Hostile and Malignant Prejudice: Psychoanalytic Approaches represents the leading edge of work in the field by members of the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Prejudice (Including Anti-Semitism), psychoanalysts who hail from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Peru, Sweden, the United States, and Uruguay. It pursues the issues surrounding hostile and malignant prejudice as defined in the first chapter by Henri Parens, whose path-breaking work over four generations with children and their mothers uncovered the sources of aggression and prejudice on a scale from jocular slurs to murderous genocide. One chapter examines the effects of Latin America's colonial past on the psychic development of a 'mixed race' young man whose analysis implicates a major racial and social divide in the heart of his society. In another chapter we learn of the identity conflicts of children who were separated from their parents during the Holocaust and hidden or 'hidden in plain sight' by adopting a Christian persona.

Hostile and Malignant Prejudice: Psychoanalytic Approaches represents the leading edge of work in the field by members of the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Prejudice (Including Anti-Semitism), psychoanalysts who hail from Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Peru, Sweden, the United States, and Uruguay. It pursues the issues surrounding hostile and malignant prejudice as defined in the first chapter by Henri Parens, whose path-breaking work over four generations with children and their mothers uncovered the sources of aggression and prejudice on a scale from jocular slurs to murderous genocide. One chapter examines the effects of Latin America's colonial past on the psychic development of a 'mixed race' young man whose analysis implicates a major racial and social divide in the heart of his society. In another chapter we learn of the identity conflicts of children who were separated from their parents during the Holocaust and hidden or 'hidden in plain sight' by adopting a Christian persona.

In 1932 Einstein asked Freud, ‘Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?’ Freud answered that war is inevitable because humans have an instinct to self-destroy, a death instinct which we must externalize to survive. But nearly four decades of study of aggression reveal that rather than being an inborn drive, destructiveness is generated in us by experiences of excessive psychic pain. In War is Not Inevitable: On the Psychology of War and Aggression, Henri Parens argues that the death-instinct based model of aggression can neither be proved nor disproved as Freud’s answer is untestable. By contrast, the ‘multi-trends theory of aggression’ is provable and has greater heuristic value than does a death-instinct based model of aggression. When we look for causes for war we turn to history as well as national, ethnic, territorial, and or political issues, among many others, but we also tend to ignore the psychological factors that play a large role. Parens discusses such psychological factors that seem to lead large groups into conflict. Central among these are the psychodynamics of large-group narcissism. Interactional conditions stand out: hyper-narcissistic large-groups have, in history, caused much narcissistic injury to those they believe they are superior to. But this is commonly followed by the narcissistically injured group’s experiencing high level hostile destructiveness toward their injury-perpetrator which, in time, will compel them to revenge. Among groups that have been engaged in serial conflicts, wars have followed from this psychodynamic narcissism-based cyclicity. Parens details some of the psychodynamics that led from World War I to World War II and their respective aftermath, and he addresses how major factors that gave rise to these wars must, can, and have been counteracted. In doing so, Parens considers strategies by which civilization has and is constructively preventing wars, as well as the need for further innovative efforts to achieve that end.

Established psychoanalytic/psychodynamic researchers and theorists bring the exploration of prejudice to a new level by examining how psychoanalysis might elucidate strategies that will eliminate prejudice.

Personal insights to emotional and spiritual healing after surviving the Holocaust

Handling Children's Aggression Constructively: Toward Taming Human Destructiveness shows how to prevent the development of disturbed aggressive behaviors in children, giving caregivers and educators the tools they need to handle problems in the making so they won't become more difficult and costly problems to deal with later on.

Taming Aggression in Your Child: How to Avoid Raising Bullies, Delinquents, or Trouble-Makers is a guide to preventing children from developing aggressive behaviors. Dr. Henri Parens explains what causes aggression to develop in children and how to achieve compliance in children through effective limit-setting, discipline, and punishment. A must read for all parents, whether you are frustrated by your toddler’s temper tantrums or worry that your older child is bullying siblings or classmates