Spoiler: itlepip wrote:
The division of the mind into the conscious and the unconscious is
the fundamental principle of psychoanalysis.55 Psychoanalytic theory
explains the existence of pathological mental behavior56 as well as cer-
tain otherwise unexplained behavior in healthy people57 by postulating
two powerful mental processes-the primary and the secondary-which
govern how the mind works. The primary process, or Id, occurs outside
of our awareness. It consists of desires, wishes, and instincts that strive
for gratification. It follows its own laws, of which the supreme one is
pleasure. The secondary process, or Ego, happens under conscious
control and is bound by logic and reason. We use this process to adapt
to reality: The Ego is required to respect the demands of reality and to
conform to ethical and moral laws. On their way to gratification, the Id
impulses must pass through the territory of the Ego where they are
criticized, rejected, or modified, often by some defensive measure on
the part of the secondary process. Defensive mechanisms such as re-
55. S. FREUD, THE EGO AND THE ID, supra note 46, at 3. It is not my purpose to defend
psychoanalytic theory as the definitive description of psychological processes. It has often
been noted that Freud himself was constantly revising his hypothetical constructs and defini-
tions. Rather, I have drawn upon psychoanalytic theory because it provides a conceptual vo-
cabulary for processes that we have all observed in our everyday lives. That vocabulary, while
controversial, has gathered sufficient preeminence in the scientific world and among lay per-
sons that its meanings are understood by a relatively broad range of people. Moreover, the
theory's major contribution, the discovery of motivational dynamics, is the foundation of
much of modern psychology. Marie Jahoda notes that "[w]hat Churchill said about democ-
racy can well be applied to psychoanalysis too: It is the worst theory ever proposed, except
for all the others that have so far been tried." M.JAHODA, RACE RELATIONS & MENTAL HEALTH
11 (1960) (UNESCO publication). Mindful of the flaws in psychoanalytic theory and the diffi-
culties it presents for empirical verification, I have also drawn heavily upon studies, concepts,
and interpretations in the social sciences that are based on different theoretical premises. See
notes 76-91 infra and accompanying text.
56. In his case histories, Freud explained how pathological mental behavior develops.
See, e.g., S. FREUD, STUDIES ON HYSTERIA, in 2 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 135 (in
the case of Elisabeth von R., the patient succeeded in sparing herself the painful conviction
that she loved her brother-in-law by inducing physical pains in herself); S. FREUD, NOTES UPON
A CASE OF OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS, in 10 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 19 (in the
case of the Rat Man, obsessive behavior resulted from the displacement of self-reproach re-
lated to pleasurable sexual acts performed during childhood; the patient suffered guilt and
fell ill to avoid resolving the conflict).
57. For example, psychoanalytic theory explains parapraxes (i.e., "faulty acts" such as
slips of the tongue or misperceptions), forgetting, and similar responses. See S. FREUD, INTRO-
DUCTORY LECTURES ON PSYCHOANALYSIS, in 15 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 25-79.
Psychoanalysis is not only a therapy for those who suffer from mental and emotional distur-
bances; it is also a comprehensive general theory of personality that applies to the sick and the
healthy mind alike. See generally READINGS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY (M. Levitt ed.
1959).
331
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STANFORD LA W REVIEW
pression, denial, introjection, projection, reaction formation, sublima-
tion, and reversal resolve the conflicts between the primary and
secondary processes by disguising forbidden wishes and making them
palatable.58
Several observations about the nature of racial prejudice give
credence both to the theory of repression and to the suggestion that
racial antagonism finds its source in the unconscious. For example,
when we say that racism is irrational, we mean that when people are
asked to explain the basis of their racial antagonism they either express
an instinctive, unexplained distaste at the thought of associating with
the out-group as equals59 or they cite reasons that are not based on
established fact and are often contradicted by personal experience. In
one study on racial prejudice, E. L. Hartley included in his survey three
fictitious groups he called the Dariens, the Praneans, and the Walloni-
ans. A large portion of respondents who expressed a dislike for blacks
and Jews also disliked these nonexistent groups and advocated restric-
tive measures against them.60
In psychoanalytic terms, this irrational behavior indicates poor "re-
ality-testing." When people of normal intelligence behave in a way that
rejects what they experience as real, it requires some explanation. Psy-
choanalytic theory assumes that inadequacy in reality-testing fulfills a
psychological function, usually the preservation of an attitude basic to
the individual's makeup. If adequate reality-testing threatens to under-
mine such a functionally significant attitude, it is avoided. In such
cases, the dislike of out-groups is based on rationalization-that is, on
socially acceptable pseudoreasons that serve to disguise the function
that the antagonism serves for the individual.61
Of course, not all inadequate reality-testing is a rationalization of
58. See generally A. FREUD, supra note 47.
59. See M.JAHODA, supra note 55, at 15 (quoting G. CARTER, THE POLITICS OF INEQUALITY,
SOUTH AFRICA SINCE 1948, at 412 (1958) on the South African nationalist's horror at associat-
ing with black South Africans: "The most extreme example of this sentiment is bound up with
the phrase: 'Do you want your daughter to marry a Native?' ").
