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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 10, No. 7
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/assrj.107.15076.
Reshetnikov, M. (2023). Extra-Poliical Analysis of Interethnic Relations. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 171-
176.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Extra-Poliical Analysis of Interethnic Relations
Mikhail Reshetnikov
East-European Psychoanalytic Institute, Rector
Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation
ABSTRACT
The article discusses the main psychological mechanisms that contribute to the
formation of interethnic conflicts. The author describes the following psychological
phenomena: historical mental trauma inflicted by a hostile group; narcissism of
small differences; identification with the aggressor; transmission of traumatic
experiences to the next generations; division of all ideas and all people into ‘we’ and
‘they’; importance of culture and language in the formation and personality’s social
functioning. The conclusion substantiates an original hypothesis about the
intensification of interethnic conflicts around the world in the twenty-first century.
Keywords: mental trauma caused by a hostile group, interethnic conflicts, war.
In this article we will address the most general questions and psychological mechanisms of
interethnic conflicts and mass mental trauma (3). At first, I would like to note one of its main
specifics. When a mass psychic trauma is the result of some ecological or man-made disaster, it
usually undergoes specific transformations and, regardless of whether the victims believe in
God or not, such events are most often interpreted as "God sending us new trials”. They are to
be lived through. And gradually traumatic experiences "blinker" and pass as if in "an
autonomous mode" within 3-5 years.
A totally different situation develops when a hostile group inflicts a mass mental trauma, as it
happens in the case of interethnic conflicts, terrorist acts and wars. In these cases, qualitatively
different psychological mechanisms start to operate, the most essential of which are projection
and projective identification, characteristics of clinical paranoia (5, 11). In its most primitive
form, this psychological phenomenon is expressed by the formula: "It is not me who hates and
persecutes X, it is he who hates and persecutes me”.
And such a collective (pathological in its essence) "shift" in assessments of such situations can
last for decades and even centuries. And depending on the ideology and position of the state
elite such a (paranoid) shift can be formed in the population of an entire country in a fairly short
period. Remember that Hitler came to power in one of the most cultured and civilized countries
in Europe in 1933, and in 6 years almost the entire population of the country got infected with
the ideas of Nazism and fascism. But it all began with small (aggressive) assault squads of
"browns" - essentially a people's militia, acting to maintain public order during the national
crisis following Germany's humiliating defeat in World War I. And what happened then? In just
10 years, Hitler's party had 12 million members. Why did this happen?
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 10, Issue 7, July-2023
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
When an aggressive minority takes power in a country (usually in the capital) and grassroots
terror commences, a psychological mechanism kicks in very quickly: the "identification with the
aggressor". At its core is fear, and its essence is primitively simple idea: "If I also become the
aggressor, they will not be able to use aggression against me”. This is a powerful motivational
incentive. And the aggressive minority very quickly becomes the majority.
The mechanism of "identification with the aggressor" acts subconsciously, as a protective
mechanism, and at the same time members of such groups form a mythological (justifying per
se) conviction that "we - the growing aggressive part of the society - are absolutely right and
our actions have one or another national or state-guarding reason". Alongside with this
conviction, in such groups consistently formed is a cult of strength and cohesion, and a
pathological deformation of the personality takes place, in some cases so significantly that it is
almost impossible to recognize a former ordinary law-abiding citizen (2, 8). The following
psychological phenomenon is extremely important for release of aggression - an image of the
enemy (11). It is necessarily to be found or skilfully imposed by the ruling elite, and not
somewhere thousands of kilometres away, but nearby, in the neighbourhood. The main thing is
that the enemy must be reachable for the release of aggression.
A powerful catalyst for such mass transformations is aestheticization of evil. This is a
multifactorial process that stimulates attraction of the aggressive minority, the need to become
part of it or, at any rate, the requirement to demonstrate loyalty to the most aggressive part of
society. This includes wearing special identifying insignia for "insiders," participating in
demonstrations and torchlight marches, creating very brief and vivid unifying slogans,
emergence of a new mythology, and glorification of one's own nation, which is always accepted
with particular enthusiasm, especially by marginal segments of society. Everyone remembers
the slogan of the Nazis: "Germany is above all!”
