introjection, the reverse of projection, is an attempt to take into oneself what appears to be desirable in other persons. To whatever extent introjection 6. INmojEcrioN.

is incomplete these patients pretend to possess the desired qualities. In this manner, partly by introjection, but perhaps mainly by imitation, they build up a borrowed identity. The tendency to self-aggrandizement, of which numerous examples have already been quoted, is based on such mechanisms. The identity which these people want to borrow is generally that of a popular, well-liked superior person who seems acceptable to any group. Imitation and introjection, therefore, are most noticeable where these patients strive to affiliate with dominant groups. The weaker the capacity for real human ties, the weaker the individual identity, the more intense is the effort to achieve compensatory group identity. Because of their basically weak power of identification, this effort to belong is uneasy, unstable, and continuously fraught with the threat of failure. Often there is simply a pretense at belonging, a pseudoidentification mediated on an "as if" level. Such patients over-strongly protest their membership in the "social elite" or their acceptance by dominant groups.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

The mechanism of building up a borrowed identity is particularly noticeable in those anti-Semites whose attitudes appear to be the result of conformity to group pressures. If anti-Semitic remarks in the countryclub atmosphere help to make a person part of the social clique, they obviously provide an easy ticket-of-admission for the individual whose main desire is for acceptance. In a pathetic and futile attempt at genuine acceptance by other human beings, these persons are often driven into a slavish imitation of habits and ideologies manifested by those who represent cohesive power in their community. Much of the anti-Semitism in Jewish patients and clients results from an attempt to introject Gentile qualities. One Jewish patient, in spite of the occasional humiliation to which he was exposed, lived in an area where Jews were restricted. Another Jewish woman made desper-

ate efforts to be on good terms with members of the French and British aristocracy. A Jewish boy who had first been a member of the Communist party, and was later expelled and joined the Trotskyite movement, regarded Jews as the despised petit bourgeois par excellence. A Jewish adolescent joined an Italian gang and completely adopted their attitude that Jewish boys were not as tough, and Jewish girls were not as sexually desirable, as Italians.17

For the non-Jew who seeks to establish a borrowed identity by affiliation with dominant groups, the imitation of anti-Semitic tendencies, if

prevalent in the particular group, offers a highly suitable outlet for compensatory aggression. To such persons all symbols of position, power,

and prestige_accepted, as they are, as attributes of the members of the "elite"—become eminently important. The pseudo-identification with dominant groups helps them in their attempt to deny anxiety and basic feelings of unworthiness. After all, they cannot be so bad if they think and act like the successful people around them. Thus, there is in this pseudo-

identification with dominant groups also a denial of their own disadvantageous position. It is this need for the denial of the anti-Semite's lack of privilege and his desire to introject the symbols of superiority and power which is so frequently exploited by political demagogues.18 By dividing the world simply into Jews and Jew-haters they pretend to erase all social and economic inequalities within the monolithic anti-Semitic group. In this manner all non-Jews have the promise, if not the realization, 17 James Farrell described a similar situation in Stud.s Lonigan. There a Jewish boy becomes a member of a Catholic gang which beats up Jewish boys. Lowenthai and Gutterman: The Prophets of Deceit, Vol. 5 in this series.

70

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

of being members of the ruling set. The anti-Semitic rabble-rouser is not satisfied with hurling specific accusations against the Jews. He wishes to create a caste concept implying that contact between the two groups, and

transition from one to the other, is taboo. The need of his audience to belong to an unequivocal "elite" group plays into his hands. Two cases will be presented as illustrations of the relationship of antiSemitism to defense mechanisms: Case 4: The patient is a professional woman in her middle thirties. She consulted the analyst because she was unhappy about being unmarried, and because of generally unsatisfactory relations with men. She also complained about her difficulties in keeping a position, although she never had any trouble in getting a job. The patient was prejudiced against Jews, Negroes, and all people in the lower economic stratum. She feared being attacked and hiving her handbag stolen by workers and poor people when going home late. She regarded every stranger as dangerous. She also had a deep-seated hostility to men, for they "have the best of things." She accused the Jews of being low and inferior persons, of being aggressive with bad, loud manners—"they push in the subway." The Jews are also shrewd and exploit others whenever they can, so that one has to be particularly careful in business dealings with them. The patient stated that she would rather stay unmarried than marry a Jew. In non-Jewish company she indulged in anti-Semitic comments and jokes, refraining from this in mixed company because to hurt another person's feelings would indicate bad manners. Since she was prepared to make exceptions for individual Jews, she considered herself unprejudiced. Her attitude towards Jews, or for that matter towards any of the other groups against whom she felt hostile, appeared to her to be quite rational and did not in any way con-

sciously bother her, when she began her psychoanalytic treatment. The patient's sexual drives, diverted from their natural aims, were spent in punitive measures against lovers whom she would seduce only in order to be able to refuse herself at the last moment. She consciously enjoyed such situations. Otherwise she was very conventional in her standards and highly respectful of authority. She over-identified in her work with her superiors and became involved in their problems to an extent that impeded the efficiency of her own work.

The patient was a Protestant, but her religious affiliation was purely formal

and social. She led a superficial social life, not participating in any group activities. Although she was a member of her professional organization, her interest in her profession ended at the close of each working day. She had no interest in politics, but voted Republican regularly. While she was extremely neat and orderly in housekeeping and in the way she dressed, she was not so in her work.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Analysis revealed that the patient's main conffict centered around a deep feeling of inadequacy which was linked to her rejection of being a woman. This case reveals many of the character trends outlined in the previous chapter: the diffuse anxiety, not tied to specific symptoms; the fear and anticipation of injury; the confusion of her self-image, most obvious in the confusion concerning her sexual role; the tendency to self-aggrandize-

ment manifested in her arrogance towards the economically underprivileged; her isolation and incapacity to achieve real human contacts,

either on a person-to-person or on a group level; her lack of interest and lack of relationship to the external world; her fundamental weakness

in dealing with reality; and the deep rebellion hidden beneath her attempts at external conformity.

The task confronting us now is to show how this patient, in dealing with her anxieties, utilizes anti-Semitism in the elaboration of her emotional defenses. This woman attributes to Jews and others what she hates in herself—namely, the inferiority she considers identical with not being a man. Thus, the chief mechanism she employs is the projection of her destructive self-hatred, specifically, hatred of her femininity. Linked to this attempt at denial of her femininity is the unconscious identification of Jewishness with femininity and weakness. If she openly hates the low and inferior, she cannot be as bad as they. Anti-Semitism thus not only helps her deny her weakness but, by way of compensation, it also helps restore her self-esteem. The attempt to renounce her femaleness is most obvious in her sexual relations. In other human contacts she resorts to exaggerated conformity with dominant groups and dominant mores. Her attempts to identify with those in authority give her a vicarious experience of strength, of masculinity, and make her accept uncritically any groupprejudice voiced by those whom she wishes to emulate. This permits her

to be consciously free of conflict or guilt feeling with respect to her prejudice. In this context, it is interesting to note that after some time in analysis,

and before any fundamental change in her prejudicial attitudes had taken place, she identified so much with the authority of the law that she protested against the discriminatory practices of the company she was working for. She was quite frank about her motivation: while sympathizing with the feelings that prompted discrimination, she could not possibly conceive of any extralegal action. Her basic passivity and submissiveness on the one hand, and her identification with masculine authority

72

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

on the other, induced her to respect unquestioningly whatever "the law said."9 Case 18: The patient was a man in his early thirties, Protestant, and engaged

in a successful career. He had a slight iimp as the result of an accident that occurred when he was four years old. He came to analysis because of a sexual conflict between himself and his wife, complaining that he could not achieve genuine sexual satisfaction. He also complained of a general feeling of failure to fulfill himself.

He was a militant champion of the Jews and an active liberal, having fought for the "underdog" all through his life. However, when intensely aroused emotionally he manifested a deep underlying hostility to the Jews which shocked him deeply and which, at the beginning of his analysis, was entirely incom-

prehensible to him. In an argument when slightly drunk, he found himself calling a man a "dirty Jew." During the negative transference period in treatment he also called his psychoanalyst a "dirty Jew" who allegedly took advantage of him. He thought that his underlying anti-Semitism arose only when seriously provoked by someone he disliked, especially by a Jew who he thought concealed his Jewishness. The patient had many Jewish friends. In his early youth when he was confined to a wheel chair and had been somewhat neglected by his own family, he had enjoyed the friendship of a Jewish family who had cheered him in his loneliness. His own parents, especially his mother, were somewhat anti-Semitic. Although the patient had a variety of outside interests and good human relationships with individuals and groups, he nevertheless suffered from a feeling of detachment. In his fantasy, a complete union with a woman was identical with death.

Analysis revealed as his central personality conflict an inner confusion about his own personal identity, and about his adequacy as a man. From early childhood on, this conflict had centered around his obvious physical handicap, which had excluded him from the usual boyhood games. But the accident was exploited emotionally as a rationalization for a deeper castration anxiety, manifested in considerable guilt about masturbation and in his fear of being discovered by his father. In this case, although the character traits are less obvious than in the previous one, there is much general vague anxiety, and a deep rift in the self-image, together with a feeling of ultimate loneliness. Nevertheless the adjustment to reality in many spheres is satisfactory. The motivation for this patient's anti-Semitism stems from the identification of his own crippled state with Jewish qualities. Despite an outward appearance of adjustment to his handicap, he deeply rejects it and, therefore, also rejects 19

This

attitude to the law has interesting implications for organized efforts to

combat discrimination.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

73

the Jews with whom the physically injured state equates him. The patient's

unstable sense of personal identity creates a similarly unstable pattern in his attitude to Jews, whom he occasionally rejects while simultaneously identifying with them in a positive manner. The main mechanism in this case is projection onto the Jews of his own handicap and identifica-

tion with the underdog, a defensive attempt to deny and conceal his rejection of himself as a defective, injured person. Anxiety about the self is turned into social anxiety and is replaced by an aggression characterized by missionary zeal. There are signs of hostility present in his effort to force people to accept his surface attitude towa:rd Jews, which means accepting him at his lowest. Championing

Jews thus stands for an effort to feel superior and to deny his own crippled state.

D. GROUP PRESSURES AND INTRAPSYCHIC NEEDS

From the outset it has been maintained that anti-Semitism must be understood as both a social and as a psychological phenomenon. Every attempt to seek its determinants at one level while neglecting the other must fall short of a sufficient explanation. All forms of interpersonal behavior—including anti-Semitism—are the result of a continuous inter-

action between intrapsychic needs and social factors (excepting only those components of behavior that are clearly produced by an organic disturbance of the brain). So far our discussion has emphasized intrapsychic factors. Emotional predispositions to anti-Semitism and their development have been offered as necessary, but not sufficient, determinants of anti-Semitism. The mobilization of defense mechanisms has been described as the direct outcome of these predispositions.

The focus must now be shifted to the external determinants of antiSemitism. We shall attempt to describe what Heinz Hartmann2° has called

"social compliance"—those factors in the social structure that make it convenient and easy to express personality disturbances through antiSemitism.

Two main questions arise: First, which factors in our society foster the development of the emotional predispositions which are essential for the organization of hostility in intergroup relatonships? Discussion of this 20Har Heinz: "Psychoanalysis and sociology," in Lorand, S., (ed.), Psychoanalysis Today, New York, International Universities Press, 1944, p. 326.

74

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

point must be reserved for the last section of this report, since it transcends the issue of anti-Semitism. More appropriate here is the second question: How, and to what extent, do social factors in our society shape anti-Semitic reactions?

In a previous section we discussed the intrapsychic determinants of the content of antiSemitic accusations. A distinction was drawn between the level of reaction in which persons are driven to externalize a specific unconscious conffict, and the level of reaction in which they are driven to externalize 1. THE SocIA.L DETERMINATION OF THE STEREOTYPE.

merely their-diffuse hostility. In most anti-Semites, both levels of reaction

can be discerned, but in varying proportion. We have characterized these as the "selective" and "unselective" forms of anti-Semitic projection. It is the unselective level of reaction which is characterized by an even

stronger intrapsychic need for conformity to group pressures than that which externalizes specific individual conificts. This distinction arises from a differential use of defense mechanisms. But social determinants, more or less visible, operate equally on both types. The Jew as a culturally provided projection screen (the Jewish "inkblot") generally has a negative quality. The power of this negative feeling-tone——a culturally derived product—becomes most impressive when

one examines those accusations which in other contexts would have positive values. Consider some of the accusations brought out in out material: the Jews are successful, powerful, superior, energetic, clever, intelligent, capable, industrious, persistent, bright, ethical, good family men, loyal to their people, seek the best in life, are sexually potent.21 Part of the negative emotional tone attached to these "good" qualities is provided by the intrapsychic need of the anti-Semite to attack a "goodness"

which he cannot equal. In this particular sense, the Jew personffies the anti-Semite's conscience. His attitude toward these alleged qualities of the Jew is ambivalent. On the one hand, he admires and envies these qualities; on the other hand, he ambivalently rejects them. The cultural emphasis on these qualities has the effect of marking off the Jewish group as "different." We have already demonstrated what 21Robe K. Merton, in a study, The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, enumerates a brief inventory of Abraham Lincoln's virtues as presented by some of his biographers: ". . . this selective list reminds us that he was thrifty, hard-working, eager for knowledge, ambitious, devoted to the rights of the average man and eminently successful in climbing the ladder of opportunity from the lowermost rung of laborer to the respectable heights of merchant and lawyer." Merton points out that these very same qualities which are used in eulogies of Lincoln are used as justification for the dislike of Jews.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

75

"difference" implies for weak and immature personalities. Thus the first, and perhaps most important, cultural contribution to the existence of anti-Semitism is the perpetuation of a stereotyped image of the Jew. It is as if the anti-Semite were placing a curse on the Jew that transforms even the "good" qualities into a basis for condemnation. such

The dichotomy between ingroup and outgroup is inherent in the process of group formation. Nevertheless, while some groups provide positive content for their organization, in terms of a specific group purpose, others are satisfied merely with the distinction between "we" and

"they," a distinction which they tacitly equate with superiority and inferiority. Whether or not a concrete group purpose is defined, the "we" and "they" dichotomy usually represents a powerful emotional incentive

for individual group members. It is to be expected that when antiSemitism is expressed in groups whose main reason for existence is the strengthening of the ingroup—outgroup distinction, prejudice will tend to be expressed through unselective projection. In this connection, it will be recalled that a boy of sixteen saw Jews so consistently as "they" that he could not understand why anyone would voluntarily call himself a Jew. Another illustration can be found in the adolescent Jewish girl (Case 38) who denied her religion to her gang. She was quite ready to give her reasons. First, she said, everybody knows that Jewish girls are looked down upon by others. And secondly, she had repeatedly heard members of her gang say: "There is a Jewish boy—let's beat him up." In groups with a more objectively defined purpose, the conformity pressure frequently operates on a less obvious level. An indication of this pressure is apparent in the selection of stereotypes which are in keeping with broad cultural trends. The fact that stereotypes with religious connotation hardly occur in the case material, while there is considerable emphasis on ambition and socioeconomic status, illustrates the point. Regardless of their own position, patients belonging to the upper income stratum of the population tend to see the Jew either as a social climber endangering their position in a competitive world, or as a member of a low class with inferior status, since they themselves are driven by continuous pressure to assert their economic superiority. Those who belong to lower income strata—mainly the social-agency cases—see the Jew as successful, as an exploiter, as socially and economically superior, thus manifesting the social pressure that makes them strive to obtain a higher status. The multiform, richly variegated, and self-contradictory stereotype of

76

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

the "Jew" is itself a social, and cultural product—in a sense, a collective projection. But the specific components of the stereotype which will predominate in a given culture are selected and determined by social pressure and the social relations between groups, which together constitute the social tensions of a culture. 2. TIrE Soci DETERMINATION OF ANTI-SEMITIC MANIFESTATIONS.

