A Phenomenological Exploration of the Psychology of Prejudice as a Tool in the Development of The Self

Abstract

This study is a phenomenological exploration of the psychodynamic and psychoanalytic understanding of how prejudice is both integrative and disintegrative to the individual and collective psyche. Utilizing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore, without prejudice, the phenomena of prejudice as it exists, the study examines how prejudice contributes to the development of The Self, reduces annihilation anxiety, and leads to attacks against an other at the individual and group levels. The work begins by disproving Descartes’s idea of objectivity and establishing subjectivity before moving beyond the binary into intersubjectivity, which is necessary in understanding relational contexts. It then demonstrates how systems theory, attachment theory, and development theory are all one mechanism, referred to as the “STAD mechanism.” Moving beyond the concept of prejudice, the study moves toward the word “prejudice” and renames the phenomenon as apokrinosis. “Apokrino” (ἀποκρῐνῶ), from the root words “apo,”’ meaning “from” or “away from,” and “krino,” meaning “to separate, distinguish, or judge” (Lidell & Scott, 1940). Together, “apokrino” means to distinguish from, to separate, or to set apart (Lidell & Scott, 1940). This term encapsulates both integrative and disintegrative experiences that contribute to and actively reduce annihilation anxiety while moving toward an integrated cohesive self. Through an in-depth exploration of how Apokrinosis is disintegrative, the study illustrates how the psychological scapegoat is birthed and how hate is enacted on both individual and group levels. The study concludes with a discussion on how group psychotherapy and engagement with social institutions such as schools, religious centers, and professional societies are necessary to overcome such targeted hate. Implications for further research aimed at preventing enactments of hate and violence in a social setting are indicated.