Anti-Semitism

Deals with antisemitism as a "symbol sickness", describing its main psychopathological aspects, with emphasis on the role of envy, its stages and effects (e.g. alienation from feelings, dehumanization). Examines cultural and Christian elements which strengthen the tendency to make the Jews the most common object of symbol sickness. Mentions the obsessive projection of the Jews as personification of the Devil, Jewish survival felt as an arrogant insult, and the unconscious desire of the extreme antisemite to be a Jew. Discusses Hitler's hatred of the Jews as a case of the combination of paranoia, psychosis, and megalomania, explaining his acceptance by the German people as a collective destructive disorder and due to a long history of militarism and nationalism. Mentions, also, psychiatric aspects of Jewish self-hatred.