Social

pressures are, to a large extent, responsible for shaping the manifestations of anti-Semitic attitudes. The psychodynamic basis for such submission to cultural norms and codes has already been discussed: the parasitic self

of these patients induces them to live as though their immediate surroundings were part of their selves or they a part of their surroundings. In the choice of their defense mechanisms, their dependence on the external world induces them to shift continually between aggression and avoidance. The question to be considered here is, then: What social determinants are responsible for sanctioning or encouraging specific antiSemitic manifestations? In order to answer this question, the manifestations of anti-Semitism as they occur in the material must first be described. Most of the cases

express anti-Semitism only verbally, and even then often in narrowly confined situations. Only psychopathic personalities and borderline psychotic persons (e.g., Case 5) fail to place sufficient restraint on these manifestations. In the instance of the above patient the severity of his psychiatric illness and symptoms of homosexuality and alcoholism make him so much of an outcast that group pressures are of little importance to him as a restraining factor. Most of the others do not act out their anti-Semitism. They merely talk, but they do so with unabated intensity of feeling. There is the example of the patient who subscribed whole-heartedly to Hitler's treatment of Jews, though he was so frightened of possible Jewish vengeance that he did not even dare to agree with anti-Semitic remarks made in his presence, except in the privacy of the analytic situation. From a study of those cases where such intensity of feeling occurs, it would appear that the tendency to "act out" anti-Semitism is related less to individual motivation than to

the accepted norms in a particular group. The following illustrations indicate the social restrictions to which these persons submit: Case 1: This woman regards herself as too "well-mannered" to voice antiSemitism when there is a possibility of Jews being present. When anti-Semitic remarks are made in her presence, however, she agrees with them, regarding this an another expression of "good manners." Case 4 shows a similar pattern.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

77

Case 23: This man indulges in anti-Semitic talk inside the family (the rest of the family is not anti-Semitic), although he never does so with outsiders. Case 80: This patient refused a job because the employer is "nice, but Jew-

ish." But she gives a specious reason for her refusal, thereby indicating her awareness of obedience to social norms.

Some of the patients confine their anti-Semitic remarks oniy to the analytic situation. But there is one individual whose "acting out" of antiSemitism is uninhibited when Jews of no social prestige and standing are concerned, although he goes out of his way to be ingratiating and obliging to Jews in a superior position. In view of the fact that. most of these analytic cases belonged to the upper economic stratum, the emphasis on "polite" anti-Semitism is not surprising. The notorious second-line defense of anti-Semites—-"Some of my best friends are Jews . ."—flts in well with the surface politeness demanded by "good" society. The relationship of group sanctions to anti-Semitic action is further illustrated by a closer examination of those who have "acted out" their anti-Semitism in the past or are doing so now. Two such individuals belonged to anti-Semitic movements in Europe at a time when such membership was the fashion there. Both of them are, of course, aware that they could become members of similar organizations even in this country, but the group pressure in the circles in which these patients move in the United States is against membership in such movements. While "good" society had become actively anti-Semitic in Germany, "good" society here is not involved in organized anti-Semitism. The difference in the .

behavior of these patients in the two situations seems largely due to the difference in cultural climates to which they blindly conformed, although basically this difference in behavior (belonging or not belonging to anti-Semitic movements) does not seem to involve any change in the intensity of their hostile feelings.

Yet in this respect the cultural climate in the United States is not consistent. We have already cited the aggressive behavior of adolescent

gangs, and the agency client who, in his cultural subgroup, was encouraged to seek fights with Jews in order to prove himself as a real "man." Social-agency cases show more or less the same range of manifestations as private psychoanalytic cases; they are particularly interesting in so far as they provide further evidence for the lack of a correlation between intensity of anti-Semitic attitudes and propensity for action. Among the analytic patients there are cases of great violence of feeling

78

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

but complete obeisance to good manners, while among the socialagency cases there are some for whom violence and gang warfare are part of the accepted code of a group or neighborhood. Here one may find participation in fights against the Jews with no particularly strong feeling against them. It would appear then, from our material, that anti-Semitic action is dependent on group pressures. Where anti-Semitic pressures are of a compelling nature, they may even involve individuals who have no conscious hostility against the Jews. The reverse effect is also possible. But where group pressures against prejudice are weak, or only in the process of development, that weakness can be exploited by those whose feelings of anti-Semitism are violent. The inconsistency of the cultural climate has, in this respect, dangerous implications because of the ease with which persons predisposed to antiSemitism can shift from adherence to one pattern of socially approved behavior to another. True, the broad idealistic pattern of American culture is still based on decency in interpersonal relationships. But there are, all over the country, many so-called "elite" groups which have deserted this idealistic pattern. Our case material shows that what some people call "normal" anti-Semitism and regard as harmless, may be anything but harmless. "Polite" and violent anti-Semitism are often hardly distinguishable. A shift in the cultural climate, or a shift by an individual from one cultural subgroup to another, may suffice to move a person with antiSemitic attitudes from one category to the other, from "polite" to violent anti-Semitism.

A memorable demonstration of the utter dependence of anti-Semitic manifestations on social pressures was provided by the defendants at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi war criminals. With the exception of the psychotic Julius Streicher, none of these criminals held completely to the crude anti-Semitism of the Nazi period. They had all turned into "polite" anti-Semites who did not like Jews particularly, but that was all. To regard this shift only as a defensive lie would be a gross oversimplification. People like Goering gave sufficient evidence that they were not so frightened that they would not admit continued adherence

to the Nazi creed. But the society that demanded the extermination of Jews had broken down. Goering immediately absorbed the shift in social pressures.22 Such shifts can occur in both directions. 22Gjlbert, C. M.: Nuremberg Diartj, New York, Farrar, Straus & Co., 1947. Nehring, Walter: "Ley's Last Lie, a Case History of the Unregenerate Nazi Mind," Commentary 1:4, 1946.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

79

Perhaps the most strildng manifestation of the power of pervasive group pressures in shaping anti-Semitism is Jewish anti-Semitism. The intrapsychic determinants of Jewish and Gentile anti-Semitism seem to be essentially identical. The same emoS. JEWISH ANTI-SEMITISM.

tional predispositions occur in both: the central personality conifict is a deep-seated self-rejection. However, some of the defense mechanisms available to such fundamentally "weak" persons are less easily utilized by Jews than by Gentiles. This is especially true for the mechanism of projection which serves the function of externalizing a conffict in the hope of escaping it, and the concomitant tendency to strive for absolute conformity to one's ingroup.

Both these tendencies would seem to be obstacles to Jewish antiSemitism. For Jews, projection hits too near home to serve the purpose of externalization; and conformity to the ingroup might even imply a strengthening of Jewish loyalties. The very fact that these two apparent obstacles to the development of Jewish anti-Semitism are overcome by Jews who are emotionally predisposed to anti-Semitic prejudice bears witness to the power of social pressure. Under its influence, the Jewish anti-Semite becomes a chameleon. In flagrant contradiction of reality, his conflicted, confused concept of self permits him to pretend that he stands outside the Jewish group. Once this pretense is established he

can project "bad" qualities onto Jews and conform to the dominant majority like Gentile anti-Semites. This explains why Jewish anti-Semjtes must expend so much energy in dissimulating their group membership. One violent anti-Semite (Case 8) changed his Jewish-sounding name and adopted Christianity not because of religious conviction but in response to the desire to fortify the barrier between himself and the Jewish group. Several patients (Cases 35, 36, and 40) plan conversion to Catholicism, and one woman (Case 12) underwent a nose operation to alter her appearance so that she might pass as a Christian. To this end she also wears a cross. Although she wants very much to be married, this can never be with a Jew—"Who wants to be a 'Mrs. Cohen'?" One patient had, as a boy, avoided all contact with the few Jewish children in his class, and as an adult he has carried through this pattern by living in an area where Jews are barred, trying to achieve his main ambition in life— to be "as good as a Gentile." Other patients (Cases 20 and 25), simply changed their Jewish-sounding names.

Two interesting differences between Jewish and Gentile anti-Semitism emerge. First, in examining the content of the anti-Semitic projections of Jewish anti-Semites, the absence of "good" qualities is conspicuous. Here, there are no conscious claims that Jews are inteffigent, powerful, successful,

8o

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

sexually potent, or ethical. The reason for this probably lies in the precarious illusion of not belonging to the Jewish group, the even greater ambivalence stemming from a dread of discovery, and even more, "conversion" to their Jewishness. Their anti-Semitism seems better fortified by denying the "good" elements of the cultural stereotype. Knowing deep down that they are Jews—and failures, to boot—they cannot reconcile the culturally favorable aspects of the Jewish stereotype with their own state of being. Second, it appears that while most Gentiles in our case material hate not only Jews but also other groups as well, the Jewish need for hatred is more exclusively directed against Jews. None of the Jewish patients and clients manifested significantly any other form of prejudice.23 The explanation for such exclusiveness, in spite of strong group pressures to hate other groups, too, lies probably in the genetic aspect of Jewish anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism here has a specific personal origin. In such cases, the unresolved Oedipal situation is so closely linked with

their prejudice that they appear to get maximum satisfaction out of anti-Semitism alone. A confirmation of this explanation is provided, indirectly, by a non-Jewish girl (Case 24), who was anti-Semitic but did not manifest any other prejudice.

The case is extraordinary because the girl had, for all practical purposes, two sets of parents, her own Genifie parents and Jewish foster parents. The patient was the second of four sisters of German parents. From early childhood on, she spent most of her time with a Jewish couple, neighbors of her parents who, having no children themselves, had formed a strong attachment to her. Later on they adopted her legally and brought her to this country. Therefore it is not surprising that Jewishness is for her as central a problem as for a Jewish person.

Another form of anti-Semitism which seems to violate logical expectations is presented by the anti-Semite who is overtly committed. to an ideology of political liberalism. "Liberals" are not supposed to hate minority-group members; nevertheless, some do. Here again, only the pervasive power of social pressures in this direction can explain the inconsistent exploitation of cultural opportunities— the utilization of anti-Semitism for the spurious defense of a weak self. The logical inconsistency between a liberal outlook and anti-Semitism is so strong that we shall call these people "pseudo-liberals." Such obvious inconsistency and irrationality of approach is made pos4. Txn "LIBERAI7 ANTI-SEMITE.

23 It is well known, however, that minority group members often are as prejudiced against other minorities as some members of the majority groups.

8i sible because these views are maintained on different levels. On the action level, liberalism is dominant; on the attitude level, prejudice is dominant. The ambivalence in such "liberals" is frequently intense, and a change of environment might well lift prejudice onto the action level and put liberalism back on the attitude level. About the existence of their anti-Semitic attitudes, there can be no doubt. The Jews are "greedy in their eating habits; greedy about money; promiscuous; inferior; low class; failures; dirty; alien; don't belong but try to belong; uncultured; arrogant; moody; temperamental; melancholy; driving and pushing; outsiders; ugly; loud; too sensitive; self-conscious; insecure; weak; cheating." They are also, "intelligent and superior." Occasionally the anti-Semitism of these people is formulated without much content but rather on a name-calling level, as for example: "dirty Jew," "kikes," and "Jew bastard." There can be little doubt that on a purely rational level these patients are sufficiently intelligent to realize the incompatability of their points of view. Only in analysis, however, did it occur to them to confront these two contradictory types of social motivation. Outside the analytic situation, such contradictory modes can and do exist side-by-side in watertight compartments. THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

In analysis, the discovery of the pseudo-nature of their liberalism came as a great shock to these patients. The patient (Case 18) who was a militant champion of the Jew and the underdog in general,24 was horrified by his own anti-Semitism. In discussing his reactions we have indi-

cated why he was driven to an identification with the underdog. But that he should regard the Jew as an underdog is explicable only in terms of the cultural stereotoype he had absorbed, which in his case was against the evidence of his personal experience with Jews. The situation is similar for a man (Case 7) who throughout his life maintained close personal friendships with Jews. One of his Jewish friends had been his lifelong protector and had often helped him out of a tight spot. With signs of conflict and distress this patient admitted to his psychoanalyst his anti-Semitism. He accused Jews of being "greedy, promiscuous and out for money"; and also of being "intelligent." This man was a pseudo-liberal and an active member of various intercultural organizations of good will. As in Case 18, his pseudo-liberalism was based on an identification with the underdog, which was one product of his self-rejection. His attitude was an indication of the weakness and confusion of his self-image as well as of the weakness of his defenses. That he included the Jews among those as weak as 24

The case has been quoted in some detail on page 72-73.

8z

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

himself, was, again, the result of social forces that present the Jew in this; special role.

The belief in a simple and direct relationship! between anti-Semitic attitudes and actual contact with Jews persists among at least two groups, people of goodwill and anti-Semites. Many people of goodwill attempt to solve the problem of prejudice by en5. CONTACr JTH JEWS.25

couraging contact between non-Jews and Jews. On the other hand, many extreme anti-Semites are firmly convinced that their attitudes are the result of specific meetings and experiences with Jews, that sheer contact is all that is needed to turn a person into an anti-Semite. Such oversimplified concepts are easy to refute. The mere reference

to the anti-Semite, some of "whose best friends are Jews," ought to convince the person of good will as much as the extreme anti-Semite that' neither can rely on contact experiences alone to implement their mutually exclusive purposes. In fact, the impact of a contact experience on the anti-Semite's attitude

is modified by factors of selective perception and cultural standards. A

person tends to perceive those parts of reality which are selected in accordance with inner need. Such selective perception occurs in general, and not only with persons who are anti-Semitic. But in the light of] what has been said earlier about the reality adaptation of persons showing emotional predispositions to anti-Semitism, it can be assumed that selective perception of reality influences their group adaptation considerably.26

A person also tends to subordinate his own perception (whether or not it is marked by a high degree of selectivity) to culturally imposed standards and value concepts.27 These two tendencies are in continuous interaction, sometimes support-

ing and sometimes counteracting each other. With the exception of psychotic cases, where selective perception is carried to the extreme, these tendencies must be understood as modifications of the actual 25

For

a systematic approach to the investigation of contact between different

ethnic groups by means of experimental variables introduced into the contact situation see: Cook, Stuart W., Harding, John, Selltitz, Claire: "Problems of Inter-Group Contacts: A Research Area" (publication pending). 26 Cooper, Eunice, and Jahoda, Marie: "The evasion of propaganda: How prejudiced people respond to anti-prejudice propaganda," Journal of Psychology 23:15-25,

1947; Cooper, Eunice, and Schneider, Helen: "Don't Be a Sucker" (publication

pending). 27Allport, Gordon W., and Postman, Leo: The Psychology of Rumor, New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1947.

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

83

contact experience. Their quality and intensity modify the whole range of such experiences from those which are completely overwhelming to those which are negligible in impact. On the whole, the "good" and the "bad" contact experiences reported in our case material do not seem to have had an overpowering impact on the attitudes of the patients. Two patients (Cases 18 and 7), both of whom have just been quoted as examples of pseudo-liberalism, have had "good," prolonged and relatively important contact experiences with Jews. The former, as a child, experienced a Jewish family's warmth and affection while he was suffering from a protracted

illness. The latter had received generous help from a Jewish friend. The "good" quality of these contact experiences was perceived by both, and, if anything, selective perception worked in a pro-Semitic way, inducing and reinforcing their pseudo-liberalism. The quality of their experiences with Jews had

a deep influence, and it may well have promoted the appearance of guilt feelings when their anti-Semitism broke out under conditions of relaxed emotional control. But in both cases there was a strong unconscious tendency to subordinate their own perception to culturally imposed values. A somewhat different example of selective perception in the direction of subordination to cultural pressures is to be seen with another patient (Case 21). One would suspect such subordination from noting that all contact experiences which he reports assume an almost identical pattern. This man had repeatedly worked for Jewish employers, had had various disputes and fights with them, and had reported three incidents as supporting evidence for his accusation against the Jew. According to his reports, at least, it was he rather than the Jewish employer who had emerged victorious in all three incidents. One employer apologized for a mistake and another yielded to the client's demands.

Notwithstanding these facts the client continued to regard the incidents as "proof" of Jewish exploitation and of the successful power-position of Jews in society.

Much the same is true for a woman (Case 22) who went out of her way to seek work with Jewish employers because she claimed that from them she got better wages, better food, and better general treatment. This in no way interfered with her general anti-Semitic feelings: Jews were objectionable and Hitler was right in trying to get rid of them.

Perhaps even more surprising, at first glance, is the fact that even unpleasant contacts with Jews are not always carried over into the rationalization of anti-Semitism. One woman patient (Case 1), deserted by a Jewish lover, nevertheless continued to base her anti-Semitism on a problem that was more fundamental for her. She suffered from a deep confusion about her own self and her place in the world. She was filled with envy against everyone. Thus in spite of the experience with her Jewish lover she treated

84

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

this affair as if it had nothing to do with her attitudes toward Jews. 1 Before, during, and after the period of personal contact with Jews, she found them "obnoxious because they got things" (which she didn't), "because they were social climbers, and vulgar enough to push themselves" (all this she craved but was unable to do). In all these instances, individual contact experiences with Jews proved

to be subordinated in their importance to specific personal irrational needs and to the cultural climate in the group to which the person belonged or wanted to belong. The impact of personal contact with Jews

can, therefore, not be predicted without further information. The psychological needs and preconceived ideas of a person determine the use he is going to make of such an experience and how he will fit it into his personality structure. Such contacts, especially when early in life, may also have a highly beneficial effect, particularly when they take place in an atmosphere where broader group pressures can be enlisted to support the impact of the experience. 6. ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE FAMILY.

