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Ron Aviram, PhD, a New York-based psychologist with affiliations at Columbia, Presbyterian Hospital and the William Alanson White Institute, has offered an integrated model of prejudice bridging the contributions from individual and group perspectives. The book, organized into seven chapters, starts with an introductory first chapter that provides a brief summary of the succeeding chapters and a statement of purpose: “The book introduces the compatibility between relational psychoanalysis and social cognitive psychology … [because] considerable overlap already exists between the two disciplines … [and because] prejudice is the outcome of developmental factors, intrapsychic process, interpersonal functioning and societal conditions” (p. 7). So, he begins the text with a sound premise and a comprehensive agenda.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of the prevailing theories of prejudice over the last century, restating his position that a relational perspective brings together the psychoanalytic and social psychological viewpoints. Beginning with the historical context of Sigmund Freud's life being an Austrian Jew affected by World War I and the subsequent rise of National Socialism, Aviram cites Freud's 1935 autobiographical study and his seminal 1921 paper, Group Psychology in the Analysis of the Ego. In the latter paper, he notes the importance of the leader replacing the ego ideal of the group members as well as the concepts of narcissism within and the rivalry between groups. Throughout the text, the author emphasizes the importance of this narcissism which social psychologists term