Social scholars suggest that the characteristics of the political reality as well as historical forces influence the individual’s psychology¹. In the context of conflict, Louie Zamperini et al. aptly state that enmification processes can significantly contribute to the understanding of how unrelenting mutual enmity in inter-group conflicts become so tenaciously engrained within individual identities². Notwithstanding, […]
Tag: Psychoanalysis
To define an enemy image, psychosocial and conflict scholar Louis Oppenheimer leans on political scientist Janice Gross Stein. He describes it as “a set of beliefs or assumptions about an individual or a group and is considered a natural reaction to the process of identity formation by individuals and groups”¹. In addition, Oppenheimer recognizes that […]
The field of psychodynamics is an umbrella term for all the theories in the field of psychology — yet, most specifically, psychoanalysis — that largely center on unconscious mental processes, such as enemy imagery formation, when studying conscious human behaviour. Quoting psychoanalyst Charles Rycroft, psychoanalysis “interprets human behaviour in terms of the self that experiences […]