Frequently the assertion is made in support of the "normalcy" hypothesis of anti-Semitism that this attitude is passed on from one generation to the next within the family, which is the main agent for transmission of culture. Just as the child is acculturated by his family to such things as the kinship system, the value of money, the respect for authority and law and the use of fork and knife, so, it is held, does he acquire anti-Semitism. The child supposedly absorbs these norms of behavior and attitude at an age when he is far too young to question their validity. But this hypothesis of culturally imitated anti-Semitism tends to be disproved by our case material. In about half the cases where the attitude of the parents toward Jews is known, the parents were not anti-Semitic. Indeed some of them were active champions of the Jews. This is merely an indication that the development of anti-Semitic attitudes is not necessarily dependent on the existence of such attitudes in the family. Aside from our material, there is abundant evidence of lack of anti-Semitism in the younger generation where it existed in the previous generation. The relation between the parents' and the child's prejudice must be regarded as a function of the dynamic outcome of the Oedipal development and the vicissitudes of early identification attempts as well as of the receptivity to cultural pressures coming from inside and outside the family. In contradiction to the hypothesis of prejudice being a family heir-

THE PSYCHODYNAMICS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

8

loom is the man (Case 10) whose later anti-Semitism was partly promoted

by his mother's preference for Jews. Furthermore, most Jewish cases in our material, though not all, develop their anti-Semitic attitudes in strict opposition to the attitude of their parents. In those cases where parents and children are anti-Semitic it is more reasonable to assume that the emotional predispositions of the parents created a psychological atmosphere conducive to the development of similar emotional dispositions in the child, than to maintain the simple imitation hypothesis. Where parental anti-Semitism exists, however, the factor of parental indoctrination is certainly not irrelevant. It might modify rationalizations, stereotypes, and manifestations of anti-Semitism; it might help to fixate the pattern at a relatively early age; under special circumstances it might even be the only social agent from which the child learns that Jews can be used as a projection target. Nevertheless, in American culture, parental indoctrination does not appear as a necessary element in the production of anti-Semitic attitudes. Here, as elsewhere in this chapter, the evidence points against any onesided attempt to explain anti-Semitism exclusively as a psychological phenomenon. Social and psychological determinants are inseparable, often indistinguishable, components in the production of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism.

CHAPTER IV ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

Throughout the preceding discussion, one question, implicitly raised at several points, has remained unanswered. Given these emotional predispositions and their history, this pattern of defense mechanisms and their interaction with cultural factors—is anti-Semitism then inevitable?

In other words, is anti-Semitism as a particular hostility pattern specifically determined by this complex of factors? No simple "yes" or "no" answer can be given. The evidence has led to

the conclusion that psychological specificity is a relative factor; in the case of some anti-Semitic personalities it is high, in others low. The antiSemitic reaction was highly specific, for example, in the case of the person (Case 11) who hated Jews because he saw them combining success with a happy emotional life. Color prejudice would not have fulfilled as well the same emotional function. Specificity of a somewhat lesser degree existed in the case of the whitecollar worker (Case 29) whose hatred of the Jews was an expression of his

feeble rebellion against authority and his own economically underprivileged status. The pseudo-liberal (Case 18), on the other hand, whose occasional outbursts of anti-Semitism were based on his identification with the underdog whom he rejected along with himself, might well have selected the Negro for the same purpose of projection. Underdog identi-

fication, however, is not necessarily unspecific. The patient (Case 2) whose anti-Semitism contained the element of identification with a Jewish

victim, was particularly incensed by encountering Jews in positions of authority. That he himself had betrayed the identification with the underdog mattered little compared to the Jewish "betrayal" in escaping the underdog position and assuming a position of power. The chances are that in the American culture no other target group of hatred and prejudice could have provided him with these two significant experiences. Finally, the least degree of specificity was met in those for whom antiSemitism primarily served the function of emphasizing "difference" per 86

ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

87

se. The sixteen year old boy, for whom "Jew" was synonymous with name-

calling, could easily have substituted any other prejudice for antiSemitism.

The psychological specificity of anti-Semitism thus varies from case to

case. That is why an attempt must be made to broaden the context of the problem, to regard the wider implications of anti-Semitism along with its relation to other disturbances of group living and other social ills. For despite its historical uniqueness, the selection of anti-Semitism— from the psychodynamic point of view—is in several instances a more or less accidental manifestation of the prejudiced person's deficiencies. AntiSemitism may occasionally be due to a historical accident in individual

cases, independent of the relative degree of emotional specificity; but the disturbance in intergroup relations in such persons appears to be psychologically determined. A psychologically comprehensive description of attitudes in intergroup

relations demands consideration of four dimensions. If members of group A and group B are interacting (say, Jews and Gentiles) these dimensions are: the attitude of a member of group A to group A and group B; the attitude of a member of group B to group B and group A. In the case of anti-Semitism, disturbances occur not only in the attitude

of Gentiles to Jews and Jews to Gentiles, but also in the attitude of each to his own group. As we have demonstrated, the concept of self is continuously modified by one's own group and, in turn, the group is modified by the concept of self of its members, which finds expression in the relation to other groups. While the suffering of the Jew as a victim is of a special brand, it is not only he who suffers. As our case studies have shown, the anti-Semite also

suffers. Jew and Gentile, when they are driven by insecurity in themselves, resort to irrational hostility against outgroups. Thus, disturbances in each of these four dimensions in intergroup relations are ubiquitous in modern society.

The question then arises: Which factors in society, interacting with intrapsychic anxiety, contribute to such disturbances and the concomitant

suffering? Otto Fenichel has posed this question in his article A psychoanalytic approach to anti-Semitism.' Having stated that in Germany the Jewish separateness from the native culture and the discontent of 'American Imago, 1940.

88

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

the masses formed a complementary series which produced anti-Semitism on a large scale, he goes on to say: But what about the United States? At first glance, one may perhaps assume that here the complementary series is reverse in structure. There is no general revolutionary mood, and at least in some parts of the United States, traditional Jewish life is practiced by many. However, Jewish peculiarities have certainly not increased recently, whereas anti-Semitism has. Does this mean that there is actually a mass discontent comparable to the discontent in pre-Hitler Germany? It seems as if our theory of anti-Semitism compels us to assume something of the kind. In a certain sense, something of "mass discontent" must be present; the question is, in what sense?

Fenichel leaves this question open. To answer it comprehensively would demand a detailed critique of these times for which we have neither the qualffications nor the space. All we can do is to refer again to our material and examine it once more from a new angle. Assuming, in order to limit unfounded specula-

tion as much as possible, that our forty case histories are the only available source of information about American culture, what general deductions about the discontent in this culture can we make? The picture will be sketchy and one-sided, but it remains the best approach available in the context of this study toward finding an answer to such a question. It appears that the most outstanding feature of the culture as seen in the lives of these patients is its intense economic and social competitiveness. An indication of this competitiveness is contained in the content of the anti-Semitic stereotype. There are but a very few cases in which economic and social status qualities are not attributed to Jews: "low class, inferior, not belonging to good society," or "powerful, superior, exploiters,

pushers, social climbers." These and other accusations, whether they express rejection or envy of the Jew, are all modeled according to the competitive world in which these people live. But there are further indications of the pressure for economic success. Most of the mothers of our cases—so far as we know about them— apparently did not tell their children "be happy" but rather: "make money," "outdo your father," "get a good job." The mother of one man (Case 22) spurred all her children on to scholastic achievement in order to acquire eventual material success and to become

better providers than their father. Another mother was snobbish and ever critical of her husband for being unambitious and making a poor living. Since she could not succeed in pushing him she wanted her son (Case 9) to become a person of wealth and social prestige. One patient (Case 1), as will be remem-

ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

89

bered, was driven from one profession to another by her desperate longing to achieve social security.

It is the essence of competitiveness that success is measured by comparison with others rather than by actual achievement. That is why a strongly competitive society gives permanent cause for social anxiety to everyone, even to those who have achieved material success. There are always some who have done better, who have more money and more social prestige; and there is always the danger of being pushed down the social ladder by a competitor. For some of the social-service agency cases, the economic anxiety was realistically justified. Lack of food in some cases, crowded living quarters and continuous quarrels between the parents about money are the normal background factors that strengthen the importance of economic success as a goal in life. But the social anxiety in this competitive culture caught hold even of the economically privileged. Indeed they are often much more vulnerable to competitive anxiety because of their extreme concern with money; when they have it, they live in constant dread of losing it. One man (Case 10), who had inherited so much money that he never did a stroke of work, was plagued by fear that he would lose his money and was quite convinced that whatever pleasures he could get out of life were in direct proportion to the money he paid for them. A woman (Case 3), who to all appearances was a highly successful business woman, was continuously worried about losing her position. Another (Case 4) was unable to work unless she felt she was at the top of a hierarchy, and a third (Case 30), who had made a remarkable ascent from utter poverty to a position of comfort, always felt insecure

in her achievement. A fourth woman (Case 12), who came from a wealthy family, expressed her insatiable status drive by attempts to get into the circles of French and British aristocracy.

Where economic gain or social status become the only yardstick for success, acquisition of money is a virtue, poverty a crime. The acquisitive society2 is reflected in the patients' attitudes toward money in the analytic situation. Several analysts reported that their patients quibbled over analytic fees despite their highly privileged economic situation. Their material acquisitions, however, must be displayed to the world as a sign of success, so that others should be driven to comparison and to realize their own inferiority. Many patients seem to combine two contradictory trends in our culture: the trend for acquisition and the trend for conspicuous consumption.3 This was particularly evident for the man 2Tawney, R. H.: The Acquisitive Society, London, G. Bell & Son, 1921.

3Veblen, Thorstein: Theory of The Leisure Class, New York, Modem Library, 1934.

90

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

(Case 9) who cheated his newspaper man out of small change but at the same time felt compelled to give expensive banquets to his business friends. Even where generosity appears in these cases—which does not happen too frequently—it was motivated by the same desire for conspicuous consumption that would prove to others that the individual was not a failure. To regard poverty as a crime and as a sign of degradation is a natural correlate in a society that considers money a virtue. One woman (Case 4) was convinced that poor people and laborers get their support to a large extent from stealing the pocketbooks of the "better" people. Inherent in the competitive and acquisitive features of society, with its concomitant social insecurity, is a progressive alienation from the satisfactions of work. This problem has often been presented as the curse of mass production for factory workers.4 Judging from our cases this process of alienation is by no means restricted to monotonous work, because a large proportion of these professional people and business executives are as alienated from their work as if they stood at a conveyor belt. As a matter of fact, with one exception (Case 18) none derive any satisfaction from their actual work performance. The cultural climate is such that no importance is attached to what is being done, but rather the importance arises from how much one makes out of it. The atomization of man, judging from the social life of these patients, is highly advanced in this society. Individuals are isolated; families are isolated. There does not seem to exist a meaningful group belongingness,

unless it is organized around an issue of social prestige. The country club fulfills such a function, but a function without positive content. There is, to be sure, an urge for group cohesion. But the culture places no premium on the realization of such an urge. If the deep loneliness of people in this society were in some way to be overcome, this achievement, apparently, would be considered of small consequence. It is little wonder that the father of one patient (Case 3) is reported to have had the best time of his life while serving in the army during the First World War, for there he found purpose and companionship. Two other patients joined the Communist Party, not because they shared its ideology, but because they were drawn by its promise of group cohesion and purposefulness.

Jahoda, Marie, "Some socio-psychological problems of factory life," British

Journal of Psychology 81: 191-206, 1941.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

9!

These persons have learned from their work-life that to know other people as human beings is of no profit. Spontaneous friendliness is hamstrung by the fact and the fear of exploitation, and human relations are consequently evaluated according to their utility. Thus society debases

friendship for its own sake, and debases group membership for any purpose but prestige or utility. So much is this the case that one man (Case 31), who was himself conservative and anti-union, worked during

an election campaign for a liberal politician because this was the best way to meet the "right people." The culture-induced premium on knowing the "right people" is already considerable by the time of school and college age. Several patients reported bitter childhood memories of having been ostracized by the "right"

clique in school, and of desperate struggles to get into the proper fraternities and college circles. The realistic importance of good connections in our society intensifies the atomization of man. The "right" people are distrustful of others because they know that ulterior motives lie back of

much of the "friendliness" directed toward them. The one who seeks their company for such ulterior motives is so purpose-bound on his ascent up the success ladder that he becomes insensitive to the personal qualities of those whom he wishes to use as tools. The isolation of the individual

is the result of regarding friendship as a means to security and money rather than as an end in itself. There is, in this society, a lack of capacity for relaxation, pleasure, or the creative use of leisure time. Fundamentally, all these people are "bored" by what is going on around them, unless they can set it into a relation to their own success strivings. This boredom is, indeed, a symptom of their deep anxiety. All activity becomes patterned by the need to control this anxiety, which emerges in part from unconscious self-hatred. So preoccupied are they with this driven activity, that they lose the capacity

to enjoy themselves. To be interested in something for its own sake appears a waste of time, however heavily free time presses on such empty lives.

Social and political events are, as a rule, too far removed from the sphere of possible personal gain to arouse these persons from their apathy. The war was considered a "bore" by one patient, an "annoyance" by another. One woman who joined a Red Cross sewing club during the war explained that she did so because "it is done in my circles." Roosevelt's death elicited the following comment from one patient: "I cannot

feel sorry for a man who gave office to Jews like Miss Perkins." The

92

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

comment is noteworthy for the level of interest in the country's affairs that it manifests, as much as for the level of misinformation that it reveals. The culture presses these people into a selective perception of reality—in this case, into distorted perception through its emphasis on individual gain as the highest goal. The secularization of society is apparently increasing rapidly. Many of the patients were brought up by parents whose lives were geared to religious concepts and practices, but hardly one of the second generation whom we studied had a genuine religious feeling. Religious guidance no longer plays its traditional role of providing stable values and standards for behavior. Instead, adherence to a religious group is motivated by status purposes. This is most obvious in the few cases of religious conversion, but it also manifests itself in those who continue their parental religious affiliations. One man (Case 2), for example, whose parents were members of a small religious sect, used his formal adherence to this sect in order to get a job, although he had no religious feelings at all. Apparently, no system of ethics and values has taken the place left empty by the decline of genuine religiousness. Power, success, money, conventionality, and conformity are the only value concepts applied by these patients to judge themselves and others. The respect for the individual and his soul, so deeply anchored in Judaism and Christianity, has disappeared as a value, without a replacement. All these trends are reflected, as they must be, in the functioning of the family, the basic unit of society. The lack of warm family feeling has already been mentioned in a different context. The rift is manifested in other ways as well. The concept of married love is occasionally still maintained as an illusion. More frequently, it is replaced by the idea of a

hard social and economic contract, a marriage for convenience or prestige. The unmarried women patients all want to get married because of the increased social status, if not the economic standards of married women. A woman (Case 4), who went into analysis because she was unable to get married, explained that she suffered from the fact that all her girl friends had husbands. A man (Case 9) married a Jewish woman, in spite of his anti-Semitism, because he expected her to be a good housekeeper who would help save money. The position of a woman in this society seems to be curiously ambigu-

ous. In spite of the fact that in many of the marriages in our cases the woman actually dominates the relationship, the concept that this is a male world is kept up even by these domineering women. Most of the women

ANTI-SEMITISM IN CONTEXT

93

patients suffered from their parents' preference for boys, and yearned desperately in their youth to be men. Their professional life compels them to compete with men on "male" issues. Being mothers and wives contains meaning only insofar as sons and husbands can be expected to provide the vicarious experience of male success. This is of special interest in view of the evidence in some cases of an identification between femaleness and Jewishness.

Thus the relationship between the sexes manifests the pattern that underlies most of these trends: domination-submission. Theirs is a world in which the concept of cooperation and equality does not exist. Unless they dominate, they are crushed. This, then, is the answer to Fenichel's question as to the nature of the mass discontent which disturbs intergroup relations in American society. It does not paint a hopeful picture. In spite of its admittedly one-sided source, there are too many indications that these features of our culture

indeed exist as powerful trends. They cannot be brushed aside as the distorted experiences of our highly selected cases. There are, however, other forces at work counteracting the discontent produced by these trends. The American dilemma, as Gunnar Myrdal described it, is still a dilemma. It would be futile to seek in our material for manifestations of these positive trends. Nevertheless, we know from daily struggle and experience that they exist. People still can cooperate, respect the individual, strive for non-material purposes, voluntarily forego economic gain, have friends, be happily married, experience deep satis-

faction in groups and in their work, give themselves to creative leisure occupations, maintain genuine religious feelings, or substitute high ethical values where religion has lost its meaning. The psychodynamic study of the unprejudiced person—a challenge to

research that has not yet been met—would indicate those trends in the cultural climate which currently counteract destructive forces. It might even reveal that some individuals live as human beings, in spite of social forces that overwhelmingly manipulate most people. For manipulation it remains, even when applied in the interest of a good cause. Perhaps we might discover that some among us have been able to make that famous jump from the realm of necessity into the realm of freedom. All we can do here is to express our conviction that the case is not lost —not yet. Seen in the context of this cultural struggle, the fight against anti-Semitism is, therefore, more than a fight for the rights of Jews, or of

94

ANTI-SEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER

Negroes, Catholics, Mexicans, Japanese-Americans and others who with benefits to none often replace the Jewish victim. It is more than a fight

for the liberation of the prejudiced person whose thwarted personality makes him insensitive to the joys of life. It is a fight for the very survival of civilized mankind.

