Developmental and dynamic dimensions of hate,rage, and violence

Abstract

Hate may be regarded as a complex affective-cognitive emotion and attitude alloyed with aggression. Hate and aggression have both neurobiological and environmental determinants. Hate may be overt or covert, externalized or internalized, and/or somatized. Persistent recurrent painful and traumatic experiences generate and exacerbate hate and aggression. An amalgam of hate and love is evident in the ambivalence of all self and object relationships and in conscious and unconscious fantasy. In the mature personality, there is a preponderance of love over hate. There may be justified hatred of sociopathic individuals and groups.     

Coping strategies of former prisoners of war mediate the intergenerational transmission of posttraumatic stress symptoms

Objectives: Certain coping strategies, characterized by emotional coping or disengagement/ avoidance, have been linked to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and PTSD symptoms (PTSS). However, the role of primary trauma victims’ coping strategies in the intergenerational transmission of PTSS is still lacking. This prospective study assessed the mediating role of former prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) coping strategies in the associations between ex-POWs’ PTSS and their adult offspring’s secondary PTSS in relation to their fathers’ captivity and psychiatric symptomatology.

Design: A correlational, prospective study.

Method: A sample from the 1973 Yom Kippur War composed of 79 Israeli ex-POW father-offspring dyads completed self-report measures. Fathers were assessed in 2001 and 2008, and their adult offspring participated in 2014.

Results: ex-POWs’ problem-focused coping strategies of active coping and planning, as well as disengagement-oriented coping strategies of alcohol and substance use and venting of emotions, were negatively associated with offspring’s PTSS and psychiatric symptomatology. Importantly, ex-POWs’ venting of emotions mediated the link between ex-POWs’ PTSS and their offspring’s secondary PTSS.

Conclusions: Ex-POWs with PTSS might expose their offspring to dysregulated mood, behaviors, and cognitions. Special awareness should be given to the venting of emotions coping style as possible mechanism for the intergenerational transmission of captivity-related PTSS.     

Fantasmatic interaction and intergenerational transmission

Direct observations and video recordings of mother-infant dyads are used to study the organization of fantasmatic interactions. The infant is represented in the mother's fantasmatic life as the child of the desire for maternity and is represented in her imaginary life as the child of the desire for pregnancy. During pregnancy, therefore, the fetus serves a dual function for the mother: One function is fantasmatic, marked by its mother's intrapsychic conflict; the other function is imaginary, as constructed from the mother's latent thoughts. Evidence from clinical studies illustrates the role of life events in structuring both the fantasmatic and the imaginative infant. Therapeutic interventions can be facilitated by having parents view videotapes of their interactions with their infants. Other implications for therapeutic interventions are suggested.     

Displacement trauma: complex states of personal,collective and intergenerational fragmentation and their intergenerational transmission

Originally presented at the Journal’s one day conference entitled ‘Displacement: Contemporary Traumatic Experience’ held in London in November 2019, this paper expands on the author’s theory of the implicit psychological organizing gestalt, an associated pattern of psychic functions which operate in an integrated way to simultaneously structure and organize our experience of self-cohesion and self-continuity. The gestalt, which implicitly links the formation of psychic skin, body image, cultural skin and both personal and cultural identity with place, functions as an emergent non-conscious permanent presence or background ‘constant’. It develops over time and emerges out of embodied emotional experiencing with the total environment – both human and non-human. The author argues that it is the rupture of this gestalt and the disorganizing consequences of its loss which underlies the experience of displacement trauma. If disruptions in the formation of the gestalt and/or its later rupture remain unrecognized and unrepresented then the absence creates a void which can be intergenerationally transmitted. Case material is presented which describes this and which highlights the ways in which the gestalt can contribute to our understanding of collective displacement anxiety, cultural trauma and cultural complexes.     

The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure

The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure was examined in two studies with undergraduates and their parents. Parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure was documented for mothers and fathers, controlling for parents' and undergraduate's impression management and self-deceptive enhancement response tendencies. Love withdrawal was validated as a mediator of parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure for mothers but not for fathers. Mothers' and fathers' fear of failure was also a positive predictor of undergraduate's adoption of performance-avoidance goals in the classroom, and undergraduate's fear of failure was shown to mediate this relationship. Fathers' fear of failure was also a negative predictor of undergraduate's mastery goal adoption, and this relationship was likewise mediated by undergraduate's fear of failure. The results are discussed in terms of the reorienting of positive, appetitive achievement motivation toward negative, aversive achievement motivation.     