60. See E. HARTLEY, PROBLEMS IN PREJUDICE 21-40 (1946). Considerable research has
been done on the irrationality of racism, yielding many equivalents of the notorious remark:
"Some of my best friends are Jewish but ...."See, e.g., N. ACKERMAN & M. JAHODA, AN-
TISEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER: A PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION 82-84 (1950) (an-
tisemitism persisting notwithstanding many positive contacts with Jews); B. BETTELHEIM & M.
JANOWITZ, DYNAMICS OF PREJUDICE: A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF VETERANS
33 (1950) (study of World War II veterans in the Chicago area concluded that most
prejudiced people base their attitudes on untested preconceptions rather than personal expe-
rience; one veteran remarked, "There was one Jewish fellow in our outfit whom I liked espe-
cially. He wasn't like the ordinary run ofJews, that's why I remember him."); G. SELZNICK &
S. STEINBERG, THE TENACITY OF PREJUDICE: ANTISEMITISM IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA (1969);
Mussen, Some Personality and Social Factors Related to Changes in Children 's Attitudes Toward Negroes,
45 J. ABNORMAL & SOC. PSYCHOLOGY 423-41 (1950) (study conducted at an interracial boys'
camp concluded that getting to know members of the disliked group is not likely to change
attitudes); Sanford, The Roots of Prejudice: Emotional Dynamics, in PSYCHOLOGY AND RACE 57 (P.
Watson ed. 1973).
61. M.JAHODA, supra note 55, at 14.
332 [Vol. 39:317
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UNCONSCIOUS RACISM
hidden motives. The occasion for reality-testing is not always available,
and all of us make prejudgments based on insufficient evidence. But
when these prejudgments become rigidly stereotyped thinking that es-
chews reality even when facts are available, there is reason to search for
a psychological function that the rigidity of the prejudgment fulfills.62
An examination of the beliefs that racially prejudiced people have
about out-groups demonstrates their use of other mechanisms ob-
served by both Freudian and nonFreudian behavioralists. For example,
studies have found that racists hold two types of stereotyped beliefs:
They believe the out-group is dirty, lazy, oversexed, and without con-
trol of their instincts (a typical accusation against blacks),63 or they be-
lieve the out-group is pushy, ambitious, conniving, and in control of
business, money, and industry (a typical accusation against Jews).64
These two types of accusation correspond to two of the most common
types of neurotic conflict:65 that which arises when an individual can-
not master his instinctive drives in a way that fits into rational and so-
cially approved patterns of behavior,66 and that which arises when an
62. "Racial prejudice, in its narrowest sense, is an attitude towards outgroups which
refrains from reality-testing, not just because the mental effort is too much, but because the
attitude itself fulfills a specific irrational function for its bearer." Id. Scientific thought repre-
sents a major effort at rationalization-i.e., the attempt to avoid the contamination of secon-
dary (rational) thought processes by primary (irrational) ones. Research on race questions
provides numerous illustrations of the failure to achieve that goal. See, e.g., id. at 18; A.
MONTAGU, MAN'S MOST DANGEROUS MYTH: THE FALLACY OF RACE (5th ed. 1974); Snyder, On
the Self-Perpetuating Nature of Social Stereotypes, in COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN STEREOTYPING AND
INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR 183 (D. Hamilton ed. 1981); White, The Definition of Legal Competence:
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, 18 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 641 (1978). Other works on the race
question demonstrate that the less rational processes affect the rational processes. See, e.g., 1
G. MYRDAL, AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: THE NEGRO PROBLEM AND MODERN DEMOCRACY (1975);
G. SAENGER, THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PREJUDICE (1953); Bigoness, Efect of Applicant's Sex,
Race, and Performance on Employers' Performance Ratings. Some Additional Findings, 61 J. APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY 80 (1976).
