Violence and Capacity to Hate

Abstract

This paper analyses two opposite relational configurations: violence and the capacity to hate. The former results in a psychic impoverishment, the latter in a psychic development. Primarily, the aspects of violence and the inability to hate within modern Western society are introduced. When a psychic fragility is unconsciously supported by an entire society, it becomes even more difficult to alleviate, and transform into a resource promoting psychic development. The second section explores the use of hate by young children in order to show the naturalness of this emotion and its origin. In the third and fourth sections, the unfortunate outcomes of the incapacity to hate, leading to violent antisocial conduct, are explored. To do so, the pioneering contributions by Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott are commented on, followed by modern contributions by the literature: one of our articles published in 2020, and the review of the literature published by Alessandro Orsini on the topic of radicalisation. Finally, the differences between violence and the capacity to hate are highlighted and summarised. The article also emphasises numerous bibliographic references to further deepen the study on violence from a psycho-social perspective.