In Anti-Semitism and the Paranoid Dynamic I focused on the compensatory and adaptive uses to which anti-Semitism has traditionally been directed. Although in the long run anti-Semitism, like the paranoid delusions which are a model for the pathology, always fails. It drains energy and attention away from productive pursuits and introduces a confounding variable that interferes with an accurate assessment of reality. When one's sense of reality is impaired, function and adaptation suffer. This raises the question of what fuels anti-Semitism? As Bernard-Henri Lévy noted, in the quote I posted yesterday, anti-Semitism has protean expression, shifting its shape to fit the needs of the anti-Semite:
As always. Anti-Semitism has no fixed pattern; it does not present itself always in the same form. It’s like a virus which changes. What are the workings of its changes, what is its logic is tied, simply, to what is acceptable. It is as if anti-Semitism—without giving it an intelligence, which it doesn’t have—is searching for the precise words or intellectual schemes for allowing itself to be heard, to be supported by the most people. It is as if it were searching for the words which might help it advance, not under the flag of pure evil, but under the flag of an evil aiming sort of in a good direction.
When a particular symptom complex can be so easily applied in many disparate situations, it suggests that there are key unconscious components that need to be identified in order to understand its meaning. Anti-Semitism has a long history, starting with the early Christians who used it to differentiate themselves frm the Jews and to discredit Judaism. Included in their felt need to supplant the Jews as G-d's "chosen people" was a less conscious "sibling rivalry."
Most societies with which I am familiar have a tradition of some form of primogeniture, ie, favoring the first born son. Later children grow up in an environment in which they know they are second to the oldest who recieved the full panoply of the Mother's affections and attention which now must be shared. In situations of scarcity, under which most people in history have lived, the disadvantages of being born second (or being born female), were marked; envy and resentment accompanied such disparity. In the more modern familial environment overt sibling rivalry is frowned upon and suppressed but its effects nonetheless reverberate. Further, although modern societies have developed enough wealth to blur the distinctions in status among children, this has meant that in times of stress, envy and resentment over unequal advantages in life can be easily mobilized. The Jew, as the "oldest" (and later as the weakest) child then is the easiest choice for the hated sibling.
[The current turmoil in the economy and the momentary agitation over the AIG bonuses is an example of envy/resentment being used by the politicians, who have the key responsibility for mismanaging the bail-outs, as a way to divert attention from their own culpability.]
[The Islamist's overt, conscious, and ongoing violence against Christians and Jews certainly fits into the sibling rivalry paradigm. In the face of their failure to thrive in modern societies, the need for a scapegoat and the intensification of envy and resentment are obvious. The need to see themselves as Allah's chosen people contrasts with the disparity between the success of their hated older siblings and fuels their rage.]
In addition to sibling rivalry, an additional source of envy relates to the Utopian fantasy that lies at the heart of religion. All religions have a version of the Utopian fantasy, that if you live your life according to the precepts of your religion you will take part in G-d's Paradise, either on earth or in heaven. These beliefs have their precursors in the ubiquitous fantasies of a distant past in which all needs and desires were gratified by the all powerful, primordial Mother. The wish to be taken care of as one imagines a baby is cared for by the loving Mother is universal, though often denied and maintained as an unconscious wish in adulthood. When promised gratifications in the real world are withheld, frustration and rage are frequent responses (especially in those with more Narcissistic pathology who interpret failed gratifactions as rejections.) In our current political environment , many people have become comfortable with the idea that the government is the font of gratification. When the government fails, as it inevitably must when the peoples' desires are unlimited and the government's means are not, anger at the deprivation can be destabilizing (even in the absence of catastrophic deprivation, such as hunger or homelessness.) Governments are quite skillful at deflecting such anger and the more totalitarian governments typically look for identifiable groups to scapegoat. Again, the Jews fit nicely into this paradigm. It is not then the government that withholds form the deserving and loved people, but the "international bankers" or the "Elders of Zion" who control the world's economy. The Jew is then the withholding Mother who enrages the infantile public.
Finally, there is the rage that is evoked by the controlling Father who forbids the gratifications the child wants and deserves. The enraged Palestinians, for example, nurtured by the West's largess, desire nothing more than the full fruition of their fantasies. They are quite overt about their desire to murder the Jews, rape their women, and enslave their children. Their enablers in the West would be happy to maintain their rage directed at the Jews (for fear it could be turned on them, among other reasons.) Yet the evil Jews prevent them from gaining such deeply desired gratification. The Jew is then the Father who demands that his son behave in a civilized fashion and is hated for his stern demeanor.
Note as well, the connection between the Father who withholds from them the (derivative of the Utopian) Mother. Oedipus would recognize the struggle. The Islamists want nothing more than to destroy those who would interfere with their Utopia, which would surely descend were the impediments removed.
Anti-Semitism has its roots in universal familial fantasies and conflicts. It encompasses the wish to be favored by the Father and Mother that animates sibling rivalry; it includes aspects of the desire for a perfect reunion with the early, all gratifying Mother. Anti-Semitism reflects rage against the Superego strictures of the Father and the murderous wishes that inhere in the Oedipal struggle. For all these reasons, it has become a default position for the insecure and angry.
Please note that this is quite schematic and incomplete, yet the fact that anti-Semitism has roots in the primitive personality helps to explain some of its ongoing power. It is fueled from deep sources and such fuels never run dry.
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