APPENDIX SUMMARY INFORMATION ON ALL CASES

Kx TO LETTERED PARAGRAPHS a:

Source

b:

Personal data (sex, age, religion, occupation, marital status) Accusations against the Jews Manifestations of anti-Semitism Interpersonal relations with Jews Dynamic role of anti-Semitism in current personality structure Genesis of anti-Semitism Group pressures in the direction of anti-Semitism Patterns of interaction between intrapsychic and group determinants which shape the final form of anti-Semitism. Pages on which case is quoted in text

C:

d: e: f: g: h: 1:

1:

CASE 1

a. b.

Psychoanalyst Woman; forty-five; Episcopalian; professional work; unmarried

c.

Jews

are low class; social climbers; very clever; vulgar enough to push;

successful in their social aggressiveness. d. e.

f.

Anti-Semitism on overt verbal level in her ingroup; patient would not offend Jews in their presence. Patient has probably had many contacts with Jews in the nature of a superficial acquaintance during her university years and in her professional life. No information on earlier contacts. Relatively late in life patient had her first complete sex experience with a Jewish man. All through her life she has had close contact with anti-Semites.

Jews, to her a symbol of success, form a convenient outlet for her deep-rooted envy and her frustrated social aspirations. Their "low-class" status helps to enhance her own prestige in society. By artificially creating a lower group on whom she can look down she attempts to increase her The

own self-esteem. g.

Patient, like all siblings in the family, was rejected by her mother alter the weaning period. The father was too weak a person to offer any compensation for this rejection. The patient, therefore, never identified ade95

96

APPENDIX

quately with either parent; hence her confusion about her sexual role in life, and the development of her envy (penis envy) as a driving force throughout her life. She always wanted to be a man, feeling it to be a

disadvantage to be a woman. Her envy of the social status of other people, especially of Jews, is a different version of this feeling. The conffict over her change of social status when she came from Europe (where this American family had belonged to the social elite) to this country reemphasized her basic envy, for which she needed and found a socially approved outlet in her anti-Semitism. h. Apparently "polite" anti-Semitism was prevalent in the circles in which she moved from childhood onwards. In her cultural milieu the Jew was conceived of as a person equipped with all those qualities she desired to possess. 1.

A basic uncertainty about her own identity is in sharp contrast to the welldefined identity of the Jews. To envy overtly their identity, or to admire alleged Jewish qualities which she would like to possess, implies a selfrejection which would be extremely painful for the patient to admit. She

therefore willingly accepts the culturally offered escape of hating and despising the Jew so that in comparison with him she herself should not /.

fare too badly. 30, 31, 32, 37, 40-42, 44, 76, 83, 88 CASE 2

a. b.

Psychoanalyst Man; about thirty-five; member of a small religious sect; professional work; unmarried

c.

The

Jews are an international, cohesive, powerful group. They are also

inferior, petty crooks, and cheaters. d. Restricted to verbal level, mainly expressed in analysis for fear of Jewish vengeance. e. Jewish peddlers visited at regular intervals the small village in which the

patient was brought up. The boy despised these peddlers, as apparently did his family and the community. In adulthood the patient twice had the experience of working for Jewish superiors. He once witnessed a scene in f.

which a Jewish-looking man was given a beating. The verbal expression of sadistic tendencies against the Jews serves as a

defense against the patient's masochistic needs. This release of verbal sadism serves especially as a defense against his hostile feelings towards

his father (which are also based on masochistic needs). g. In his early family situation the patient felt, and was made to feel, alone, confronted by the united front of the rest of his family. Here the basis was laid early in life for a deep identification with the persecuted. This made him realize that in certain aspects of his self, which he resented and rejected, he was similar to the Jews. This, to him, painful identification with

97 the persecuted Jew was fortified by alleged similarities between his religious sect and Judaism, and a genital injury with which he was born, which he equated with circumcision. Ostracism in school further strengthened his APPENDIX

identffication with the Jewish peddlers who had been ostracized by the community. While watching the beating of a Jewish person he had the sensation of being Jewish himself, a sensation which he violently rejected in its implications.

He felt impelled to join forces with the attacker, to avoid being the

victim. The patient recalled during analysis a phantasy which he placed in the latency period, of having been born as the result of a test tube experiment. This phantasy reveals a severe lack of identification with either parent; it may also be related to envy of Jewish identity which compared with his own, seemed so much more dependable. The severe beatings the boy received from his father created a strong

ambivalence of a sadistic-masochistic type. Through the release of his sadism against the Jew he attempts identification with his cruel father; on the other hand, he identifies with the beaten Jew. In his adult contact with his Jewish superiors he manifested the same ambivalence. When his wooing of them was unsuccessful he began to hate them violently. h.

i.

j.

The social contempt in which the Jews were held by the community in which the patient lived was brought home to the boy by the community's attitude towards the Jewish peddlers. Patient's doubts about his own identity are in sharp contrast to the secure identity of the Jew. His feeling of helplessness leads to identification with the beaten Jew as he sees him. The "power" of his Jewish chiefs leads him to regard them with the same antagonism he has for his powerful father. His social inferiority in school, due to his genital injury, corresponds to the social inferiority of the peddlers in the community, and they, being Jewish, also have a "genital injury," i.e., circumcision. Patient's ambivalence towards his father finds a correspondingly ambivalent pattern in the outside world's ambivalent stereotype of the Jews. 29, 31, 33, 45, 48, 57, 65, 67, 86, 92 CASE 3

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

a.

Patient probably had no contact with Jews in her childhood. Since the beginning of her business career she has met Jews, presumably only on

Woman; in her thirties; Gentile; business; unmarried c. The Jews are dirty; social climbers; fakes. d. Anti-Semitism on overt, verbal level.

f.

a business, never a social, basis. The patient projects onto the Jews those things that she blames herself far

98

APPENDIX

doing. (She regards herself as a fake who bluffed her way to success.) g.

Her anti-Semitism is a defense against a self-reproachful conscience. Very little information. Apparently the patient felt deeply rejected by her father who was a disagreeable, hypocritical, stupid man and completely disinterested in his family. He accepted almost everything but his family; she rejected almost everything but her family as a means of showing her

father how he should have acted. It is possible that the patient's antih. i. j.

Semitism was linked with this diffuse tendency to rejection. No information No information 39, 49, 59, 89, 90 CASE 4

a. b. c.

Psychoanalyst

Woman; in her thirties; Protestant; business; unmarried The

Jews are inferior, low class, bad-mannered, loud, aggressive, and

pushing; have to be watched in business dealings; shrewd. d. Patient indulges in anti-Semitic talk and jokes in non-Jewish company but never in front of Jews. While individual Jews are "all right," she rejects the Jews as a group. In spite of a strong wish to get married, she would prefer remaining unmarried to marrying a Jew. e. Patient first met Jews in adulthood after moving to New York. f. The patient has never accepted her role as a woman; she is full of selfhatred which she denies to herself. However, her self-hatred and envy become manifest in her relations with men whom she attracts in order to humiliate them. As she wants to be married mainly for reasons of enhanced social prestige, this uncontrollable irrational outlet for her selfrejection creates a real difficulty in her life. Anti-Semitism, for her, has the function of providing a displacement for her self-hate which lessens the overt difficulties in her life. g. Patient felt rejected as a child by mother and father. Mother was a forceful aggressive person who never permitted the child any warm intimacy. The patient felt that both parents were most interested in her brother; her own interests and needs always had to be subordinated to the special care required by a sick sister. The parents never showed each other affection;

relationships in the family were rigid, conventional, and without warmth. This was true also in respect to religion. The patient received formal teachings but never had deep religious feelings. This emotional climate, together with her own problem of deep-rooted envy, has led her to continue the attitude toward Jews which prevailed in her parental all

family. h.

Anti-Semitism in her parental family and early environment.

i.

No clear ideas about Jews were formulated until adulthood when the

APPENDIX

j.

99 traditional attitudes were called upon to strengthen her "observations" that Jews are aggressive and loud, and tricky in their business habits. Plagued by deep feelings of profound insufficiency she tried to inflate her own position in the world by this prejudice. 28, 33, 45, 70-72, 76, 89, 90, 92 CASE 5

Psychoanalyst

Man; in his middle twenties; Episcopalian; shifting from job to job (alcoholic); unmarried (overt homosexual) c. Sweeping anti-Semitic accusations of the Nazi type. d. The patient's anti-Semitism was verbal and bellicose and not in the least

repressed. He was not aware that such attitudes were not shared by everyone. He is in favor of quota systems, of refusing scholarships to Jrewish students, etc. e.

patient regards any accidental contact with Jews as a humiliating experience. When the analyst sent him to a Jewish doctor for a physical examination he complained about the humiliation and said that only a "damn Yankee could send a Southern gentleman to a Jewish doctor." One of the patient's aunts is married to a Jew; patient is infuriated by this. The

No information No information No information i. No information j. 61, 76

f. g. h.

CASE 6 a. b.

Psychoanalyst

c.

Jews

d.

attractive than non-Jews. His anti-Semitism was overt and was openly expressed to his Jewish employer, though he suffered no retaliation for it. The patient, an Austrian,

Man; in his early twenties; atheist; white-collar worker; unmarried

are more clever, more successful, and more sexually potent and

had been a member of the Nazi party. He had phantasies of killing all e.

Jews. Patient had a Jewish employer.

j.

The patient attributes to Jews those qualities of superiority which he envies in his father and which he has given up hope of developing in himself. They therefore serve as a projection screen for his hatred of his father. While he does not dare to have phantasies about killing his father, he does have phantasies of exterminating the Jews. Without much success he tries to bolster his self-esteem by an alleged contempt for everything Jewish.

100

APPENDIX

To hate the Jews, in contrast to his father's liberal attitude, further serves the function of a defense against his yearnings for complete passive submission to the father. g. No information h. No information i. No information 1.

50, 59

CASE 7

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

d.

Anti-Semitism burst out in one stage of the psychoanalytic treatment.

e.

Patient was first married to a Jewish woman; he had many close Jewish

Professional man; in his forties; Christian, denomination unknown; married for the second time c. Jews are greedy and promiscuous. They hoard food. They are intellectually superior. Overtly patient always acted as a liberal.

friends; one of them had once generously assisted him financially. He apparently had always been attracted by Jews and identified with them on the grounds of persecution. In their company he felt secure and safe. f.

The patient was full of aggression which he projected onto others, fearing

that they intended to do him harm. On that basis he identffied with the underdog, the Jew, and with radical political ideas. The anti-Semitic outburst during analysis presented an attempt to change position by identification with the strong, the attacker. It was a belated effort to achieve

identification with his parents, both of whom were anti-Semitic and reactionary in their political outlook. His accusation that the Jews are greedy and promiscuous reflect elements of the patient's own character structure. He is greedy and jealous, and probably considers himself promiscuous because of his two marriages. g. The patient's mother was, apparently, the dominant partner in the marital relationship; she rejected the father who was a mild person. Patient regarded his father as a somewhat ridiculous figure; apparently he feared his identification with him as an admission of weakness. He spent many years roaming the world in an effort to escape from his father; only after his father's death did he permit himself to settle In the U.S. Patient despised his father as a simple, unsophisticated man. Apparently he had not achieved in childhood identification with either of his parents, as demonstrated by the quality of his identification attempts in analysis. The unconscious wish to become like his parent—which also implies becoming anti-Semitic—must have been constantly present. h. His parents' anti-Semitism; counter-pressures were experienced when the patient mixed with liberal and radical groups. This reinforced his conscious protest against anti-Semitism.

APPENDIX

i.

/.

101

The unfulfilled yearning for identification with his parents involved a wish for passive submission to them in every respect, including their ideology, i.e., anti-Semitism. The patient's surface rebellion against his parents led him to exposures to counter-pressures from liberal groups. The struggle between the two ideologies was not really resolved as long as the patient's attitude to his parents remained ambivalent. 48, 81, 83 CASE 8

a. b. c.

d.

e.

Psychoanalyst

Man; about forty; born Jewish, converted Episcopaiian in adulthood; businessman; single Patient considers the Jews inferior; he dislikes Jewish girls; rabidly pro-

Nazi; the patient feels that Hitler had the answer to the Jewish problem. The patient's anti-Semitism is openly expressed in analysis, but somewhat guarded outside analysis. He took every conceivable action—conversion to Christianity, change of Jewish-sounding name—to disassociate himself from the Jewish group. Patient rejected his Jewishness from adolescence onwards but obviously

had many contacts with Jews through his family. Though neither of his parents were orthodox, the patient at one time attended a Jewish school which he thoroughly disliked. Once a Jewish girl was in love with him but he rejected her in spite of his wish to be a success with women and to get married. The patient once took a Jewish business partner but soon got into difficulties with him and terminated the relationship. f. The patient's own inferiority feelings gave rise to a desire for power and status which he did not seem able to achieve as long as he was like his father. The patient's rejection of himself and his father is symbolized through his rejection of their Jewishness. He felt unable to satisfy his craving for power and status. In an attempt to overcome, and at the same time yield to, a wish to disown himself and be someone else, he refuted his Jewishness. g.

h.

The patient's father was an unstable person who did not adequately pro-

vide for his family but actually neglected and abandoned them. The mother came from a "better" family than the father. She was socially and intellectually superior to him and apparently suffered from the lowering of her standards. The patient admired his mother; he hated and despised his father. His mother, in an attempt to escape the disappointment and dreariness of her own home, had the habit of frequenting a near-by settlement house where she associated with the Christian social leaders. The patient's desire for religious conversion, which dates back to his early adolescence, might well have been stimulated through his mother's choice of Christian friends. Jewishness was represented to the patient more by his father than by his mother since she associated with Christians. This representative of Jew-

APPENDIX

102

happened to be an inferior, unreliable, unrespected person. His mother's friends represented the Gentile community to him as on a higher cultural and social level. The patient's desire to be accepted by his mother and his need to compensate for his feelings of inadequacy made him accept readily the conviction that Jews were inferior. In terms of this acceptance he felt that to achieve status he would have to renounce his Jewishness and become more like one of the powerful and important Gentiles. ishness

i.

1.

79

CASE 9

a. b. c.

Psychoanalyst

Businessman; in his thirties; Jewish; married The Jews are dirty, lacking in charm and beauty, badly dressed, generally

d.

low class and failures. He also regards them as castrated. Patient is openly anti-Semitic. He lives in a neighborhood restricted against Jews and seeks out only Gentiles for social contact.

e.

Jewish family

(not religious); Jewish wife; Jewish business partner.

Otherwise he intentionally withdraws from all contact with Jews. f.

g.

The patient associates Jews with low status and inferiority, the attitude his mother had towards his father. In accepting his mother's snobbish ideas he also accepted her rejection of his father. Anti-Semitism for him fulfills the function of emphasizing his identification with his mother's value system. The denial of his own Jewishness gives the patient more status in his own eyes and helps him in his success drive. The patient nevertheless continues to feel threatened and vulnerable, and secretly

contributes to Jewish defense organizations. The patient's parents were badly matched. His mother was critical of her husband because of his lack of ambition, his low status, and because he

was a poor provider. While the patient now hates his mother overtly he had apparently deeply yearned for identification with her at an early age. His attitude towards his father is now ambivalent. At an early age he had apparently desired identification with him but this was prevented through the interference of his dominating mother. This ambivalence towards the father is reflected in his ambivalence towards his Jewishness which the father symbolizes. While he openly disassociates himself from Jewishness, he nevertheless married a Jewish woman, has a Jewish business partner, and supports Jewish organizations. In his childhood when he was one of the very few Jewish boys in class he was subjected to anti-Semitic hostility. He was ostracized and bullied by the Gentile boys. This reinforced his feeling that being Jewish meant being a failure. h.

Mother's attitude towards Jews as expressed in her rejection of father;

APPENDIX

103

anti-Semitic experiences in school; anti-Semitism in the circles in which the patient moves now. i. His mother's dominance made the patient accept her values regarding father and Jews. His dependence on her made it necessary to repress his hostility against her. The patient's feeling of vulnerability was intensified through his school experiences, and through his contacts with anti-Semites in later life, As a result he rejects his Jewishness and strives to attain the values which his mother attributed to Gentiles: success, power, money. j. 49, 88, 90, 92 CASE 10

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

Man; in his early fifties; a Protestant rentier; married second time (one divorce)

are dishonest, lie, cheat, and rob. They are inferior, crude, inconsiderate, alien, clannish. They are dangerously powerful, physically unattractive, arrogant, aggressive, too intelligent, and too cohesive. They are radical; they believe in spiritual values. They are insatiable, greedy, badmannered.

c.

