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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鈥檚 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 鈥淪TAD mechanism.鈥� Moving beyond the concept of prejudice, the study moves toward the word 鈥減rejudice鈥� and renames the phenomenon as apokrinosis. 鈥淎pokrino鈥� (峒�蟺慰魏蟻峥愇结慷), from the root words 鈥渁po,鈥濃�� meaning 鈥渇rom鈥� or 鈥渁way from,鈥� and 鈥渒rino,鈥� meaning 鈥渢o separate, distinguish, or judge鈥� (Lidell & Scott, 1940). Together, 鈥渁pokrino鈥� 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.