63. See G. ALLPORT, THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE 196-98 (1954); J. KOVEL, supra note 21, at
51-92; G. SELZNICK & S. STEINBERG, supra note 60, at 170-71.
64. See G. ALLPORT, supra note 63, at 192-96; G. SELZNICK & S. STEINBERG, supra note 60,
at 3-21.
65. See B. BETrELHEIM & M.JANOWITZ, supra note 60, at 156-59 (describing case histories
of antisemitic people under psychoanalytic treatment; the study found that these people pro-
jected culturally prevalent stereotypes of Jews to embody the conflicts they could not face in
themselves); see also M. JAHODA, supra note 55, at 28; Sofer, Working Groups in a Plural Society, 8
INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 68 (1954). A number of studies have demonstrated that this parallel
between racial stereotypes and the most basic human conflicts is not fortuitous. See, e.g., T.
ADORNO, E. FRENKEL-BRUNSWIK, D. LEVINSON & R. SANFORD, THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONAL-
ITY 474-82 (1950) (finding that the personality type most given to intense feelings of racial
prejudice is characterized by a rigid adherence to conventional values and a submissive, un-
critical attitude toward idealized authorities of the in-group; to achieve some sense of identity,
the authoritarian personality needs a black and white perception of the world; this need for
clear-cut categories inevitably disinclines such people to look closely at their own or other
people's motives; they fear that a full understanding of the world will blur the sharp divisions
that tell them where they belong and who they are).
66. See T. ADORNO, E. FRENKEL-BRUNSWIK, D. LEVINSON & R. SANFORD, supra note 65, at
474-75. Jean-Paul Sartre arrived intuitively at much the same picture as these empirical stud-
ies. See Sartre, Portrait of the Antisemite, 13 PARTISAN REV. 6 (1946); see also J. SARTRE, REFLEX-
IONS SUR LA QUESTION JUIVE (14th ed. 1954).
January 1987] 333
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STANFORD LAW REVIEW [Vol. 39:317
individual cannot live up to the aspirations and standards of his own
conscience.67 Thus, the stereotypical view of blacks implies that their
Id, the instinctive part of their psyche, dominates their Ego, the ration-
ally oriented part. The stereotype of the Jew, on the other hand, ac-
cuses him of having an overdeveloped Ego. In this way, the racially
prejudiced person projects his own conflict into the form of racial
stereotypes
the fundamental principle of psychoanalysis.55 Psychoanalytic theory
explains the existence of pathological mental behavior56 as well as cer-
tain otherwise unexplained behavior in healthy people57 by postulating
two powerful mental processes-the primary and the secondary-which
govern how the mind works. The primary process, or Id, occurs outside
of our awareness. It consists of desires, wishes, and instincts that strive
for gratification. It follows its own laws, of which the supreme one is
pleasure. The secondary process, or Ego, happens under conscious
control and is bound by logic and reason. We use this process to adapt
to reality: The Ego is required to respect the demands of reality and to
conform to ethical and moral laws. On their way to gratification, the Id
impulses must pass through the territory of the Ego where they are
criticized, rejected, or modified, often by some defensive measure on
the part of the secondary process. Defensive mechanisms such as re-
55. S. FREUD, THE EGO AND THE ID, supra note 46, at 3. It is not my purpose to defend
psychoanalytic theory as the definitive description of psychological processes. It has often
been noted that Freud himself was constantly revising his hypothetical constructs and defini-
tions. Rather, I have drawn upon psychoanalytic theory because it provides a conceptual vo-
cabulary for processes that we have all observed in our everyday lives. That vocabulary, while
controversial, has gathered sufficient preeminence in the scientific world and among lay per-
sons that its meanings are understood by a relatively broad range of people. Moreover, the
theory's major contribution, the discovery of motivational dynamics, is the foundation of
much of modern psychology. Marie Jahoda notes that "[w]hat Churchill said about democ-
racy can well be applied to psychoanalysis too: It is the worst theory ever proposed, except
for all the others that have so far been tried." M.JAHODA, RACE RELATIONS & MENTAL HEALTH
11 (1960) (UNESCO publication). Mindful of the flaws in psychoanalytic theory and the diffi-
culties it presents for empirical verification, I have also drawn heavily upon studies, concepts,
and interpretations in the social sciences that are based on different theoretical premises. See
notes 76-91 infra and accompanying text.