An independent factor in the formation of aggressive groups is a special morality that liberates
the asocial urges usually suppressed by culture. Almost everyone possesses them, but culture
prohibits and strictly pursues their manifestations, no matter how strong they may be. But
culture as a whole is an extremely fragile social structure (1, 9). As it is well-known, one must
keep in mind that along with a lot of lofty ideas, culture is something that imposes prohibitions,
and people don't like it too much when they are forbidden to do something. The abolition of
prohibitions "for us only" is extremely attractive: "We are allowed to do anything!"
Any masses, when they are already in motion, exhibit a number of other peculiar
characteristics: they are highly suggestible and psychologically contagious. At the same time,
the thirst for truth is not characteristic to masses, they demand simple solutions formulated in
extremely simple slogans. Though the realization of all these mechanisms initially requires
another psychological factor - not only the formation of the image of the enemy, but also
attributing all possible disgusting to this image (11).
The conditions for formation of any aggressive or even misanthropic ideology are particularly
favourable in times of social and economic crises. It is human nature that people do not like to
realize their guilt; they try to get rid of it by projecting it outward according to the following
formula: "Things are bad in our family, in our national group (in our state) not because I or we
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Reshetnikov, M. (2023). Extra-Poliical Analysis of Interethnic Relations. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 10(7). 171-176.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.107.15076
are so bad or have been doing something wrong – it is someone else's fault" (6, 7, 8). And this
someone else is easy to be found.
Most often (in the beginning) all the discontent is projected onto a supreme power, as it
happened during all the coloured revolutions. But then, under the purposeful influence of the
political and state elites, the vector of discontent shifts: either to some national minority in the
same state (as it was in Germany in the mid-1930s with the Jews and the Romani), or even to
the entire population of some other state. As already noted, the enemy is "suddenly discovered"
not somewhere thousands of kilometres away, but somewhere nearby. At the same time, this
vector of discontent (which gradually turns into hatred) has real or mythical grounds, most
often in the historical past of a particular society about which its majority, especially aggressive
young people, usually have very vague ideas. And due to high suggestibility and mental
infectivity of those who have come to the movement, any, even the most unimaginable, lie is
easily introjected and acquires the form of the nationwide conviction of its exclusivity and
historical rightness.
Historical mental traumas may subside, over years and decades, but they always continue to
operate, periodically exacerbated (4, 12-13). There are many examples of this kind among
related and, no less importantly, neighbouring peoples: Arabs and Jews, Armenians and
Azerbaijanis, Serbs and Croats, Englishmen and Irishmen, Spaniards and Catalans, and many
others. In the current situation, and this is a qualitatively new psychological phenomenon, it is
not even the Russians, but any Russian-speakers, who turned out to be the main enemy in
Ukraine (2). It was the Russian language, which was skilfully labelled the ugliest form of the
Western Ukrainian dialect that became the main marker of the enemy. The next step to the
abyss separating the peoples was the designation (already in the collective West) of the entire
centuries-old Russian culture as the enemy and the subject to destruction.
The negative development of all these paranoid processes is catalysed by the "psychology of
small differences" (or - "narcissism of small differences"). The essence of this psychological
phenomenology can be briefly formulated as follows: "If someone is almost the same as me - in
history, in language, in traditions, culture, customs, faith, etc., but slightly different - it is like a
caricature of me”. Naturally, a caricature of oneself (beloved) is unpleasant and displeasing; and
when combined with real or even invented mass mental trauma inflicted by a hostile group, it
can become a source of irreconcilable hostility for an indefinite period of history. The issue here
is not just about Ukraine. The fact that we Russians just slightly differ from Western Europeans
in appearance, modern clothes, level of development, cultural, technical, economic and political
achievements is perceived by our former European "partners" with the same hatred - as some
unacceptable caricature and even some unwarranted encroachment on their adored Western
way of life. They are convinced that those who offer other national traditions and values must
be destroyed! This hatred has very definite historical roots. In contrast to us, remembering our
losses and our Great Victory, they have never forgotten their defeats in all the "crusades"
against Russia. This hatred is equally applicable to the "new Russians from out of town," who
brazenly display their wealth and similarly demonstrative adherence to the Western way of life.
They are accepted, but more precisely, tolerated, and will be "put down" at any opportunity.
The next psychological factor is "trans-generation transmission". As it has been proved in a
number of studies after World War II, survivors’ children form a specific memory and a specific