1st Edition

Even Paranoids Have Enemies New Perspectives on Paranoia and Persecution

    'Even paranoids have enemies' is the reply Golda Meir is said to have made to Henry Kissinger who, during the 1973 Sinai talks, accused her of being paranoid for hesitating to grant further concessions to the Arabs. It is used as part of the title of this book to highlight the complex relationship between paranoia and persecution.

    The politics of the Middle East, the pressures within Japanese society, the dynamics of the drug scene, racism, and the effects of mechanical thinking in institutions and cultures all serve to illustrate in this book the intimate connections between paranoia and persecution. Contributors examine the ways in which paranoia and persecution are experienced at the individual, institutional and macrosocial level. They draw on theoretical perspectives from a range of disciplines in an exploration of both the psychological impact of paranoid processes and the extent to which these processes are rooted in political and cultural exigency.

    General introduction; Part 1 Psychological; Introduction; Chapter 1 Being in a persecutory world, Salomon Resnik; Chapter 2 From wounded victims to scarred survivors, Andrea Sabbadini; Chapter 3 The black hole of dread The psychic reality of children of Holocaust survivors, Ilany Kogan; Chapter 4 The ‘end-of-the-world’ vision and the psychotic experience, Robert Jay Lifton; Chapter 5 Only pretend, David Edgar; Part 2 Social and institutional; Introduction; Chapter 6 Paranoid social developments as a consequence of ideological and bureaucratic regression, Otto F. Kernberg; Chapter 7 Paranoia, groups and enquiry, Robert D. Hinshelwood; Chapter 8 Paranoia in institutional life, Leonard Fagin; Chapter 9 Bureaucracies at work, John Jackson; Part 3 Cultural and political; Introduction; Chapter 10 Reefer madness, Joseph H. Berke; Chapter 11 Between history and me Persecution paranoia and the police, Calvin C. Hernton; Chapter 12 Machine phenomena, Stella Pierides; Chapter 13 Paranoia and persecution in modern Japanese life, Hisako Watanabe; Chapter 14 Peace and paranoia, Stanley Schneider; Name Index; Subject Index;

    Biography

    Joseph H. Berke is the founder and Director of the Arbours Crisis Centre, London.,
    Stella Pierides is Associate Director of the Centre, and both are psychoanalytic psychotherapists in private practice.,
    Andrea Sabbadini is a psychoanalyst in private practice in London.,
    Stanley Schneider is a psychoanalyst and Professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University and Michlalah, Jerusalem.

    'This is a very stimulating book that makes an important and valuable contribution to the understanding of the subject of paranoia and persecution ... I would whole heartedly recommend this very thoughtful book.' - The book club of the British Analytical Society