An Object Relations Theory of Prejudice: Defining Pathological Prejudice1

A half century ago, in the preface to his classic book The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport alluded to the relational quality of human nature. He stated, “Human nature seems, on the whole, to prefer the sight of kindness and friendliness to the sight of cruelty” (xiii). At that time, the relational perspective was only beginning to be formulated, yet his comment can be integrated into a movement which has a principle suggesting that human behavior is motivated to establish and maintain relationships with others. If this premise is acceptable, than it is possible to speculate that behavior that is contrary to a relational orientation may be pathological. Prejudicial behavior has this pathological quality, the impact of which is at both the interpersonal and macrosocial levels. Given that object relations theory comments about the relational development of persons, as well as the psychopathology of poor relational abilities, it stands to reason that object relations theory may inform our effort to understand and perhaps address the development and maintenance of prejudice.

Throughout the twentieth century a variety of psychodynamic explanations were offered to explain prejudice. Duckitt found that following World War II efforts were directed at understanding the unconscious motivations of prejudice. These involved defense mechanisms as the universal processes that can explain the pervasive nature of prejudice. The psychodynamic perspective of this period suggested that defense mechanisms, such as displacement and projection, permitted unconscious internal conflicts to be expressed as prejudice toward outgroups. Research findings were not decisive, and efforts shifted from emphasizing process to structure in an effort to explain prejudice as an outcome of a personality structure. The authoritarian personality emerged as the prototype of this kind of person (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson, and Sanford). Duckitt suggested that the lack o