Jews

d.

The patient's violent, at times murderous, feelings about Jews did not

e.

emerge in their full fury until the latter part of his analysis. Outside analysis, the manifestations of his anti-Semitism were on a verbal level only and somewhat curbed by his need to ingratiate himself with everyone. There is an unresolved suspicion in the mind of this patient that his mother has some Jewish blood. In any case, his mother was actively pro-Semitic and the patient met some Jews in his childhood in his mother's house. The patient was jealous of his mother's preference for Jewish boys. The patient exhibited a host of psychosomatic symptoms; from childhood onwards he had been frequently treated by Jewish doctors. His only friendship in his early adolescence, involving overt homosexual relations, was with a Jewish boy.

f.

patient identifies with the symbol of the "Wandering Jew" to the extent that he, too, feels homeless and unassimilated in any culture. On the one hand, he has a deep envy of the secure and invulnerable identity of the Jew which enables him to survive every attack. On the other hand, The

this identification with the Jew represents a potential menace to the patient since it places him always in an exposed and vulnerable position. He, therefore, seeks to destroy this menace through an exaggerated and violent denial of his identification. He seeks to reinforce this denial by joining forces with the attackers of the Jew who are basically his own enemies. This amounts to a self-betrayal, a kind of symbolic suicide. To a certain extent, the patient's mother represents Jewishness. Figuratively speaking, the Jews were her chosen people. Being rejected by his mother and failing to win her love he felt forced to renounce her. The hate

104

g.

APPENDIX

of the Jew, therefore, represents in part a denial of primary love for Jews. The Jew is also a symbol of his own female, castrated side which he wishes to deny. Being a woman and being cfrcumcized are both evidence of degradation. Here, again, to avoid being the victim it seemed safer to join the attacker. Beginning with his birth, the patient was confused concerning his origin

and identity. He could not safely identify with either parent. He felt basically rejected by his mother; he and the family were abandoned by the father when the patient was eight. His feeling of unworthiness and non-belonging was intensified by the hostility between the parents and by the fact that his mother, without any apparent hesitation, handed him over at the age of sixteen to the care of a near relative. A harsh and erratic discipline, practiced by both his parents in his early childhood, created deep-seated fears and hostilities in him which he did not dare to express openly. Having been rejected by his mother his attitude toward her turned

into hate (and hate of everything she liked, e.g., Jewish boys) and he

h.

1.

/.

tried unsuccessfully to renounce her. The patient's need for hate was so closely related to his central personality conflicts, and these conflicts in turn were so interwoven with competitive feelings toward Jews, that little outside pressure was needed to activate his anti-Semitism. See h above. 26, 33, 44, 45, 57, 65, 85, 89

CASE 11

a. b. c.

d. e.

f.

g.

Psychoanalyst Successful businessman; in his fifties; Protestant; married The Jews are dangerous, untamed, uncontrollable, emotional, over-sexed

but also castrated and less potent. They are ifi-mannered and overly aggressive but also shrewd, capable, and industrious. Outspokenly anti-Semitic in analysis. Little is known about his behavior in this respect outside analysis. None. The patient avoided mixing with them and has no actual knowledge of them. The Jews are equated both with his repressed emotions and his rigid conscience. By hating them alternately for one or the other reason he can maintain the repression of his own neurotic conflict. He need not own up to emotions, nor does he have to suppress them completely to be without conflict. Either direction would make him similar to a Jew. Patient's early emotional development was thwarted through rigidity and strictness at home, and a religious education which put the main emphasis

APPENDIX

105

on the concept of sin. He never developed emotionally beyond the anal stage and apparently did not achieve a successful identification with either mother or father. The anal character-attributes were overdeveloped in a socially positive sense.

h. i.

j.

Nothing is known about when the patient discovered that hatred of the Jews formed a suitable escape from his own problems. Anti-Semitism was probably accepted as the cultural norm in his family and in the community in which he grew up; no specific factors are known. No information 33, 35, 36, 49, 59, 62, 65, 86 CASE 12

a.

Psychoanalyst

Professional woman; in her late twenties; Jewish; unmarried c. Jews are dirty, have low status. They are generally objectionable. d. Dissimulation of her own Jewishness: the patient underwent a nose operation; she wears ornaments resembling a crucifix; in spite of her great desire to get married she refused to consider an offer of marriage made by a Jew; she cultivates non-Jewish social contacts with a preference for European aristocracy. e. Patient's family (Jewish only nominally); she had two Jewish girl friends in high school and has apparently had one or two Jewish lovers. f. The patient is highly ambivalent about her own sexual role as a woman. Unconsciously she equates sex with dirt. Her yearning for dirt and sex creates guilt feelings which she tries to allay by finding a "dirty" object outside herself. This love object symbolizes one side of her, which she can secretly despise while avoiding overtly despising herself. Hence her projection onto Jews. Her need for social prestige and acceptance by powerful groups—which she cannot realistically fulfill—drives her to hate in herself what she thinks prevents her from achieving her goal, namely her Jewishness and her dirtiness. By attempting to disassociate herself from other Jews she creates a lower status group which gives her an illusion of superiority. In this way she tries to lift herself above the low level of her own anal b.

preoccupations. g.

The patient's family history indicates that her parents were somewhat ambivalent about their own Jewish identity. In the mother this is expressed through her drive to be at home in all social groups.

From infancy, the patient's attempts to gain the love of her mother were frustrated. As a result of this unfulfilled yearning for identification, the patient persists in imitating her mother's behavior patterns: the mother's mild anti-Semitism is repeated in a more violent form; she follows her mother's status drive and promiscuous tendencies. The mother's rejection created a secondary wish to disassociate herself from her mother —therefore the nose operation to correct simultaneously similarity with

io6

APPENDIX

mother and Jewish identifiability. In her school life she had been ostracized

by her schoolmates for her Jewish appearance and for her ingratiating behavior to teachers. This fortified her desire to be treated like a Gentile. h.

The half-hearted Jewishness of her family; the anti-Semitism in the circles in which she moved.

i.

The patient's attitude towards dirt makes it easy to accept the common stereotype "dirty Jew." The patient's status drive makes her accept the anti-Semitic attitudes of the power groups to which she wants to belong.

j.

28, 47-48, 79, 89 CASE 13

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

Catholic woman; in her early forties; married to a Jew. The patient works in an occupation demanding special skill. c. The Jews are moody, temperamental, and too serious. They also have too much drive. d. Anti-Semitism on a verbal level mostly voiced in analysis. Patient continues to call herself a Catholic although she hasn't practiced her religion since her marriage. e. During her childhood the patient had little contact, if any, with Jews. Her family regarded Jews as outlandish and "next to gypsies." Patient is married to a Jewish (nonpracticing) businessman; she meets other Jews at her place of work. f. The patient regards the Jews as superior and more capable than herself. This creates a resentment in her. To her the Jews stand for her conscience. "The Jews want me to work and be serious; the Irish want me to play."

The patient's marriage to a Jew was the result of a desire to spite her mother who was anti-Semitic, and to spite her brother toward whom she had incestuous feelings. g. From an early age the patient was used to anti-Semitism as an accepted part of her family's ideology. The patient was rejected by her own mother and spoiled by her older sister. She idolized her father and following the same pattern, felt incestuous drives towards her older brother. Because of her hostility toward her mother and her frustrations in her relationship to her father and brother, she married a Jewish man in order to antagonize her

family. The patient is infantile, erratic and feels generally inadequate. She is hostile to any group that shows up her inadequacies and thus adds

to her frustrations. She dislikes facing realities, and projects as shortcomings onto the Jews what she envies: their drive and their serious attitude toward life. h. Family anti-Semitism; contact with Jews who are more capable than she is. i. The patient's own frustrations and hostilities encourage her annoyance with a group which is considered successful and different and outlandish.

APPENDIX

107

CASE 14 a. b.

Psychoanalyst

e.

The

f.

experience she had met Jews occasionally but was not close to anyone. In the negative transference stage the patient compared her analyst un-

Protestant woman; in her early forties; unmarried; no permanent work c. The Jews are inferior, alien, dirty. They do not belong anywhere. They are not capable of achieving real "culture" despite all their efforts. They are also aggressive. d. No indication of anti-Semitism prior to analysis. During analysis it appeared as a transference phenomenon.

g.

patient once had a love affair with a Jewish man. Apart from this

favorably to her own cultured father. She attempted to provoke her analyst by anti-Semitic remarks in order to test him and to see if he would push her out of his way as she felt her father had done. This anti-Semitism is expected to disappear with a change in the transference situation. A strong early attachment to, and feelings of rejection by her father play an important role in this transference anti-Semitism. The symbol of the

"dirty Jew" stems from this early attachment and her continuous guilt feelings about it. The patient also felt rejected by her mother. There is some identification with the Jew, for she too feels alien, and that she does not belong anywhere. She, too, has not achieved the level of culture in her own life which her parents represented. The patient tries to escape this painful realization by hating the Jew for what she rejects in herself. h. Present analyst is Jewish. i. The patient accepts the current stereotypes about the Jew in so far as they enable her to project her self-criticism onto the analyst. j.

44, 49

CASE 15

a.

Psychoanalyst

Protestant man; in his late twenties; overt homosexual; unmarried. Shifts from job to job. c. Jews are "kikes," abhorrent. Loud, inferior, offensive, greedy, Communists 1,.

who wish to take over the country. They are also morally superior and invulnerable. Openly anti-Semitic wherever he goes.

d. e.

The patient met Jewish boys casually when in prep school; had never had

f.

any but accidental and superficial contact with Jews. The patient is generally weak and a failure in life. As he feels threatened

by everyone in authority he tries to identify with those whom he considers strong. By relegating the Jews to an inferior status, he tries to deny their competitive power of which he is frightened, and tries simultaneously to deny his own weakness. His hatred of the Jews is the result of his dis-

zo8

APPENDIX

placed hatred and fear of his father. A dominating and indulgent mother

increased the patient's weakness so that he now depends on the status of other people to achieve vicariously an infantile self-aggrandizement. g. The pattern of anti-Semitism was set for the patient in his family where it was understood that one did not mingle with Jews. The patient was "castrated" by his domineering mother; he had little opportunity to identify with his submissive father. He grew up weak, uncertain, infantile, and egocentric. h. i.

1.

Anti-Semitism in his family and in his small hometown. The same attitudes

were prevalent in the snobbish prep school which the patient attended. The patient's weakness and poorly developed sense of personal identity fostered infantile self-aggrandizement and a blind acceptance of prevalent status standards which, in his community, implied being anti-Semitic. He tries to deny his own feeling of inferiority by projecting it onto the Jews. 31

CASE 18 a. b. c.

Psychoanalyst and Jewish Board of Guardians Jewish man; in his early twenties; unmarried; salesman "Jew bastards" strive for petty bourgeois success. d. Prefers to go out with non-Jewish girls; indulges in anti-Semitic talk; cannot accept authority from Jews. Gets distressed, begins to stammer when working for a Jewish boss. e. Jewish family living in Jewish neighborhood, but not practicing religion; meets Jewish people in a political youth group; Jewish analyst f. The patient's anti-Semitism is an expression of his struggle against identification with, or passive submission to, his father. There are indications

of the patient's fear of a homosexual attachment to his father. Unconsciously he feels that submission to his father would destroy him. The patient is so much preoccupied with not being like his father, and not being Jewish, that he has apparently no drive left to identify in a positive

sense with anybody. g. The patient's father was unhappy in his marriage; his mother was sick in bed from the patient's birth onwards; she died when he was eight years of age. The father had been shell-shocked during the First World War and was severely disturbed. All his hopes and ambitions were projected onto his son, whom he alternately overwhelmed with demonstrations of affection or ill-treated so severely that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children had to interfere. He wanted to compel his son to become au

outstanding musician. The more the boy protested against his father's continuous supervision and interference, the more intense became the father's reaction. This led to a highly ambivalent attitude of the son to the father, which focused on Jewishness.

APPENDIX

h.

i.

j.

109

In his boyhood the family lived in a mixed Jewish-Italian neighborhood. Because of his father's insistence, the boy was always better dressed than other children who teased him as a "sissy" and excluded him from their groups. It is possible that this rejection by the Italian boys carried with it some anti-Semitic elements. His rejection by the Jewish boys further dissociated him from his own group. In late adolescence he found some sort of acceptance in a radical youth group which provided him with a rationalization for his hostility to Jews, namely their "petty bourgeois success strivings." The social circumstances in the patient's family put him, when still a small boy, in a queer position: His mother was too ill to act the role of a mother; in relation to her he was prematurely pushed into the role of an adult protector, which he could not, of course, fulfill. This intensified the conflict with his father. In adolescence he felt rejected by his own group, which caused his attempt to identify with it to appear futile. In late adolescence his group life, from which he tried to draw strength, intensified and helped to rationalize the tendency, originating in his relationship to his father, to reject Jewishness. 46

CASE 17 a.

Psychoanalyst

Catholic woman; in her early thirties; engaged in office work; single are only half-men, castrated through circumcision; they are inferior, and in every sense less powerful than other people. d. The patient's anti-Semitism manifested itself only indirectly in dreams of Jews as "half-men" and also in her repeated attachments to Jewish men. (Attachment to "real" men was impossible for the patient.) e. The patient was brought up in an anti-Semitic environment (family and b. c.

Jews

larger community). As an adult she had several Jewish lovers. The paf.

tient's analyst was Jewish. The patient's anti-Semitism was related to the idea that Jews are inferior and especially that Jewish men, because of circumcision, are only half-

men. The patient's penis envy and general fears of the powerful male

g.

made a satisfactory sexual adjustment for her difficult. Her anti-Semitism served the function of providing at least a partial adjustment for her. The patient had great difficulties in identifying with her mother who was mentally ill. Identification with her implied the threat of insanity in the patient herself. The compensatory attachment to, and partial identification with her father, contributed to the repression of her femininity and the development of penis envy. These two factors made for the main conflict

in the patient; her attitude to Jews gave her the illusion of an external conflict behind which she concealed an essential inner conflict. h. Anti-Semitism in her surroundings.

APPENDIX

I 10 i.

The cultural attitude of anti-Semitism with which the patient was indoctrinated in her strict Catholic home is linked with the patient's interpretation of the Jews' sexual inferiority. CASE 18

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

Man; in his early thirties; engaged in professional work; Episcopalian;

c.

married "Dirty Jew"; Jews take advantage of others.

d.

In analysis and when slightly drunk the patient makes anti-Semitic re-

e.

marks. The patient had a childhood friendship with a Jewish boy and his family

f.

which lasted for years. The Jewish family gave him affection and food. As an adult the patient worked with Jewish men and had close Jewish friends. The patient was on friendly terms with his Jewish sister-in-law and her family. The patient's unstable sense of personal identity is reflected in his similarly unstable attitude to Jews, whom he occasionally rejects while simultaneously identifying with them. In general the patient tends to associate himself with democratic, liberal ideas, although he has occasionally been a member of a snobbish, restricted group (college fraternity). The patient picks up the cudgels for the Jews because he feels rejected and downtrodden on the deepest level, a consequence of his castration fears which

had become attached to his physical handicap. (He suffered from a crippling accident in his early childhood.) His crippled state fosters identification with the Jews who symbolically stand for weak, inferior, castrated people. His occasional hostility against Jews is due to his resentment about being reminded of his own infirmities. The patient has considerable social anxiety which becomes transformed into social aggression characterized by missionary zeal. There is hostility in his efforts to compel others to accept Jews, which means accepting him at his lowest. Championing the Jews represents an effort to feel superior to them and thus to deny his identification with them and his own crippled state. g.

The patient's parents separated when he was a small child. He felt rejected by his father who left the home, and also by his mother. The crippling accident separated him from his playmates and ordinary social life. He felt unloved, an underdog. Soon after the accident his friendship with a Jewish family began. In contrast to his own family they represented

warmth, affection, and cohesion. This led to his identification with the Jews which was based on their and his weakness, and also implied the rejection of his mother's and the community's attitude to the Jews. On the other hand, this disagreement with his immediate surroundings made him feel weak and vulnerable.

APPENDIX

III

The patient's attitude toward his father was ambivalent. In his childhood he was frightened that his father might punish him for secret masturbation and sex phantasies. This may have laid the basis for identification with the Jews in terms of indulging in "dirty," prohibited pleasures, the punishment for which was castration. As the patient longed for his father's

love he partly accepted his snobbish values. Later he feared that a surrender to his father would entail conversion to reactionary ideas and a destruction of his individuality. h.

i.

