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: Warrant for genocide: the myth of the Jewish world conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. London, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967. pp. 303. 45s.
Both these books approach a similar theme—that of the divisions between men according to their perceptions of their differences which lead, not only to hierarchical categories, but to judgments of worth. The degraded categories are then inevitably experienced as bad and polluting and may even be demonized, thus attaining a power which they do not possess.
Caste and race is one of the Ciba symposia, contributed to by sociologists, anthropologists and others whose purpose was to define and compare the phenomena described and to attempt to differentiate the political, economic, religious and cultural factors which contributed towards the stabilization of particular social structures, beliefs and prejudices.
Some participants were interested in dynamic psychology and at least one, Pearl King, is a practising psychoanalyst. Most of the papers are highly relevant to an understanding of the effects of a given environment on the psychology of group behaviour and on the individual psychic structure. To mention a few, Wagatsuma on ‘The pariah caste in Japan’ describes such effects with particular reference to the persistence of the negative self-image, whether projected or not, in those who have got out of their caste. ‘The psychology of purity and pollution as related to social self-identity and caste’ by de Vos sums up a number of contributions in a fascinating way by combining anthropological and psychoanalytical findings.
There is a fine report by Raveau called ‘Caste and race in the psychodynamics of acculturation’. He attributes the degree of resistance to breakdown of various racial groups to the possibility of seeing similarities with familiar patterns. Thus, for instance, a plainsman who would not marry anyone from the coast in his country uses this fact as a defence against white intolerance. A prejudice aga