Female juvenile delinquency, motherhood, and the intergenerational transmission of aggression and antisocial behavior

The current study explored the intergenerational transmission of aggression and antisocial behavior by examining mothers' juvenile delinquency, their pregnancies, and its impact on their children's aggressive behavior. The sample consisted of the first 181 biological mothers recruited as part of the Vancouver Longitudinal Study on the Psychosocial Development of Children (British Columbia, Canada). Results indicated that mothers who were juvenile delinquents were more likely to experience social adversity, to use substances during pregnancy and to offend in adulthood. Furthermore, mothers who reported juvenile delinquency had children who were more physically aggressive and had an earlier onset of physical aggression. This pattern of association held when controlling for sociodemographics, social adversities, prenatal substance exposure, and criminal involvement in adulthood. The study findings highlighted the importance of understanding the role and impact of female delinquency and motherhood on the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior.     

Changes in attitudes towards war and violence after September 11, 2001

Two inter-related studies examined the effect of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on attitudes towards war and violence. A three-wave between-subjects analysis revealed that attitudes towards war became more positive after September 11, 2001 and remained high over a year afterwards. Self-reported trait physical aggression also rose after September 11. Attitudes towards penal code violence (PCV) became more positive immediately after September 11, but were somewhat reduced a year afterward. A two-wave within subjects study revealed that war attitudes became even more positive at 2 months post-September 11. Attitudes towards PCV became less positive during this time period, but only for women. Other aggression-related attitudes were not affected in either study. These studies demonstrate that a large-scale event can change attitudes, but those attitudes must be directly relevant to the event.     

Covenant,blood, and violence: America at war with itself and others

Religious nationalism is dangerous, because it tends toward violence. In the case of America, religious nationalism is preceded by, and dependent upon, a covenant with God that renders judgment against the nation when it fails to embody divine justice. The second use of the law in Lutheran theology, combined with René Girard's scapegoat theory, provides the prophetic public theologian with a searchlight to make visible the nation's justification of violence. The haunting question becomes this: should the prophetic public theologian expose the lie on which American religious nationalism is built and risk sundering human community?     

On love, hate and knowledge

In this short theoretical paper, I discuss Bion's three relations of love, hate, and knowledge, using Peirce's semiotic theory of relations and Bakhtin's semiotic/philosophical writings. Reading Bion through the prism of these resources allows us to better understand the meaning and ontogenesis of the basic relations and to examine their clinical explanatory value.     

Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior

There is a strong assumption of intergenerational continuity in behavior patterns, including antisocial behavior. Using a 3-generation, prospective study design, we examine the level of behavioral continuity between Generation 2 (G2) and Generation 3 (G3), and the role of economic disadvantage and parenting behaviors as mediating links. We estimate separate models for G2 fathers and G2 mothers. Data are drawn from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study begun in 1988 during G2's early adolescence (n = 1,000), which has collected prospective data on G2, their parents (G1), and now their G3 children. Results show that intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior is evident, albeit somewhat modest. Parenting styles and financial stress do play a mediating role, although their effects vary by G2's gender. In general, adolescent delinquency plays a larger role in linking the generations for G2 fathers, whereas parenting behaviors and financial stress play a larger role for G2 mothers.     

The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational-cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent–child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parent–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed.     

经济态度和行为的代际传递现象及机制

经济态度和行为存在从父母向孩子的代际传递现象, 经济态度代际传递的研究内容较为广泛, 包括金钱态度、风险态度、互惠态度和消费态度, 经济行为代际传递的研究主要集中在消费行为、捐赠行为和储蓄行为三个方面。除了遗传路径, 其代际传递有两条社会化路径: 孩子对父母的观察学习和亲子互动, 其中亲子互动包含亲子沟通和财务教养两个层面, 亲子沟通强调语言层面的互动, 而财务教养强调行为层面的互动, 但是财务教养的研究仅停留在表面, 缺乏深入的剖析。未来需要加强中国文化和现实背景下的代际传递现象研究, 并深入探讨其机制。     

Intergroup contact buffers against the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice

The present study focused on the buffering role of positive intergroup contact in the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice in a sample of adolescents and one of their parents. In accordance with our expectations, adolescents’ intergroup contact experiences moderated the mediated relationships between parental authoritarianism and adolescents’ prejudice, both via adolescents’ authoritarianism and via parental prejudice. These relationships were stronger among adolescents with lower, rather than higher, levels of intergroup contact. We conclude that intergroup contact buffers the indirect relationship between parents’ authoritarianism and adolescents’ racial prejudice and therefore constitutes a promising means of reducing the intergenerational transmission of prejudice.     

Development and evaluation of school-based violence prevention programs

Discusses key issues in developing and evaluating school-based violence prevention interventions. Schools provide a natural setting for implementing programs directed at teaching youth attitudes, knowledge, and skills to reduce their involvement in violence. Although multitudes of these programs exist, few have been rigorously evaluated. Developers of violence prevention programs need to pay particular attention to the type of violence being addressed, the target population, relevant risk and protective factors, and the target of the intervention. Conducting sound evaluations of such programs requires careful attention to the unit of randomization, treatment conditions, outcome measures, timing of data collection, and potential moderator variables. Efforts to develop effective prevention programs can be greatly facilitated by adopting an action-research strategy in which evaluation findings provide a basis for continual program refinement.