Suchergebnisse

Ghanem reviews 'Communicating Prejudice' edited by Michael L. Hecht.

A description of some of the psychol'al att's that create prejudice. 'Prejudice may be defined as a bias or leaning of feeling, favorable or unfavorable, in regard to categories of objects of perception prior to testing the reality or validity of such a feeling.' To accept attitude change, & to overcome fear & hate of unknown objects, the child has to be sure that the parent figure who introduces the new object is a good & safe person. The protective function of these phobias or prejudices lies 'in their enabling the subject to release some of the unconscious ambivalence against a substitute for the original target-object of his hate or fear, while also avoiding the catastrophic implications of becoming aware of these feelings against the original object - say his father or mother. Displaced or transferred feelings are the essential psychol'al dynamisms in xenophobia & other forms of ethnic prejudice. Another common feature is the felt threat of being coerced or overcome by fiercer or more subtle or just stronger people, with the implied sense of one's own honest simplicity or weakness, often camouflaged by an assumption of rugged individualism & patriotic chauvinism. The 2nd main category of motives for ethnic prejudice rests on the projection of one's own rejected but still active instinctual desires to the object of prejudice. 'The `stranger' is the symbol of those parts of one from which repression & guilt feelings have alienated one.' The typical prejudiced person 'is an emotionally insecure person. His or her relationship to home background was such as to induce marked conflict in the sphere of aggression vs submission to parent figures.' E. Weiman.

Introduction / Shashi Tharoor -- Prejudice : conceptual and universal dynamics -- From unmentalized xenophobia to messianic sadism : some reflections on the phenomenology of prejudice / Salman Akhtar -- Toward understanding prejudice : benign and malignant / Henri Parens -- Terrorism, fundamentalism and nihilism : analyzing the dilemmas of modernity / James Gilligan -- Developmental aspects of prejudice -- The development of prejudice : an attachment theory hypothesis explaining its ubiquity / Peter Fonagy and Anna Higgitt -- Roots of Prejudice : findings from observational research / Henri Parens -- Family development and the origin of prejudice / David Scharff and Jill Scharff -- The roots of prejudice in family life / Hans-Jurgen Wirth -- Malignant prejudice : specific kinds -- Anti-Black racism and the conception of whiteness / Forrest Hamer -- Contemporary anti-semitism : variations on an ancient theme / Ira Brenner -- Religious prejudice and the formation of Mormon and non-Mormon selves in Utah : a view from phenomenological anthropology / David Knowlton -- Panelalestinian-Israeli conflict / Nadia Ramzy -- Prejudice between Palestinians and Israelis / George Awad -- Belief systems, identity and the function of prejudice in Israeli politics / Carlo Strenger -- Prejudice : studies and prevention strategies -- A brief history of prejudice studies / Elizabeth Young-Bruehl -- The prejudices of everyday life with observations from field trials / Stuart W. Twemlow and Frank Sacco -- Germans and Israeli Jews : hidden emotional dynamics / Hanna Mann-Shalvi -- Malignant prejudice : guidelines toward its prevention / Henri Parens

There has been a tendency to shift our interest in intergroup relations from a soc to a psychol'al framework- from behavior patterns or institutions to att's or beliefs, from discrimination to prejudice, from a sociol't's to a soc psychol't's view of minority-majority relations. The most influential application of psychol'al concepts to the analysis of prejudice is THE AUTH- ORITARIAN PERSONALITY by T. W. Adorno et al. The thesis of this work is that diff's in child rearing patterns have led to 2 contrasting types of personality, authoritarian & democratic, & that prejudice or the lack of it is essentially a reflection of these 2 psyches. The concentration of psychol'ts on the allegedly prejudiced person has produced a relative indifference as to what the object of prejudice may be. Unfavorable judgments that are objectively founded -such as dislike for Communistscannot be considered prejudiced. J. A. Fishman.