Dehumanization, Guilt and Large Group Dynamics with Reference to the West, Israel and the Palestinians

Following his participation in a visit by health professionals to Israel/Palestine, the author reflects on the sense of apprehension that accompanied his intention to share his impressions on his return. In this paper he turns to psychoanalysis and the analysis of large group phenomena to discuss socio-psychological factors that seem to determine the context for discourse in the West relating to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He argues that psychoanalytic theories concerning the unconscious element in inter-communal conflicts are a useful starting point in understanding large-group psychological responses to the dehumanization of both Jews and Palestinians. He seeks to understand the anxiety and inhibition that seems to attend reflection on Israel/Palestine in public space in particular, and within the psychoanalytic community. He argues that ‘neutrality’, the proper stance of the clinician in the consulting room, has come to inhibit the profession in its non-clinical thinking. He proposes that ‘universalism’, the philosophical basis of the extension of the human rights agenda in the years since 1945, provides the appropriate moral underpinning for psychotherapeutic practice.