Facing the terrifying rise of religious fundamentalism, ethnic conflict, and the continuous resort to violence, we consider what psychoanalytic reflection might contribute to public debate. In our attempts to understand the place of the Other in the formation of consciousness, the heterogeneity of those we designate as threatening others and the actualities of bodily vulnerability can all help us to build a language and culture at odds with the immediate transformation of difference into hatred. We know that personal and collective denial of aggression and suffering is inevitable. But a politically informed psychoanalytic critique, inflected by feminism, could play a role in building more tolerant communities.