Cover not available

Article published In: Journal of Narrative and Life History
Vol. 5:4 (1995) ► pp.353–368

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

The Meaning of Hatred As Narrative: Two Versions of an Experience

 | Department of Behavioral Sciences Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Published online: 4 August 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.5.4.04mea
Abstract The multivocality of hatred is revealed through the analysis of a journal entry portraying a complicated emotional relationship between a young woman, a 6-year-old girl, and the girl's mother. Two competing readings of hatred are presented, revealing the different narrative positions from which the subject speaks. One is a psychoanalytic discourse, tracing the intrapsy-chic, object-related hurts that were reactivated from the past and projected in present experiences. The other is a constructionist reading, which focuses on conflicts over values and ideas, suggesting a communicative theory of ha-tred. It is concluded that these different voices are not hierarchical, but rather alternately dominate the text, depending on the position of the speaker and the context. The meaning of hatred is thus revealed as neither unified nor univocal. Rather, the narrative perspective mediates between childhood hurts and normative and ethical reason. It constructs two stories, both of which illustrate similar (but not identical) plots of suffering, mis-recognition, and dependency. (Social Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Construc-tionism, Emotions)
References (32)
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Armon-Jones, C. (1986). The thesis of constructionism. In R. Harre (Ed.), The social construction of emotions (pp. 32–56). Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronson, E. (1988). The social animal. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Averill, R. J. (1982). Anger and aggression: An essay on emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benjamin, J. (1988). Bonds of love. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bollas, C. (1984). Loving hate. Annual Journal of Psychoanalysis, 121, 221–237.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denzin, K. N. (1984). On understanding emotions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1989). Interpretive biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fromm, E. (1973). The anatomy of human destructiveness. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gadamer, H. J. (1975). Truth and method. New York: Seabury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Galdston, R. (1987). The longest pleasure: A psychoanalytic study of hatred. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 681, 371–378.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gergen, K. J. (1990). Social understanding and the inscription of self. In J. W. Stigler, R. A. Shweder, & G. Hardt (Eds.), Cultural psychology (pp. 569–606). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Habermas, J. (1984). Reason and the rationalization of society: Vol. 1. A Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harre, R. (Ed). (1986). The social construction of emotions. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hochschild, R. A. (1983). The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klein, M. (with Riviere, J.). (1962). Love, hate and reparation. London: Hogarth.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Myerhoff, B. (1979). Number our days. New York: Dutton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pao, P. N. (1965). The role of hatred in the ego. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 341, 257–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ricoeur, P. (1993). Oneself as another. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riviere, J. (1962). Hate, greed and aggression. In M. Klein & J. Riviere (Eds.), Love, hate, and reparation (pp. 3–53). London: Hogarth.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Salovey, P., & Rodin, J. (1984). Some antecedents and consequences of social comparison jealousy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 581, 780–792. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheff, J. T. (1992). Emotions and identity: A theory of ethnic nationalism. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Social theory and the politics of identity (pp. 227–303). Oxford, England: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheff, J. T., & Retzinger, M. S. (1991). Emotions and violence: shame and rage in destructive conflicts. Lexington, MA: Lexington.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sherif, M., Harvey, O.J., White, B. J., Hood, W., & Sherif, C. (1961). Intergroup conflict and cooperation: The robber's cave experiment. Norman: University of Oklahoma Institute of Intergroup Relations.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shweder, A. R., & LeVine, A. R. (Eds.). (1984). Culture theory: Essays in mind, self and emotion. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simons, J. (1995). Foucault & the political. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stivers, C. (1993). Reflections on the role of personal narrative in social science. Signs, 181, 408–425. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stolorow, R. D. (1972). On the phenomenology of anger and hate. American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 321, 218–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Temkin, B., & Yanay, N. (1989). I shoot them with words: An analysis of political hate-letters. British Journal of Political Science, 181, 467–483. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. (1992). Mapping the language of racism. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wiener, J. W., & Rosenwald, C. G. (1993). A moment's monument: The psychology of keeping a diary. The Narrative Study of Lives, 11, 30–57.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winnicott, D. W. (1975). Hate in the countertransference. In Through pediatrics to psychoanalysis (pp. 194–203). New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Kaplan, Danny
2007. Folk Models of Dyadic Male Bonds in Israeli Culture. The Sociological Quarterly 48:1 ► pp. 47 ff. DOI logo
Opotow, Susan & Sara I. McClelland
2007. The Intensification of Hating: A Theory. Social Justice Research 20:1 ► pp. 68 ff. DOI logo
Zembylas, Michalinos
2007. The affective politics of hatred: implications for education. Intercultural Education 18:3 ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue