For a psychoanalyst, one of the many felicitous consequences of reading Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's impressively panoramic study is being drawn into a reconsideration of the relationship between the terms 'clinical' and 'prejudicial'. This relationship is often thought tangential. But for Young-Bruehl, it is an intimate relationship. She thinks of individual psychopathologies and socially mediated hatreds as conceptually bound...[Young-Bruehl] presents the phenomena of racisms, sexisms, homophobias and anti-Semitism mainly through the use of historical and literary texts. Her reach is extensive and compelling.
The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis - Donald Moss
The Anatomy of Prejudices is a book of epic proportions that is sure to stimulate debate on many levels inside and outside the academy. It raises challenges to and for the social sciences, philosophy of culture, philosophy of science, studies of mind and of social development. And this is only the short list. Implications will be drawn concerning current warring groups and political agendas. Indeed, it is of such vast scope that it may invite discourse for some time to come. The goal of this ambitious study is to propose an alternative to theories of prejudice that are familiar from the social sciences...[which] tend to treat prejudice as itself a single, universal concept and to construct a general theory intended to apply to all forms of prejudice...The book exhibits the wide and deep erudition that its task demands. It critically surveys and analyzes the most influential psychological and social scientific theories that have shaped academic study and popular understanding of prejudice...The Anatomy of Prejudices is a striking achievement that may well alter profoundly the way we think of prejudices. If it provides insight into the phenomena of prejudices, it also may suggest ways of disabling or disarming them in the future.
Washington Times - Rita Nolan
Young-Bruehl is a perceptive observer. Her accounts of the preoccupations and qualities of psychological experiences that are revealed in different prejudices are useful and illuminating.
Paul L. Wachtel Book World
Prejudice against another group is quite different from preference for one's own. Starting from this basic insight, Young-Bruehl develops a much needed inquiry of the ideologies of desire, where political theory meets psychoanalysis.
No subject is of more importance than that of this book...[Young-Bruehl] wants us to concentrate on the plural of the word prejudice, as she does in her title; she wants us, thereby, to think of the different kinds of hate to be found among us, the different psychological roads traveled to those diverse animosities. Such a conceptual approach requires careful psychological distinctions, and to make them, the author calls upon her thorough, nuanced knowledge of psychoanalytic thinking.
Boston Globe - Robert Coles
Young-Bruehl argues that anti-Semitism, racism, sexism and homophobia differ in their internal logic (or illogic) and, more important, that they are deeply rooted in character structure and the unconscious. Accordingly, she finds the most convincing evidence about prejudices not in the questionnaires and projective tests favored by social scientists but in the writings of psychoanalysts, philosophers, novelists, critics and historians. Above all, she finds it in the writings of the victims of prejudice themselves...Her interpretations boast the familiar psychoanalytic virtues of richness, nuance and complexity: they probe to a psychological depth appropriate to the intensity and irrationality of the ideas in question...As an analysis of the sources of prejudice, The Anatomy of Prejudices is bold and profound. Along with Theodor Adorno's Authoritarian Personality , Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism , Gordon Allport's Nature of Prejudice and Gavin Langmuir's Toward a Definition of Antisemitism , it is one of the rare studies to explore this vexed topic with the conceptual ambition and passion it deserves.
Elisabeth Young-Bruehl has written a bold and important book of comprehensive scope, and she has done so with historical and psychoanalytic sophistication. She addresses a topic of utmost concern to citizens of good will, and she treats this topic with full respect for its complexity.
Psychoanalytic Books - Jeffrey H. Golland
The Anatomy of Prejudices is a book of epic proportions that is sure to stimulate debate on many levels inside and outside the academy. It raises challenges to and for the social sciences, philosophy of culture, philosophy of science, studies of mind and of social development. And this is only the short list. Implications will be drawn concerning current warring groups and political agendas. Indeed, it is of such vast scope that it may invite discourse for some time to come. The goal of this ambitious study is to propose an alternative to theories of prejudice that are familiar from the social sciences...[which] tend to treat prejudice as itself a single, universal concept and to construct a general theory intended to apply to all forms of prejudice...The book exhibits the wide and deep erudition that its task demands. It critically surveys and analyzes the most influential psychological and social scientific theories that have shaped academic study and popular understanding of prejudice...The Anatomy of Prejudices is a striking achievement that may well alter profoundly the way we think of prejudices. If it provides insight into the phenomena of prejudices, it also may suggest ways of disabling or disarming them in the future.--Rita Nolan "Washington Times"The Anatomy of Prejudices is bold and profound. Along with Theodor Adorno's Authoritarian Personality , Hannah Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism , Gordon Allport's Nature of Prejudice and Gavin Langmuir's Toward a Definition of Antisemitism , it is one of the rare studies to explore this vexed topic with the conceptual ambition and passion it deserves.--Paul Robinson "New York Times Book Review"On Human Diversity: Nationalism, Racism, and Exoticism in French Thought
Young-Bruehl is a perceptive observer. Her accounts of the preoccupations and qualities of psychological experiences that are revealed in different prejudices are useful and illuminating.
Washington Post Book World - Paul L. Wachtel
Psycho-social investigation into mass group prejudice in the 20th century, principally concentrating on the post-World War II era. Prejudice is viewed from the prism of psychological factors, with the author arguing that much of the previous literature is a cliche, over-generalized, or both. Anti-Semitism is dealt with forthrightly and without any attempt to hide its manifestations by euphemistic expressions of "ethnic identity."
Rejecting the common assumption that prejudice is a generalized attitude, this dense psychoanalytic study asserts that different prejudices fulfill different needs for various character types. Anti-Semitism, racism and sexism-three "ideologies of desire," or backlashes against movements for equality-all involve stereotypes, projection and faulty generalization, declares psychotherapist Young-Bruehl, biographer of Anna Freud and Hannah Arendt. But the similarities end there, she argues. She links anti-Semitism to the obsessional personality, given to fixed ideas and to sadistic behavior. Racism, in her framework, exemplifies the hysterical character, who unconsciously appoints a group to act out forbidden sexual and aggressive desires. Sexism, a prejudice of the (usually male) narcissistic personality, betrays a desire to control the differences between males and females. Young-Bruehl also probes the roots of homophobia, calling gays and lesbians "all-purpose victims" who fulfill the twisted needs of various prejudiced character types, and she also addresses ethnocentrism, calling it a universal form of prejudice that protects group identity. (Apr.)
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Clearly written and accessible to general as well as scholarly readers, this is a major work in personality and culture that asserts the plurality rather than the unity of prejudice. The author, a professor at Haverford College and a psychotherapist, integrates psychoanalytic concepts with sociological and historical readings. Young-Bruehl deals with anti-Semitism, racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism, separating the prejudices into ethnocentricisms and ideologies of desire. She develops a characterological model of hysterical, obsessional, and narcissistic types and rejuvenates parts of psychoanalytic theory. Impressively erudite, she knows "how culture shapes the study of itself." Young-Bruehl confronts a great and enduring scourge of humanity while enriching many fields. Along with new and challenging ideas, this book provides an indispensable survey of past scholarship.-E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
