The outsized affective component involved in these performances constitutes one of the hallmarks of the unconscious reaction formation. The desire for whiteness - which is unconscious - is so threatening that it must be defended at all costs. The conscious mind responds, therefore, with an emotional discharge that, while ostensibly an overreaction, is in fact directly proportional to this unconscious sense of threat.
Related Quotes
As I thought about the general psychology of violence and protest in our country - in relation to both my clinical work and the particular milieu of my academic life - one word seemed to capture it all: alienation. Whether in relation to the state, communities, institutions, working environments, families, spouses - even one’s sense of self - it appeared to me that South African protestors were raging against an abiding disconnect between internal desire and external reality, or a state of alienation written into both the objective conditions of life in the external world, as well as their internal, subjective experiences of that world.
There is a logic behind human conduct, although it does not reveal itself through conventional reasoning skills.
This brings me to the psychoanalytic perspective and its major advantage over other approaches, namely, its ready acceptance that humans are motivated, for the most part, by factors far beyond their conscious awareness.
The wish for recovery, in other words, is not the same as the will to be analysed: among other things, psychological mindedness means working with the idea of an increase in self-knowledge generating relief from psychic pain. Similarly, in the much more formidable case of a nation on the couch, the prospect of psycho-social improvement begins with an act of faith - specifically, faith in the value of understanding. I am referring to a process of understanding that begins in the unlikeliest places: to understand where it all went wrong for human beings - not just South Africans - we have to go back to the start of civilisation, the start of violence, and the start of deep compassion.
... the patterned reactivity of the human body. When Barbara “saw” a person who looked like an authority figure with control over her - Irving the course leader - she had a tremendous emotional reaction and an asthma attack. She had probably behaved this way thousand of times before, always in the same manner, without any awareness of her role in creating or generating her reaction. Barbara believed the Irvings in her life were causing her to respond this way. She was a victim.
For instance, like all animals, we are naturally prone to defend our territory. We might not be defending a piece of terrain on the African savanna, but territory isn’t just physical, it’s also psychological. Our identity is part of our territory too. When someone criticises our work, status, or how we see ourselves, we instinctively shut down or defend ourselves. When someone challenges our beliefs, we stop listening and go on the attack. No thoughts, just pure animal instinct.