The Psychology Of Hate

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2002

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. Sargent of the Psychology Department at SUNY Oswego discussed the topic of Hate. He stated that all humans have flaws/virtues. What can be considered a flaw also be considered a virtue. Emotions are the major component of Homo sapiens. Emotions are divided into two parts, which are the nature of emotions and how emotions affect us in groups. He said that emotions are very covert and that they can be interpreted in different ways. One way is in the neurological sense (William James), and the other is in the psychodynamic sense (Freud). We are evolving emotionally everyday, causing our emotions to be much more complex as time progresses. Every person has issues, one of them being anger. Anger spaces people, which leads to the affect of emotions on individuals in groups. Hating causes people to break off into groups, leading to gregariousness and companionship. Thus, hating is a large part of society because it allows us to feel like we belong and helps us to unite with each other.

This program definitely expanded my horizons. I always thought of hate as a negative part of society as we know it today. Dr. Sargent used anger and being mad as a way to describe hate. I never thought of being angry or mad at someone or something was ever a good thing. Yet, he conveyed to us that hate is an essential part of life due to the fact that it helps us break off into groups that facilitate our feeling of belongingness. Without having an Us vs. Them, individuals would not feel like they are part of a group of people. Dr. Sargent said that a perfect example of this is the September 11th terrorist attacks. Without hate, our country that consists of citizens from all walks of life would not have been able to unite as a whole country forming an Us vs. Them (the Taliban). Once I was made aware of all of these facts, especially which our country united mainly due to the fact of hate, I was mentally blown away and confused.

I took a health class in high school when I was a sophomore with a teacher by the name of Mr. Kruz. In this class, we discussed how groups of people are derogatory to other groups of people, causing dissention among the high school population. The theme to what I was learning in this class was that hate was a negative aspect of the human population. This is where I received much of my viewpoints on the topic of hate. We never discussed hate as a unifying force among individuals, only as a separating force. Now that I have been presented with another viewpoint, I have realized that it would go hand-in-hand with what I learned in high school, just as an opposing argument.