The patient's early personal contact with Jews, and the contrast of his and his family's feelings in this respect, made him aware of the issue of anti-Semitism. The home, community and his school—all somewhat antiSemitic—affected the patient. The patient's rejection by his mother, and his crippled state, promoted an idealization of his first Jewish friends and an identification with Jews. He

resented his environment's antagonistic attitude toward Jews because it reinforced his own vulnerability and feelings of being an underdog. The patient's ambivalent attitude to his father implied a partial acceptance of

f.

his father's outlook; hence his occasional membership in restricted groups. Such membership further increased his insecurity because of his fundamental identification with Jews. The negative component in the attitude toward his father helped him to reject his father's ideas and to become a champion of the Jews. His aggressive liberalism in this respect functioned as a device to disassociate from the Jews; if he felt strong enough to protect them, then he must be stronger than they themselves. 26, 67, 68, 72-73, 81, 83, 86, 90 CASE 19

Psychoanalyst

Woman; in her early thirties; Gentile; before her marriage she was a teacher c.

The

Jews are dirty; low class; sexually aggressive to Gentile women;

Christ-killers; all Democrats are Jews; Roosevelt was a Jew. d. Goes to Jewish analyst only when assured by friends that he is a "white" Jew. Mixes in highly anti-Semitic circles. In the course of the analysis

her attitude changed and she began to defend Jews although she continued to think of them as low class. e. Apart from analyst, hardly any personal contact with Jews. f. The patient has been brought up to consider sex as dirt. Being disgusted by her own sexual impulses she tries to rid herself of them by projecting them onto the Jews. Her anti-Semitism also functions to maintain her ties with her parents, husband, and the social circles in which she moves. g. The patient's parents were not happy in their marriage. The father was a heavy drinker who stayed away a great deal; the mother was active in the Anti-Saloon League. Quarrels between her parents witnessed in childhood by the patient made her see sex in terms of brutality and dirt. Her family's,

112

APPENDIX

especially

her mother's, anti-Semitism helped her to project her own interest in dirt and sex onto the Jews, the most easily available target

h. i.

for displacement. The family's anti-Semitism.

The patient's equation of sex and dirt, and her partial rejection of both in her parents as well as in herself, created a conflict in her. The current anti-Semitism in her milieu presented the Jews as having those qualities which she tried to deny. The readily available target for her hate thus served the function of helping her to pretend that she was free from what she disliked in the Jews. CASE 20

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

c.

Unconscious

Man; in his thirties; Jewish; married for second time; salesman accusations: Jews are weak, subjugated, castrated, dirty. d. As an adolescent the patient began to dislike his Jewish-sounding name. He hated his mother for forcing him to go to Hebrew school. His dreams revealed his anti-Semitism in analysis; consciously he went to great length as an adult to stand up for Jews and other underprivileged minorities. He changed his name to spare his son the experience of anti-Semitism. Fears anti-Semitism in his girl friend. e. Contact with Jews all through his life. In the army he suffered from antiSemitism directed against him. f. The patient's anti-Semitism presents a protest against both his parents. On the one hand being Jewish meant being like his father: weak, subjugated, and castrated by a woman. His father, who was a staunch trade unionist and not religious himself, objected to the patient's change of name on grounds of principles. Nevertheless the patient took this step in an attempt to disassociate himself from his father. On the other hand, being Jewish meant being an aggressive, sexually thwarting person like his mother. The patient wished to reject both parents in rejecting his Jewishness.

g.

The patient's parents were apparently not happy in their marriage. The family was organized on a matriarchal basis. The mother dominated her husband and the entire household. She had a need to keep all authority in her own hands and to suppress signs of independence in all family members. From his infancy to his adulthood she treated the patient according to the following pattern: she created a strong feeling of dependency in him and when he then turned to her for protection, she rejected him. The patient was dependent on her and afraid to violate her decrees; yet he was constantly unhappy in his submission. The father was a mild, indulgent man who submitted with rare exception to his wife's domination and found comfort and ease outside the family with his political

APPENDIX

I 13

friends. The father was much more attached to one of his daughters than to his son. As a small child the patient felt displaced by the birth of a younger sister. He then used to say that he was his father's child but not his mother's. At the age of eight the patient and his family moved to the country. There the patient for the first time experienced anti-Semitism. There were many unhappy incidents and the patient felt more keenly than ever before that he was different from other boys. At the same time he had phantasies of not being his parents' child. A few years later the patient saw his family infuriated by his uncle's defiant marriage to a non-Jewish girl.

The patient reported a dream in which a Catholic girl friend of his appeared while he was buying soap. Apparently he regarded this girl as h.

a means for washing off his Jewishness. Anti-Semitism in a country town; later experience of anti-Semitism in the

army; his uncle's rebellion against the traditional Jewish standards of his family. i.

The patient has a need to reject both his parents. They are very different personalities, but emphasis on Jewishness is the one thing they have in common. This makes anti-Semitism particularly suitable for rejecting both parents simultaneously through one attitude. The patient does not dare to come out in open rebellion but he witnessed other members of the f amily rebelling by means of disassociating themselves from Jewishness (his uncle). CASE 21

Psychoanalyst

Woman; in her early twenties; professional; Methodist (half-Jewish origin); single c. The Jews are on the one hand objectionable and vulgar in every respect; they are equated with everything that is pleasurable; on the other hand, they are the symbol of a God who denies life and spontaneity. d. The patient felt humiliated when treated by a Jewish doctor. Whenever possible she tends to avoid contact with Jews. e. Some contacts. The patient's family always told her to keep away from Jews. Apparently they felt ashamed of their Jewish ancestors; however the mother had a number of prominent Jews as friends. When the patient's parents quarreled, the father would accuse the mother of her Jewishness. patient projects onto the Jews her own conflicts and ambivalence regarding her sexual role, her mother, and her ethical values. Her avoidance of Jews is paralleled by her avoidance of her own sexual drives. g. The patient's parents were unhappily married. The mother treated her husband like a doormat; the father was weak, and soon began to spend most of his life outside the family in his clubs. f.

The

II4

APPENDIX

The patient and her younger brother were brought up by their mother and the maternal grandmother in a rigid and repressive manner. Sex and dirt were openly equated by these two women and the children were forced into exaggerated cleanliness. Severe masturbation threats helped to thwart the child's attitude to sex. The mother's overindulgence led to a suppression of spontaneous impulses. The child felt rebellious towards her mother but did not dare to express her aggression frankly. Some of it she displaced into hostility against her younger brother. The patient never achieved a genuine identification with her mother. The resulting ambivalence toward herself was reflected in her anti-Semitic attitudes. h. Anti-Semitism of her partly Jewish family. i. The patient's unstable sense of personal identity, resulting in partial selfresection, was symbolized and supported by her family's snobbish antiSemitism which, because of their partial Jewishness, involved also some /.

self-rejection. 46,57

CASE 22 a. b.

Psychoanalyst

c.

Jews

d.

family loyalty. Bland expression of anti-Semitism in analysis and outside of it.

e.

Man; in his thirties; Catholic; married; teacher in a reformatory are aggressive, shrewd, obtrusive, also good providers with much

No contacts with Jews in childhood. Casual

adulthood. f.

contact through work in

The patient has a vague personality and feels chronically insecure. He is

afraid to express any hostility lest its full extent come out into the open. Anti-Semitism serves him as a channel for some of the hostility that he dares not display otherwise. His own weakness makes the Jews appear

as a threat to his personality; yet he envies their aggression and sexual potency. He attempts to enhance his own superiority by relegating the Jews to a lower status. g. Early seduction by his mother antedates the patient's later attempts at

seducing his sisters. Though he was stimulated in both instances, his domineering mother prevented him from actually playing a male role. The obvious weakness of his father deterred any identification with a man. In the patient's mind, women and aggression were identified beginning at an early age; he also equated women with Jews whom he sees as potent, aggressive, and destructive. h. Anti-Semitic attitudes on the part of his family, community and church. i. The patient's fear of showing any hostile feelings and aggression against members of his family prompted him to accept the culturally sanctioned hostility against the Jews as an outlet. His insecure sense of identity, espe-

APPENDIX

115

cially as a man, his infantile dependency on his mother, and his fear of her destructive powers, abetted the patient's expression of hostility through accepted channels, i.e., anti-Semitism. Thus he projected onto the Jews his own hostility and those qualities which he fears and desires in himself. /.

88

CASE 23 a. b.

Psychoanalyst

e.

The

Man; in his twenties; Protestant; at college; single c. The Jews are ugly, loud, and oversensitive. They are also self-conscious and defensive and try to be like Gentiles. d. Verbal anti-Semitism within his family and in analysis. He is ever aware of Jews, he can "smell" them in a train, and tries to avoid association with Jewish-looking persons.

f.

patient met Jews at schools, and in adult life at work and socially.

His present girl friend is Jewish (though not Jewish-looking). The patient feels socially insecure and emotionally isolated. He has a vague self-image. He strives for superiority through class and cultural snobbishness, expensive clothes, and superior tastes. Essentially he feels that he is accepted nowhere and that he belongs nowhere. Hence he is ambivalent toward the Jews: on the one side he identifies with them as being sensitive, vulnerable, and inferior persons; on the other hand he simultaneously makes an effort to deny this identification by relegating them to a position inferior to his. Because the Jews remind him of his own inferiorities the

patient feels uncomfortable in their presence. The patient sees Jews as aggressive and this he fears. He also envies their capacity for emotional contact with others and for enjoyment of life. The patient identifies Jews with aggressive women and sees them as his enemies. His own basic passivity leaves him open for assault by strong women and emotional Jews. g.

The patient as a child felt unable to compete or identify with his gentle and gifted father. He felt deserted when his mother died in his early childhood. He regarded his stepmother as a dangerous intruder. Beset

by these fears the patient from an early age started to withdraw, to

h.

feel insecure and suspicious of the world. His school experiences confirmed his idea that the Jews are both a lot like him and also what he would like to be, but that they are not ashamed of owning up to their qualities, which he rejects in himself. His dependent need of the Jews is manifested through the selection of a Jewish girl friend. Contact with Jews in school and later life confirms his ambivalent picture

1.

of them. The patient is fearful and envious of Jewish traits. He depends upon them

but needs to emphasize his dissociation from them in an attempt to strengthen his weak self. j.

76

116

APPENDIX

CASE 24 a. b.

c.

Psychoanalyst

Woman; in her early twenties; Gentile; artist; single. From early childhood on the patient spent much of her time with a Jewish couple, neighbors of her parents, who later adopted her legally and emigrated with her from Germany to the United States. In fact she had two sets of parents: one Gentile, one Jewish.. The patient's anti-Semitism was of the Nazi brand. (She was ten years old

when anti-Semitic propaganda was officially introduced into German schools.) Specifically she thought that Jewish men raped small Gentile girls; that they were obscene. She thinks of Jews as being fat, sloppy and dirty (in the sense of oversexed). d. Avoids Jewish men, but does not reveal her anti-Semitic feelings to her

foster parents. Close but emotionally very ambivalent contact with her Jewish foster parents. From the age of ten to fifteen, exposed to Nazi education and propaganda, especially to reading the Stürmer. f. The patient is beset by a deep confusion about herself and her two sets of parents. The rejection implied in her real parents' abandonment of her to the Jewish neighbors makes it impossible for her to appreciate her foster parents and their generosity. Her anti-Semitism is a spurious attempt to solve this conffict; it does not succeed because she is in many ways dependent on and attached to her foster parents. g. The patient's real parents quarreled continuously with each other. The father had an unusual interest in circuses. His wealth permitted him to leave his home for months and follow a circus around the globe. The patient was particularly anxious for the affection of her father but felt displaced by a sister a year younger than she was. The patient shifted continuously between her own home and that of her foster parents, with e.

the result that she felt insecure in both. However, she exploited the

situation: whenever she did not get her way she would change homes. The patient's foster parents were, apparently, happily married. However, the patient strongly disliked being a witness to any sign of affection between them. The patient phantasied that her foster father took a sexual interest in her. The earliest and probably most continuous drive in the life of the patient was her unfulfilled desire for her real father's love. Because this desire remained unfulfilled, she projected onto the Jew, who happened to take her father's place, her hostility for not getting what she wanted from her real father. h. Nazi propaganda in all its forms and through all channels. i. The patient's extraordinary family situation created in her a partial hatred and rejection of her Jewish foster parents. Nazi propaganda provided her with arguments against the Jews which coincided with her own personal needs, especially in the sphere of sex. 80

APPENDIX

117

CASE 25

Psychoanalyst

Man; in his early forties; Jewish-born, he was converted to the Episcopalian religion at the age of fourteen; successful businessman. c. Jews are overbearing, aggressive, money-mad, untrustworthy. Jewish women can be "had." d. The patient insulted a business acquaintance by refusing to deal with his Jewish secretary. He never hired Jewish help himself. During the phase of his negative transference to his Jewish analyst he accused the doctor of the

traits outlined above. During the positive transference phase his antiSemitism took the form of saying that the doctor was not as bad as other Jews. He actively spread anti-Semitism. He had changed his Jewishe.

sounding name. Even before the family's religious conversion its members maintained little

contact with Jews. Ever since, the patient, plagued by a morbid fear that his own Jewishness might be discovered, has kept aloof from Jews. f. For the patient Jews are like his father, i.e., fearful, punishing, hard. He hates the Jews for exactly the same reasons that he hates his father. This hatred is the result of early rejection by his father which left the patient with a lifelong frustration, a yearning for acceptance. While he overtly professes to hate his father he emulates him in his behavior. g. The patient's father was a severe disciplinarian who dominated the entire household, including his timid wife. His mother's futile attempts to mitigate his father's harshness showed her as weak and helpless in the patient's eyes. The mother never repudiated her Jewishness (she died when the patient was thirteen years old). This difference between the parents' character structure, coinciding with their different attitude towards being Jewish, created the impression in the patient that Jews, who remained Jews, were weak and subjugated. Retrospectively the patient saw his mother as warm, affectionate, and good. But the absence of any identification in him with such values indicates that he must first have seen his mother through his father's eyes: weak, inefficient, and negligible. Soon after the mother's death the family became converted; the father then married a wealthy Christian woman who occasionally chided the father for his Jewish background. The patient's anti-Semitism became manifest when he was about seventeen years old. He then had a daydream that he would go into his father's office and denounce him as a Jew. At the same time he was morbidly afraid of being discovered as a Jew himself. h. His father's conversion; his stepmother's anti-Semitism; the anti-Semitic atmosphere in prep school and college. i. The patient's childhood need for acceptance was frustrated by his father, which left him with an exaggerated need to belong. The only acceptance he ever experienced was by his mother, a Jew, i.e., a weak person, who did not offer any protection. The cultural equivalent of his rejection by

APPENDIX

his

father was the rejection of Jews. He tried to identify, psychologically and culturally, with the enemy (his father and the anti-Semites).

j.

44, 51-58, 79

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

CASE 26

Man; in his middle fOrties; Catholic; married for second time; various jobs (artist) c. Jews are lower class; Jews "sweep a holiday resort like locusts and change its character." When drunk calls a Jew "kike." d. Patient, a left-wing liberal, feels ashamed of his anti-Semitic inclinations; he supports the underdog (mainly the Negro but also the Jew) where he can. Hesitates to introduce his Jewish friend to other non-Jewish friends. e. Continuous association with Jews on socially friendly terms. Recalls an incident of childhood where his mother was cheated by a Jewish tenant. f. The patient, who has charming and ingratiating manners, is under the surface full of hostility and sadistic aggression. These feelings break through in his occasional anti-Semitism and provide a certain amount of relief. The patient identifies to a certain extent with the weak and the underdog, i.e., the Jew, thus expressing his desire for identification with his weak father. g. The patient was the son of a German father and Irish mother. The father was a weak person who suffered ostracism inanthis country during the First World War because of his German origin. He spent little time at home and died abroad when the patient was a child. The mother an aggressive, cunning, efficient, money-greedy person who worked was her way up to considerable wealth. She frequently abandoned her son to a wealthy woman friend; however, when she discovered that the child became too attached to that woman she took him away. The patient, therefore, had no chance of identifying with his father, nor with his mother to whose domination he meekly submitted. From early childhood on he suffered from a feeling of isolation and a lack of belongingness. h. The current anti-Semitism in the culture. 1. The patient's attempts to identify with his weak father, and later on with the underdog, left him unprotected against his domineering and on the social level against the powerful groups. In order tomother, escape his feelings of loneliness and passivity he partially identified with the aggressor, i.e., he adopted the negative attitude of the culture against Jews. CASE 27

a. b.

