Notes on Hate and Hating

First, i will attempt to separate aggression from hostility, positive from negative aggression. Then, I will attempt to differentiate negative aggression into usual and pathological forms of hatred and to demonstrate a developmental model of hate. Needless to say, any attempt at defining these terms must fall short because of overlap in dynamics, defensive usages and the ordinary paradoxes of psychological growth.

These writings are notes in several ways. They are brief remarks on a complex subject that deserves much more time and thought than I have been able to devote to it. These are notes in the sense of an attempt to put a proper value on hate in the grand scheme of human mentation. Finally, these are notes in the sense of musical composition. They are attempts at building a theme and a melody, though what I have written is only an approximation of a song about this vital aspect of life. This paper contains familiar psychoanalytic concepts that I have reformulated to accommodate my emphases on the place and development of a spectrum of aggression.

Some time ago, I mentioned to a long time friend that I was working on a paper on hate and hating. I was struck by her response, which seemed just the right question with which to lead off this discussion: “Hate and hating, aren't they bad things for people to have