An antisemitic transference and countertransference

Abstract

The author presents a clinical psychoanalysis in which his Jewish patient fears that her non‐Jewish analyst hates her for being Jewish. Antisemitic expressions of hate toward the analyst have been well‐documented, but a fear of the analyst's hateful transference to the patient has not been previously examined in a published report. This transference led to an impasse in the treatment and prompted exploration of countertransference on the analyst's part; was he, unconsciously, expressing any religious hatred? The author examines a technical question of whether such a transference can be analyzed in the usual way as a displacement of infantile trauma? Or do the antisemitic aspects of the transference need to be examined and understood in their cultural and religious implications first and then analyzed as a real aspect in the external world before its infantile roots can be exposed? In this particular case, the author concludes that the latter approach is necessary and useful to facilitating clinical progress. The author suggests that this approach may be applicable to other analyses where there are racial, class, or religious differences and the patient develops fears about the analyst's attitude. The author offers this case as an example of the necessary integration of cultural and sociological issues into the classical model of intrapsychic conflict.

The emotional appeal of shared fantasies in Nazi propaganda: A psychoanalytic view

“…White (2023) has offered a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory of antisemitism based on the work of Volkan and others on large group identity. He distinguished between internal racism, the tendency of individuals to hate and project, and external racism, the pathological large group formations of hatred.…”

“…He conceptualized the role of Chosen Trauma and Chosen Glory in creating, maintaining, or changing a sense of large group identity. White (2023) has utilized Volkan's concept of Chosen Trauma and Chosen Glory in his study of antisemitism.…”

Antisemitism: A psychoanalytic theory

“…In a recent publication, the author addressed the effect of antisemitism as it unfolded in the clinical setting of a psychoanalysis in a persistent transference/countertransference of antisemitic fears (White, 2023). This paper offers a general theory of group hatred which is applicable to both racial and religious hatred.…”