Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

by Avner Falk

Overview

    This is the first English-language book ever to apply psychoanalytic knowledge to the understanding of the most intractable international struggle in our world today—the Arab-Israeli conflict. Two ethnic groups fight over a single territory that both consider to be theirs by historical right—essentially a rational matter. But close historical examination shows that the two parties to this tragic conflict have missed innumerable opportunities for a rational partition of the territory between them and for a permanent state of peace and prosperity rather than perennial bloodshed and misery.
    Falk suggests that a way to understand and explain such irrational matters is to examine the unconscious aspects of the conflict. He examines large-group psychology, nationalism, group narcissism, psychogeography, the Arab and Israeli minds, and suicidal terrorism, and he offers psychobiographical studies of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, two key players in this tragic conflict today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299202538
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	02/17/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	819,181
File size:	432 KB

About the Author

Avner Falk is one of the foremost Israeli political psychologists and has been a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Medicine. He is author of psychoanalytic biographies of Moshe Dayan, David Ben-Gurion, and Theodor Herzl, and of A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: A Duel in Quicksand 1 A Review of the Literature 2 Reality Is in the Eye of the Beholder 3 Destructive Charismatic Leadership I: The Case of Ariel Sharon 4 Destructive Charismatic Leadership II: The Case of Yassir Arafat 5 Nationalism, Group Narcissism, and the Problem of the Self 6 Psychogeography: The Unconscious Meaning of Geographical Entities 7 Denial Is Not a River in Egypt 8 Splitting, Projection, and the Need for Enemies 9 War and the Inability to Mourn 10 The Arab Mind 11 The Psychology of Suicide Bombers 12 The Israeli Mind Conclusion: Can the Conflict Be Resolved? Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

Israeli political psychologist Falk (A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews) points to a dearth of material on irrational forces in the Middle East conflict. Writing clearly, with impressive historical and cultural insight, he analyzes both Ariel Sharon and the late Yassir Arafat as destructive charismatic leaders, in addition to the Arab mind and the Israeli mind, nationalism, and war. The central focus includes unconscious factors and mechanisms like denial, externalization, projection, splitting, and "the problem of empathy, the inability to mourn, large-group psychodynamics, the psychology of suicidal terrorism the need for enemies." The result is a rich combination of history, culture, religion, and psychology-especially in relation to empathy, mourning, and projection. At times, Falk slips into jargon: "Oedipal" and "narcissistic" become shibboleths of an armchair sleuth using speculative Freudian logic rather than real evidence. Still, he effectively challenges political "scientists" who tend to ignore the psyche. General readers will enjoy a mostly engaging, articulate, and sensible overview that is remarkably nonpartisan. Recommended for history and psychology collections and all large general libraries.-E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

"Falk's command of many literatures and disciplines is at once awesome and necessary for the task of psychoanalytic interpretation he assigns himself."—Howard F. Stein, Ph.D., professor of family and preventive medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

"I believe it is important that attempts be made to apply psychoanalytic ideas to public events. Dr. Falk is to be commended for the courage to do so."—David A. Rothstein, M.D

From the Publisher