Psychoanalyst

Woman; in her late twenties; Protestant; secretarial work; single

APPENDIX

Jews are loud. Overidentification with Jews No contact in childhood; first contacts in college; later she had a Jewish

f.

boss whom she liked and Jewish friends. Has Jewish sister-in-law. Her family was outspokenly anti-Semitic, warning her that Jews would cheat her, were loud and dirty. Patient feels completely rejected by the world, and unloved. She is like dirt. Hence her overidentiflcation with the "dirty" Jews. The patient is not capable of feeling strong emotions or of being aggressive. Hence her selfrejection, which makes her a "Jew" in her own mind, does not lead to antiSemitism but rather to a passive acceptance of her being like a Jew, i.e., inferior.

g. h. i.

No information Anti-Semitism in her family and home town The patient saw her family's rejection of herself as identical with her f am-

ily's rejection of the Jew. The patient, having repressed all aggression, became resigned to her own rejection and the fact that this put her into a position similar to that of the Jew. Her underlying reaction was one of deep submission; she was unable to mobilize an effective protest. CASE 28

a. b.

Community Service Society

c.

One

Woman; unmarried mother; Negro; in her twenties; Protestant

cannot trust Jews. They are sly and mean; get all the advantages.

They ask too many questions. d. Resentment against a case worker because she was Jewish. When the de-

mands for financial help were not immediately met by the agency, the client said that things might be different if her baby were Jewish. e.

f.

Client had worked in a hotel frequented by Jews. She had met Jews in

welfare agencies with which she was in contact. The client has experienced many deprivations and hardships throughout her life. She does not dare to feel resentful against all whites. In select-

ing the Jews as target for her displaced hatred, she finds an outlet for her hostility without getting into conflict with society as a whole. She probably also hopes for greater acceptance by some white people through sharing their dislike for the Jews. g. No information h. No information No information 1. j.

66

I 20

APPENDIX

CASE 29

a. b. c.

Community Service Society Man; in his late thirties; white-collar worker; married; Protestant

Jewish

doctors are quacks. All Jews are clever, though very tight it

money matters. They are loyal to their families, buy their women folk nice clothes and take them to good restaurants. They are economically successful; they stick by one another. d. Client gets into fights with Jewish neighbors and doctors; keeps out of their way for a time, but after a while takes up contact with them again. e. The client knows some of his Jewish neighbors, the Jewish employer of his stepdaughter, and Jewish doctors at a hospital—the out-patient department of which he consulted frequently because of his psychosomatic symptoms. He had a Jewish friend in a G.L training course who helped him with his work. The client did not object to this friend's Jewishness. f. The client suffers from deep frustrations; his emotional life is inhibited, his ambitions checked. He sees the Jews as having achieved everything that he cannot achieve: they are good husbands (his wife once ran away from him), good fathers (he has no children of his own; his stepdaughter despises him); the Jews are socially and economically successful (he is so uncertain of himself that he does not dare to accept a good job offered to him); they know where they belong (he is a foster child with a limited and confused idea about his biological parents). The comparison is so devastating for his self-confidence that his envy is turned into aggressive-

ness against Jews as a form of self-defense. If he can pretend to look down on them in spite of all their envied qualities, his own envy with its self-destructive implications is, at least, bearable.

g.

The client was born abroad. When he was very young both his parents died, and his foster parents, apparently friends of his real parents, adopted him and emigrated with him when he was twelve years old to the U.S.A. He always had suspicions about his foster parents' motivation for the adoption, and thought that his foster father was probably his real father. His

foster parents treated him with extreme severity; he never felt loved,

wanted, or backed up by them. When he was fifteen he once attempted to kill his foster mother. Apparently he was so frightened by his father that he renounced competing with him but decided to please his mother by remaining a baby. This brought him into serious conflict when faced with the responsibilities of an adult. In this context the adult behavior of the Jews as he saw them gave fresh support to his envy. h. The cultural stereotype of the Jew as the socially and economically successful person; his underprivileged economic situation. 1. The client met Jews in two social settings: as his superiors and as his

equals. His entire feeling toward persons superior to himself (Jewish doctors, employer) is thwarted because of his early life experiences. His hatred of Jews represents a displacement of his incapacity to face persons

APPENDIX

121

superior to himself. In so far as the cultural stereotype of the Jews emphasizes attributes of superiority, it drives him into the camp of anti-Semites.

When he meets Jewish persons on his own level (a Jewish friend), his j.

anti-Semitism disappears. 28, 58-55, 68, 64, 86 CASE 80

a. b.

Community Service Society Woman; fifty-eight years old; small shopkeeper; Protestant

c.

The

Jews are driving (as employers). They want to have the best of

every bargain; take advantage of other people, treat them in a humiliating way as if they were servants. d. Refuses to work for Jews in spite of need for employment and promise of good working conditions. On another occasion when put under a Jewish supervisor the client said: "My supervisor is a kind and understanding person but she is a Jewess. When the supervisor is absent for a few days there seems to be less pressure of work on me. I don't like Jews for one reason or another." All manifestations of anti-Semitism occur in relationships to a superior in work. e. Some contacts through work. f. The client became anti-Semitic apparently only after having been hospitalized for over a year because of alcoholism. Alcoholism had been for her

an escape from her personality conflicts. It is quite possible that antiSemitism provided a substitute for alcoholism, i.e., another way of escaping from facing her conflicts. The client, who had from early childhood

accumulated a tremendous amount of hostility against the world and against herself had never before dared to express her hostility against the world. From that point of view the expression of anti-Semitic feelings in

this person indicates at least a loosening up of her rigidly repressed hostilities. g.

The client was born into the worst possible milieu. Her parents were semicriminals, living in the slum area of a big town. The mother was an alcoholic. The relationship between the parents alternated between quarreling

and indifference. The client hated both parents. In her youth she had to take care of her younger siblings. When the client was sixteen she found a job as a model, and from then on moved upward into an entirely different life until she became a high executive of a beauty parlor concern. Apparently she has never been able to build up a clear image of her personal identity in this extreme social mobility. She suffered from not knowing where she belonged. In her late thirties she took to drink which represented, superficially, an escape from conffict in her work that she could h.

not solve. No information

122 1.

j.

APPENDIX

No information 83, 91 CASE 31

a.

Community Service Society b. Man; in his early fifties; Episcopalian; manual worker; widowed; born in Sweden, he came to this country some twenty years ago. c.

d.

e.

f.

g.

Jews are cheapskates; fakers; try to get away with "second best"; they do not appreciate other people; exploiters; too powerful and too successful. The client's anti-Semitism is entirely uninhibited. He expresses it at every opportunity. He is unwilling to take a job under a Jewish employer. The client felt that President Roosevelt was too friendly towards Jews. In the client's boyhood in Europe he first met a Jew who settled down in the client's home town as a fishmonger. Client reports that: "He didn't last long because he tried to cheat the fishermen. But they squeezed him out of business even after he had realized his mistake and tried to offer better prices." In the U.S.A. the client twice had Jewish employers. The first did not sufficiently appreciate the client's services but, when the client told him so, apparently apologized and thanked him for what he had done. The second Jewish employer tried to use unfair practices with his customers. When the client told him off, he changed his practice. The client has a conspicuous need to protect himself against social dange which he senses as imminent. He has a fear of being put at a disadvantage and rejected. He has a deeply concealed feeling of smallness and weakness. He tends to identify with authority and accept it unquestioningly. These attitudes dominate all his human relationships; they are most sharply focused on the Jews, a group that the client hates because of their greater success, and a group that he can attack in relative safety so that he himself can be less aware of his own weaknesses. The client was one of many siblings; he was brought up on a farm in an extremely strict manner. There was no affection between his parents; his mother was a kind person who worked very hard but always submitted to his father's will. The client hated his father but never dared to rebel against him until he decided to go away to sea. He used the Jews as an

outlet for his hatred of power—a hatred he had never dared to direct h.

i.

against his father. The anti-Semitism in his home town, which the client saw in action against a Jewish fishmonger, was apparently linked with resentment against higher

economic classes and had in it a strong element of envy. The circumstances under which the client met Jews later, repeated the same pattern. The client's ambivalent attitude to authority—inner rebellion and outward submission—was first developed in his relationship to his father. This ambivalent attitude prevented any genuine identification and set up con-

APPENDIX

123

siderable tension. The circumstances in which the client met Jews induced him to regard them much as he regarded his father. His own economic situation left him unsatisfied in this respect and forced him to envy and hate those in more favorable circumstances. The Jews thus presented an ideal displacement for his social and personal anxieties. j.

83, 91

CASE 32

Community Service Society 'Woman; near forty; Protestant; waitress; deserted by husband "Jews live off the fat of the land"; "Jews don't appreciate anything." They are stingy, don't tip properly; want the best of everything. d. Treats Jewish customers badly, especially foreign-born Jews. Politically she tends to agree with Hitlerite policies toward Jews. a. b. c.

a.

f.

g.

Jews as customers in restaurant; during the summer months the client chose voluntarily a Jewish resort as workplace because of the good food, salary, and tips. Client feels diffuse hostility against the entire world. She finds it especially hard to get along with anyone in authority. She is also especially hostile to everyone better off than she. Her anti-Semitism served her in part as a displaced outlet for her hostility. Having been born in Germany herself, German Jews better off than she served as a particularly suitable object of hate because she identified with them as to their German origin and therefore resented all the more their better social and economic position.

The client was the youngest of six children born to a German family. Father and mother had to work. The client's main complaint about her home was in relation to her mother. She felt her mother did not love her, was dominating and strict, and abused her physically. The family's economic position was very bad; the client had to work as a domestic from an early age. At the age of twenty-one she decided to leave the misery of her home and emigrate. She was deeply hurt by the fact that nobody but her father came to see her off at the boat. Nothing is definitely known about the onset of the client's anti-Semitism. However, it is interesting to note that in the agency's first contact with the client in 1935, no anti-Semitism was noted, while it did appear at a later contact in 1942. The client rejected everything American, felt proudly German, and may have been influenced in the selection of her hate target through political events in Germany.

h.

The client resented her own economic position which compelled her to "serve Jews." Her German nationalism made her identify with the Hitler regime in spite of the fact that she had voluntarily left that country about

i.

Her hatred of authority, her resentment against persons better off than she, was verbalized for her in the anti-Semitic utterances of Nazi propa-

twenty years ago.

124

APPENDIX ganda. Her own life experience, especially

as waitress, seemed to confirm the "truth" of her ideology. She felt humiliated through having to serve at all; when the people she served were Jews she found a specific channel for her grievances. The client was frustrated in her need for identification and country. This urge was thwarted twice in her life: with parents in childhood through her mother; and in later life through her own desertion of her country. To appease her own guilt feelings in this respect she adopted wholeheartedly her country's attitude towards the Jews. 83

j.

CASS 33

a.

Community Service Society

b. A Catholic school boy aged sixteen c. Jew is synonymous with calling names. Jews are smart and cunning and get the best of things because of their smartness. d. In the course of a discussion with his psychiatric social worker about neighborhood gangs he asked the worker what religion she had. He was quite taken aback when he learned that she was Jewish. He asked: "Why do you call yourself a Jew?" e. No actual contact with Jews before meeting his psychiatric social worker. f. This boy feels diffuse hostility against many groups, his own group (the Irish) included. His disparaging remarks against his own group, and his threat to his mother to change his name and dissociate himself from her completely, are indications of his desire for gaining a new identity. This implies a poorly developed sense of self which makes every group that possesses a clear-cut identity appear as a threat, and hence as hateful. g. The parents' marriage was unhappy. Apparently neither of the parents

achieved sexual satisfaction. Their violent quarrels were intensified through the economic distress in which they lived. The mother rejected the boy repeatedly, often accusing him of being like his father. This undermined his self-esteem and made it impossible for him to identify with either father or mother. Later, after his father's death, his mother also stimulated him by putting him into the role of his father and by being jealous of his girl friends. In this manner she encouraged in him an attitude of infantile dependence. h. Crude wholesale group hostilities in his family and in the gangs to which he belonged. i. His conditional fear of everyone who appeared to have a secure identity was enhanced by the socially justified fear of poverty and misery, and competition for daily bread with others better qualified to win. j.

60

APPENDIX

125

CASE 34

Community Service Society Sixteen year old Catholic girl; office worker Jews are people with whom one avoids mixing. Refused a job because there were many Jewish employees in the firm.

f.

g.

Client became friendly with a girl whom she later discovered to be Jewish. She then confessed surprise about this girl's Jewishness because "she was exactly like the rest of the girls." The client's anti-Semitism helped her to conform to the standards of her

family and her neighborhood, both of which were outspokenly antiSemitic; her church community also supported her anti-Semitic feelings. There was always much hostility within the client's family, and between the family and the neighbors. This large family was dominated by a quicktempered mother who was a bad household manager. The father was hard to get along with, and subject to spells of moodiness. Once the father

hit a neighbor with an ax; after this the family was ostracized by the neighborhood. h.

i.

The family was poor. Anti-Semitism apparently presented a convenient outlet for hostilities for everyone in this family, the client included. The experience of being socially ostracized probably reinforced group hostility; the client's anti-Semitism may also be regarded as an expression of conformity to the neighborhood. The client is obviously insecure and in need of a feeling of belongingness. The many family quarrels threaten to isolate her completely. As an ex-

pression of her desire to conform at least in some respects, the client emulates the family's anti-Semitism in a manner similar to the family's emulation of their neighbors' anti-Semitism.

CASE 35

Jewish Board of Guardians Fifteen year old unmarried mother; Jewish Jews are hypocrites. Plans conversion to Catholicism; never has Jewish friends. Attended a Catholic Sunday School. e. Jewish family, but not orthodox. Father also somewhat anti-Semitic. The father's parents are, however, extremely orthodox. Some Jewish children in the neighborhood. f. The client's rejection of Jewishness expresses her rejection of her parents, especially of her mother. To an extent it also involves a denial of her own identity. Her wish to become a Catholic is an expression of her rebellion and her search for a more satisfying identity. a. b. c. d.

126 g.

h. 1.

1.

APPENDIX

The client's parents have been separated since the client was five years old. Little is known about the psychological development of the client in infancy. Apparently there was continuous domestic friction at home and the children were used as "whipping posts." Economic misery was constant. The family was morally degenerated too; the father practiced incest with the client when she was eight years old. The client developed a deep need for love and warmth. She always became strongly attached to the mothers of her boy friends. Her promiscuous sexual relations, as well as her wish for conversion to Catholicism, express a need for affection of which she was quite conscious. The utter misery of her family situation; the influence of the Catholic Church and her Catholic friends.

The client's unhappy family life made her reject everything that characterized the family, including Jewishness, and seek support in contrasting atmospheres. Having discovered the contrasting atmosphere of the Catholic Church her idea was strengthened that the Jewishness of her family was partly responsible for her misery. 79

CASE 36

a. b. c.

Jewish Board of Guardians Girl; aged seven; half-Jewish No formulation d. Confusion about being half-Jewish e. Jewish mother; partly Jewish neighborhood. f. The child exploits the religious difference between her parents which is the only concrete difference she can grasp in an attempt to understand what is wrong in her home. When she is angry at her father the fact that he is not Jewish. On other occasions she she brings up emphasizes her being like her father. "I am as crazy as my father." She also is impressed by what her little Catholic friends tell her about their church and school, and expresses the wish to go there. She centers all her problems around being Jewish or non-Jewish, and wavers continuously in her preference.

g.

The child was said by her mother to have been perfectly happy and easily led, up to the age of two and a half years. Then she became ill and was sent to a hospital. On return she seemed frightened and disturbed. Soon afterwards a sister was born which made her worse. Her mother was ill after this birth and

sent the child to live with a "mean" aunt. This experience intensified the child's feeling of being rejected by both her parents. This child had been unplanned and unwanted. The mother is outwardly protective of her husband and children but there is ample evidence of her deep-seated hostility against them. The relationship between the parents is bad; a threatened separation has been the constant background for the child's emotional disturbance.

APPENDIX h.

127

The difference in the parents' religious affiliations; the Catholic neighborhood.

i.

The child has not been able to identify with either parent; she gropes for a way by which to externalize her own frustration and the conflict she senses between her parents. In this attempt the religious difference between the parents, emphasized by the Catholic neighborhood, presents a tangible opportunity for emotional exploitation. 79 CASE 37

Jewish Board of Guardians A Jewish unmarried mother, aged seventeen Jewish boys are not attractive. Avoidance of Jewish friends Jewish family f. The client's dislike of Jews serves as a means for expressing hostility to her Jewish parents.

a. b. c. d. e.

g.

The client's mother is a very rigid, nagging person. Her father is somewhat less critical of his daughter but both parents rejected the child during her infancy in favor of her brother. They expressed their guilt feelings by extreme overindulgence, hardly limiting the child in any way until they discovered her pregnancy; from then on the father also turned severely against her, mainly because she had been associating with a nonJewish boy.

h.

