self-hatred

Self-hatred is a reflexive notion: In it, the subject is the hating person and at the same time the hated person. The concept of self-hatred appeared in Sigmund Freud's "Mourning and Melancholia" (1916-17a [1915-17]): "If the love for the object . . . takes refuge in narcissistic identification, then the hate comes into operation on this substitutive object" (p. 251).

This concept was thus initially understood as the vicissitude of identification with the object of loss: "The self-tormenting in melancholia... signifies... a satisfaction of trends of sadism and hate which relate to an object, and which have been turned round upon the subject's own self" (p. 251). Later, in "The Ego and the Id" (1923), it was developed in connection with obsessional neurosis and melancholia, but this time within the framework of the second topography. At this point, the superego was theorized as replacing the object that persecutes the ego: "The fear of death in melancholia admits of one explanation: that the ego gives itself up because it feels itself hated and persecuted by the super-ego, instead of being loved" (p. 58). Revealed here is the degree to which self-hatred is infiltrated by sadomasochism, and to which the superego, in this context, can become the "culture of the death instinct" (1923b, p. 53).

In Language and Insight (1978), Roy Schafer emphasized the idea that the persecutor and the victim can unconsciously be persons other than the self, "say, one's father in the act of hating one's mother; here, 'I hate myself' translates into 'In this way I enact, experience, and perpetuate my father's hating my mother'" (pp. 123-124). In (1990), André Green introduced the interesting idea of the logic of despair, in which self-hatred is posited as reflecting "a compromise between the inextinguishable desire for revenge and concern for protecting the object from the hostile desires directed against it."

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1916-17a [1915-17]). Mourning and melancholia. SE, 14: 237-258.

——. (1923b). The ego and the id. SE, 19: 1-66.

Schafer, Roy. (1978). Language and insight. New Haven: Yale University Press.

—NICOLE JEAMMET

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: shame resulting from strong dislike of yourself or your actions
  Synonym: self-disgust

This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. WikiProject Psychology or the Psychology Portal may be able to help recruit one. (April 2009)

Self-hatred, self-loathing, also sometimes autophobia refers to an extreme dislike of oneself, or being angry at oneself. The term is also used to designate a dislike or hatred of a group to which one belongs. For instance, "ethnic self-hatred" is the extreme dislike of one's ethnic group.

The term "self-hatred" is used infrequently by psychologists and psychiatrists, who would usually describe people who hate themselves as "persons with low self-esteem." Self-hatred and shame are important factors in some or many mental disorders, especially disorders that involve a perceived defect of oneself (e.g. body dysmorphic disorder). "Ethnic self-hatred" is considered by some people as being a cultural issue, to which psychological theories have limited relevance. Self-hatred is also a prime feature of many personality disorders.

Contents 1 Types of self-hatred 1.1 Personal self-hatred 1.2 Self-injury as self-hatred 1.3 Motivational efficacy 2 See also 3 References

Types of self-hatred

The term self-hatred can refer to either a strong dislike for oneself, one's actions, or a strong dislike or hatred of one's own race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, species or any other corporate group of which one may be a member. When used in the latter context it is generally defined as hatred of one's identity based on the demographic in question, as well as a desire to distance oneself from this identity.

Personal self-hatred

Personal self-hatred and self-loathing can result from an inferiority complex. Some sociology theorists such as Jerry Mander see television programming as being deliberately designed to induce self-hatred, negative body image, and depression, with the advertising then being used to suggest the cure ^[1]. See also the arguments related to the Kill your television phenomenon.

Self-injury as self-hatred

Self-harm is a psychological disorder, which may involve self-hatred, where subjects feel compelled to physically injure themselves.

Motivational efficacy

Blake and Ross (1992) and Ramachandran (1996) from the University of Michigan have studied the potency of self-hatred as a motivational tool and concluded that it is, in Ramachandran's words, "the least potent motivator in our wide survey of human psychology."

See also

• Self image
• Self-hating Jew

References

• Is Black self-hatred racist? John Carlson, Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, Feb. 9 1994.
• Sander L. Gilman Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race and Madness Cornell University Press, 1985

1. ^ http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/reviews/Jerry.Mander.html

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