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I shall address the subject of mass hatred under three headings: The motivation for hatred; Why the Jews? Why now?
Hatred is the affect that accompanies defensive instincts, especially during their appetitive and consummatory phases. In other words if a hostile agent threatens to attack or attacks the subject, the subject will respond with an appropriate hostile response which will be accompanied in the two phases mentioned, by hateful feelings. This is a simple and obvious mechanism which would account for mass hatred and anti-Semitism when there has been an obvious precipitating threat or attack.
Hateful feelings and accompanying attacks are generated in the course of mood regulation. When the initial threat is not consciously perceived by the observer, responsive hatred and accompanying aggression may seem unmotivated. The process of mood regulation is frequently silent and unnoticed. In the presence of a depressive pull or an actual shift of mood downward toward or into depression, the defensive response may consist of undertaking gratifying or pleasure giving activities, entertainment, engagement with others in social activities, intellectual amusement, the use of chemical agents to ameliorate mood, that is, intoxicating or antidepression substances. These are attempts to change oneself so as to make oneself invulnerable to depression. However, mood regulation may induce anger, threat, and readiness to attack, or an actual aggressive attack, that is, an attempt to control the outside world. Applying what is true of the individual to the community, we may guess that many initiatives of hatred and anti-Semitism start with a mood of depression or a mood conducive to depression. In fact most historical accounts of anti-Semitism attribute the