1.

A mixed Jewish and Catholic neighborhood in which each group emphasizes the essential difference and tries in spite of the involuntary physical closeness to maintain its isolation from the other. The client's need for warmth and affection was not met in her own home; she therefore tried to discover an "opposed" atmosphere. In terms of the actual neighborhood situation this meant turning to non-Jews. CASE 38

a. b.

Jewish Board of Guardians A half-Jewish, half-Irish unmarried mother; aged fifteen

boys are immature and unattractive, "long-nosed and unmanly." "Everyone knows that Jewish girls are looked down upon by others." d. Keeps her Jewishness a secret from her boy friends; wants to be mistaken for an Italian; dislikes one grandmother because she speaks Yiddish. e. Jewish family; keeps contact with anti-Semitic gangs where she frequently hears statements like, "He's a Jew; let's beat him up." The leader of one of these gangs told her that the gang once raped a girl only because she c.

Jewish

128

APPENDIX

was Jewish. (The client was raped herself by a gang, but apparently

without reference to her Jewishness.) The client feels strong hostility toward her Jewish mother who rejected her from bhth. Jewishness is identified in the girl's mind with Her dislike of Jews serves the function of dissociation from her her mother. mother. g. The client was an unwanted child, rejected by her nagging and domineering mother. In contrast to her mother, her father was overindulgent but being a nervous person he would occasionally have fits of anger against the child. Her ambitious Jewish mother dominates her half-Irish father and drives him on, as his earning capacity leaves her dissatisfied. The child's early as much f.

as her present unhappiness is based on the lack

of love. Rejected by her constantly depriving mother the girl searches for male attributes in herself and others. She justifies her preference for Italian boys by saying that she admires their directness, forcefulness, and uninhibited sexuality. She also likes their food and their warm family atmosphere. The ethnic difference in the parents' background was used by the girl to rationalize her confused sense of personal identity. Her wish to become Catholic is an expression of her search for a compensatory identity. h.

Jewish-Catholic intermarriage is the rule in both her father's and her mother's family. Apparently much family conversation is conducted in terms of religious group stereotypes. The gang which the girl joined was outspokenly anti-Semitic. i. The girl's confusion about her own identity, created in early childhood, is reflected in the divergent group memberships of her family. As the happens to stand both for Jewishness and for rejection the girl treatsmother these two attributes as linked and tries to escape from both. Her attempts in this direction are helped by her father's Gentile identification, and the antiSemitic attitudes of her group which, in contrast, does give her some acceptance.

j.

75 CASE 39

a. Jewish Board of Guardians b. Girl; aged seventeen; partly Jewish, partly Syrian c. Jewish boys are morally unclean; more sexual than Gentile boys; they

are also brighter, and more interesting. Jewish people are curious about other persons' private lives. d. Feels revulsion towards Jewish boys; prefers non-Jewish girl friends, e.

Jewish

mother; lived for twelve years in Europe with mother's Jewish family. Now contact with Jews and non-Jews. f. The girl's confessed revulsion towards Jewish boys is expression of her attempt to repress all sexual feelings. By appearing toanlimit this revulsion to one group she can pretend to herself that the reasons for this half-

APPENDIX

129

hearted repression lie outside herself. The selection of the Jewish group

for this purpose is encouraged through her ambivalent attitude towards being half-Jewish herself. In open conflict with her Jewish mother she idealizes her Syrian father who lives abroad and whom she does not know. She tends to reject everything in connection with her mother; on a deeper level she feels frustrated in her yearning for her mother's love. g.

h.

i.

The girl was an unwanted child. Her mother, a rigid, tense, controlling person, was in conflict with her husband who, according to her account, wanted her to behave like an eastern, and not a western woman. Her mother felt she could solve her marital problems easier if the child were away. Therefore the baby was sent to Europe at the age of eight months. The marriage ended in divorce, and the father returned to Syria where he remarried. The child stayed with her maternal grandmother by whom she was loved and also spoiled. She regarded this grandmother for a long time as her real mother. Returning to her mother after the grandmother's death she was again rejected by her and sent to various boarding schools. In one of these she was subjected to anti-Semitic attacks from schoolmates. The conflict between her parents which was expressed in their different group memberships, i.e., eastern Mohammedan vs. western Jewish culture; some cultural anti-Semitism in the United States.

The rejection that the child experienced at an early age prevented the development of a healthy identification with either parent. The resulting doubts about herself led to ambivalence about her own group memberships; the conflict between her parents, conveniently symbolized by the conflicting group memberships, served as a means for expressing her own insecurities. CASE 40

Jewish Board of Guardians

A boy; aged fifteen; illegitimate son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father; adopted by a Jewish couple C.

d.

He tends to think of himself as Gentile in spite of his Jewish upbringing. When he goes to a synagogue he feels guilty and empty; when he goes to

a Catholic church he feels warm. He wants to be a Catholic like his e. f.

mother. Jewish upbringing in a Jewish family from infancy. The boy's vague anti-Jewish feelings serve as an expression of his longing

for the love of his Catholic mother. They are, at the same time, a rebellion against the continuous rejection he experienced from his Jewish adoptive parents.

130 g.

APPENDIX

The boy was born out of wedlock; he had been told that his mother tried to kill him immediately after birth but he refused to believe this. Apparently she neglected the baby completely, and neighbors cared for him until he was adopted. His adoptive mother is simple-minded and as a rule overindulgent. When she loses her temper, however, she attacks the boy viciously, calling him "ginny bastard." His adoptive father is paranoid. When the boy thirteen he was crudely and unceremoniously told that he was onlywas an adopted child. His understandable confusion about his own identity led him to reject his Jewishness. h. His social and family situation. i. The confusion about his own identity, his desire to belong, and the rejection and lack of understanding he experiences in his present home led to imagine that everything was good that was different from his home him and represented his mother, i.e., Catholicism is better than Jewishness. j.

79

BIBLIOGRAPHY Ackerman, Nathan W.: "Anti-Semitic motivation in a psychopathic personality: A case study," The Psychoanalytic Review 34: 1, 1947.

Ackerman, Nathan W. and Jahoda, Marie: "The Dynamic Basis of AntiSemitic Attitudes," Psychoanalytic Quarterly. Vol. 17: 1948, 240-260.

Ackerman, Nathan W. and Jahoda, Marie: "Toward a dynamic interpretation of anti-Semitic attitudes," The American Journal of Ortho psychiatry 18: 1, 1948.

Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswick, Else, Levinson, Daniel, and Sanford, Nevitt: The Authoritarian Personality, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949. Ailport, Gordon, and Postman, Leo: The Psychology of Rumor, New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1947. Bak, Robert C.: "Masochism in paranoia," The Psychoanalytic Quarterly 15: 3, 1946. Betteiheim, Bruno, and Janowitz, Morris: Dynamics of Prejudice, New York. Harper & Brothers, 1949. Brenner, Arthur B.: "Some psychoanalytic speculations on anti-Semitism," The Psyciwanalytic Review, 85: 1, 1948. Cooper, Eunice, and Jahoda, Marie: "The evasion of propaganda: I1ow preju-

diced people respond to anti-prejudice propaganda," The Journal of Psychology, 23, Ffrst half, 1947.

Cooper, Eunice, and Schneider, Helen: Don't Be a Sucker (publication pending). Dollard, John, et al: Frustration and Aggression, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1945. Fenichel, Otto: "Psychoanalysis of anti-Semitism," American Imago 1: 2, 1940. Freud, Sigmund: Moses and Monotheism, New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1989.

Gilbert, G. M.: Nuremberg Diary, New York, Farrar, Straus and Company, 1947.

Graeber, J., and Britt, S. H. (ed.): Jews in a Gentile World, New York, The Macmillan Co., 1942.

Hartley, Eugene: Problems in Prejudice, New York, King's Crown Press, 1946.

Hartmann, Heinz: "Psychoanalysis and sociology," in S. Lorand (ed.): Psychoanalysis Today, New York, International Universities Press, 1944, p. 326. Jahoda, Marie: "Some socio-psychological problems of factory life," British Journal of Psychology 31: 191-206, 1941.

'3'

132

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Kris, Ernst: "Notes on the psychology of prejudice," The English Journal 35: 6, 1946.

Lewin, Kurt: "Self hatred," Contemporary Jewish Record 4: 3, 1941. Loewe, Adolf: The Price of Liberty, London, Hogarth Press, 1937. Lowenstein, Rudolph M.: "The historical and cultural roots of anti-Semitism," Psychoanalysis and the Social Sciences 1: 318, 1947. Lowenthal, Leo, and Guterman, Norbert: Prophets of Deceit, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949. Massing, Paul: Forerunners of Destruction, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1949.

Merton, Robert K.: "The self-fulfilling Prophecy," The Antioch Review, Summer, 1948. Myrdal, Gunnar: An American Dilemma, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1944. Nehring, Walter: "Ley's last lie: A case history of the unregenerate Nazi mind," Commentary 1: 4, 1940. Parkes, James W.: An Enemy of the People: Anti-Semitism, New York,

Penguin Books, 1946. Sartre, Jean-Paul: "Portrait of the anti-Semite," Partisan Review, PR Series, No. 1, 1946. Selltiz, Claire, Cook, Stuart W., and Harding, John: Problems of Intergroup Contacts: A Research Area, (publication pending). Sherif, M.: The Psychology of Social Norms, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1936. Simmel, Ernst (ed.): Anti-Semitism: A Social Disease, New York, International Universities Press, 1946. Tawney, R. H.: The Acquisitive Society, London, G. Bell & Son, 1921. Williams, Robin W., Jr.: The Reduction of intergroup Tensions: A Survey of Research on Problems of Ethnic, Social, and Religious Group Relations, New York, Social Science Research Council, Bulletin 57, 1947. Wilson, Charles E. (chairman): To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President's Committee on Civil Rights, Washington, United States Government Printing Office, 1947.

INDEX Adaptation, reality, 36-88 Aggression, social, see Anxiety Aggressiveness, 32-83 Alcoholism, 29, 31, 61, 76 Anal character traits, 47-48 Anti-Semitism, defined, 19 Anxiety, 27-29, 61 social aggression substituted for, 63-64 avoidance of contact, 64-65 opposition, 65-66 Apathy, 91-92 Atomization, 90 Attitudes, in intergroup relations, 87 Avoidance of contact, 64-65

Case histories—( Continued) projection, 57 selective anti-Semite, 59-60 unselective anti-Semite, 60-61 reaction formation, 67 reality adaptation, 87 religious feelings, 92 selective character of, 17-19

Behavior determinants, 10-11 Bias, 2 Boredom, 91-92

Circumcision, 50

social aggression substituted for anxiety, 63-65 specificity, 86-87

stereotype, determination of, 75 See also Appendix, 95-130 Castration anxiety, 48 Character, national, 6-8, 57 Children, Oedipal struggle, 48-55 relationship of parents to, 45-48

Climate, cultural, see Cultural climate Clinical diagnosis, 25-27 emotional predispositions, anxiety, 2729

conformity and fear of the different, Case histories, anti-Semitism in family, 85 anxiety, 28 children, parents' relationship to, 45-48

83-36

confusion of concept of self, 29-82 conscience development and repres-

conceptual tools, development of, 19-

sion, 88-42

interpersonal relations, 82-83 reality adaptation, 86-38

24

conformity and fear of the different, 84, 35-36 confusion of concept of self, 29-31

Cohesion, group, 90 Columbia University,

conscience development and repression, 88-42

contact with Jews, 83-84 defense mechanisms, relationship to anti-Semitism, 70-73 denial, 62 displacement, 66 economic anxiety, 89 form for, 11-17 interpersonal relations, 82-83 Jewish anti-Semitism, 79-80 liberal anti-Semite, 81-82 manifestations, anti-Semitic, 76-77 marriage, reasons for, 92 Oedipal conflict, 48-49, 50, 51-55 parental relations, 44

Psychoanalytic

Clinic for Training and Research, 3 Compensation, 67-68 Competition, 90 Compulsion, 49 Concepts, development of tools, 19-24 anti-Semitic, 1-2

national character, 6-8 normalcy, 4-6 prejudice, 8-4 of self, confusion of, 29-82 Conformity, 38-86, 47-48, 75 Conscience, development and repression, 88-42

Consumption, conspicuous, 89-90 Contact, avoidance of, 64-65 between Jews and non-Jews, 82-84 '33

'34

INDEX

Cultural climate, 77-78, 86-94 and social research, 1-2

Coering, Hermann, 78 Group cohesion, 90 Group pressures, 69-70 anti-Semitism in family, 84-85 contact with Jews, 82-84 and intrapsychic needs, 78-74 Jewish anti-Semitism, 79-SO liberal anti-Semite, 80-82 social determination of stereotype,

Data, see Case histories Defense mechanisms, 55-56 denial, 61-63 displacement, 66 introjection, 68-70 74-76 projection, 56-59 social determination of anti-Semitic selective anti-Semite, 59-80 manifestations, 76-78 unselective anti-Semite, 60-61 reaction formation and compensation, 66-68 relationship to anti-Semitism, 70-73 social aggression substituted for anx- Hartmann, Heinz, 73 Hitler, Adolf, 78 iety, 63-84 Homosexuality, 25, 31-32, 42, 61, 76 avoidance of contact, 64-65 Hostility, 19, 41 opposition, 65-66 Denial, 61-63 Depression, 25-26 Determinants, behavior, 10-11 Identification, with parents, 48-55 Development, of conscience, 38-42 Identity, confusion of, 29-32 Diagnosis, see Clinical diagnosis Impotence, 25, 36, 51, 53 Different, fear of, 33-36 Intergroup relations, attitudes in, 87 Displacement, 66 Interpersonal relations, 32-33 Drabness, 36-37 Interviews, form for, 11-17 Dullness, 36-37 Intrapsychic needs, see Group pressures Introjection, 68-70 Economic success, pressure for, 88-89

Ego, 3 parasitic, 64

Ego-inflation, 81 Ego weakness, 21 Emotional predispositions, see Clinical diagnosis Envy, 41-42, 83-84

Family, anti-Semitism in, 84-85 See also Parents Fear of the different, 33-86 Fenichel, Otto, 87-88, 93 Form, data collection, 11-17 Freud, Sigmund, 2, 3

Genetics, 11, 22-23, 43 Oedipal struggle, 48-55 relationship between parents, 43-45 relationship of parents to children, 45-

Jewish anti-Semitism, 79-80

Liberal anti-Semites, 80-82 Life circumstances, changing, 29-30 Loneliness, 33

Manifestations, anti-Semitic, 76-78 Marriage, 92 Mass discontent, 87-88, 93 Methodological considerations, conceptual tools, development of, 19-24 selectivity of material, 17-19 Myrdal, Gunnar, 93

National character, 6-8, 57 Negative transference, 18, 19 Normalcy, 4-6

INDEX

135

Oedipal conflict, 21, 48-55 Opposition, 65-66

Scapegoats, 56-57

Paranoid personalities, 26 Parasitic ego, 64 Parents, and Oedipal conflict, 48-55 relations between, 43-45 relations to children, 45-48 Polite anti-Semitism, 77-78 Poverty, 90 Predispositions, emotional, see Clinical

Sexual relations, 33, 88, 41-42, 44, 51,

diagnosis

Prejudgment, 3-4 Prejudice, concept of, 3-4 psychodynamic studies of, 9-10 Pressures, see Group pressures Projection, 28, 56-59 selective anti-Semite, 59-60 unselective anti-Semite, 60-61 Psychoanalytic terminology, 2-3 Psychodynamics, 9-10 Psychological specificity, 88-87 Psychopathic personalities, 25, 26, 76

Rationalization, 56 Reaction formation, 88-67 Reality adaptation, 38-38 Rejection, of child, 45-47 Relations, interpersonal, 32-33 parental, see Parents Religiousness, 92 Repression, 36, 62 of conscience, 38-42 Research, social, 1-2 Resignation, 38

Secularization, 92 Selective anti-Semite, 59-60 Selectivity, 17-19 Self, concept of, confusion of, 29-32

53-54, 70-72 Sibling rivalry, 45-46, 47 Social aggression, see Anxiety Social research, and cultural climate, 1-2 Social-welfare agencies, 16-17, 63-64, 7778, 89 Social workers, psychiatric, 15, 16 Specificity, psychological, 86-87 Stereotype, 3-4, 48, 58, 88 social determination of, 74-76 Streicher, Julius, 78 Success, economic, pressure for, 88-89 Suppression, 82 Symbolic acts, 56-57, 58 Symptoms, 25-27

Tension, relief of, 65-66 Terminology, psychoanalytic, 2-3 Toilet training, 47-48 Transference, negative, 18, 19 Transference hostility, 18

Unselective anti-Semite, 60-61 Violent anti-Semitism, 78

Women, position of, 92-93