Abstract

BRITO, Rafael C. de  and  CARPIGIANIO, Berenice. The psychodynamics of prejudice: A bibliographic review. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2020, vol.22, n.1, pp. 230-250. ISSN 1516-3687.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5935/1980-6906/psicologia.v22n1p230-250.

The present research aims to investigate how the psychoanalytic theory of the intrapsychic functioning of the prejudiced can help to delimit the psychic characteristics of this social evil. Methodologically speaking, we conducted a bibliographic review, a study of the selected documentary sources in an orderly, systematized and documented way, with clearly delimited criteria and procedures. Seventeen articles were selected and each one was studied and analyzed. As a main result, we concluded that prejudice is, basically, a mechanism of identification. The primary functions it serves are directed towards the maintenance of good object relations and the narcissistic cohesion of the Self in the face of the threat of its destruction by the sense of ambivalence. Hence, the individual needs to protect the identifications that are the basis of his/her Self through defense mechanisms that place both the genesis and the product of his/her anguishes on others, fundamentally perceived as different.

Keywords : prejudice; psychodynamics; psychoanalysis; ambivalence; identification.

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