On “Othering”

“What should people do with their hatred?” (p. 418), asks Kathy Pogue-White in her seminal article, “Surviving Hating and Being Hated,” originally published in 2002, and reprinted here. The articles in this issue explore the experience and sequela of “othering” and of being “othered,” the phenomenon that sometimes—in fact, all too often—results in hating and/or being hated.

We’re talking about the otherness in our social lives, our personal lives, our professional lives, and in our consulting rooms. How, we wonder, do we talk about our differences—racial, religious, gender, sexual, political, and more—with all the emotion and complexity that these differences can provoke? How do we find a common ground to speak and interact with one another without rage, defensiveness, and shame?

We need to find a way. Othering or being othered, as we know it, can cause strife, unhappiness, self-doubt, self-hatred, rage, and other destructive outcomes. At its worst, othering is at the root of today’s wars between Israel and Gaza, Russia and Ukraine, as well as at the core of other conflicts around the globe: the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Geneva Academy: Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, 2023).

Yet, we didn’t start planning this issue with these latest clashes specifically in mind: We began with a 2022 clinical meeting at the William Alanson White Institute (WAWI) inspired by Pogue-White’s 2002 article. Two WAWI candidates, one White, the other Jamaican, presented their experiences of hating and being hated, of being othered because of who they are, who they think they are, or how they are seen. We

invited these presenters, Anna Vitale and Sheri-Ann Cowie, to expand on their thoughts, reflecting on how Pogue-White’s article led them to consider their lives and ways in which they too have misunderstood, or have been misunderstood by, people who differ from them