56. In his case histories, Freud explained how pathological mental behavior develops.
See, e.g., S. FREUD, STUDIES ON HYSTERIA, in 2 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 135 (in
the case of Elisabeth von R., the patient succeeded in sparing herself the painful conviction
that she loved her brother-in-law by inducing physical pains in herself); S. FREUD, NOTES UPON
A CASE OF OBSESSIONAL NEUROSIS, in 10 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 19 (in the
case of the Rat Man, obsessive behavior resulted from the displacement of self-reproach re-
lated to pleasurable sexual acts performed during childhood; the patient suffered guilt and
fell ill to avoid resolving the conflict).
57. For example, psychoanalytic theory explains parapraxes (i.e., "faulty acts" such as
slips of the tongue or misperceptions), forgetting, and similar responses. See S. FREUD, INTRO-
DUCTORY LECTURES ON PSYCHOANALYSIS, in 15 THE COMPLETE WORKS, supra note 46, at 25-79.
Psychoanalysis is not only a therapy for those who suffer from mental and emotional distur-
bances; it is also a comprehensive general theory of personality that applies to the sick and the
healthy mind alike. See generally READINGS IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY (M. Levitt ed.
1959).
331
This content downloaded from 198.180.129.12 on Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:30:31 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
STANFORD LA W REVIEW
pression, denial, introjection, projection, reaction formation, sublima-
tion, and reversal resolve the conflicts between the primary and
secondary processes by disguising forbidden wishes and making them
palatable.58
Several observations about the nature of racial prejudice give
credence both to the theory of repression and to the suggestion that
racial antagonism finds its source in the unconscious. For example,
when we say that racism is irrational, we mean that when people are
asked to explain the basis of their racial antagonism they either express
an instinctive, unexplained distaste at the thought of associating with
the out-group as equals59 or they cite reasons that are not based on
established fact and are often contradicted by personal experience. In
one study on racial prejudice, E. L. Hartley included in his survey three
fictitious groups he called the Dariens, the Praneans, and the Walloni-
ans. A large portion of respondents who expressed a dislike for blacks
and Jews also disliked these nonexistent groups and advocated restric-
tive measures against them.60
In psychoanalytic terms, this irrational behavior indicates poor "re-
ality-testing." When people of normal intelligence behave in a way that
rejects what they experience as real, it requires some explanation. Psy-
choanalytic theory assumes that inadequacy in reality-testing fulfills a
psychological function, usually the preservation of an attitude basic to
the individual's makeup. If adequate reality-testing threatens to under-
mine such a functionally significant attitude, it is avoided. In such
cases, the dislike of out-groups is based on rationalization-that is, on
socially acceptable pseudoreasons that serve to disguise the function
that the antagonism serves for the individual.61
Of course, not all inadequate reality-testing is a rationalization of
58. See generally A. FREUD, supra note 47.
59. See M.JAHODA, supra note 55, at 15 (quoting G. CARTER, THE POLITICS OF INEQUALITY,
SOUTH AFRICA SINCE 1948, at 412 (1958) on the South African nationalist's horror at associat-
ing with black South Africans: "The most extreme example of this sentiment is bound up with
the phrase: 'Do you want your daughter to marry a Native?' ").
60. See E. HARTLEY, PROBLEMS IN PREJUDICE 21-40 (1946). Considerable research has
been done on the irrationality of racism, yielding many equivalents of the notorious remark:
"Some of my best friends are Jewish but ...."See, e.g., N. ACKERMAN & M. JAHODA, AN-
TISEMITISM AND EMOTIONAL DISORDER: A PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION 82-84 (1950) (an-
tisemitism persisting notwithstanding many positive contacts with Jews); B. BETTELHEIM & M.
JANOWITZ, DYNAMICS OF PREJUDICE: A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF VETERANS
33 (1950) (study of World War II veterans in the Chicago area concluded that most
prejudiced people base their attitudes on untested preconceptions rather than personal expe-
rience; one veteran remarked, "There was one Jewish fellow in our outfit whom I liked espe-
cially. He wasn't like the ordinary run ofJews, that's why I remember him."); G. SELZNICK &
S. STEINBERG, THE TENACITY OF PREJUDICE: ANTISEMITISM IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA (1969);
Mussen, Some Personality and Social Factors Related to Changes in Children 's Attitudes Toward Negroes,
45 J. ABNORMAL & SOC. PSYCHOLOGY 423-41 (1950) (study conducted at an interracial boys'
camp concluded that getting to know members of the disliked group is not likely to change
attitudes); Sanford, The Roots of Prejudice: Emotional Dynamics, in PSYCHOLOGY AND RACE 57 (P.
Watson ed. 1973).
61. M.JAHODA, supra note 55, at 14.
332 [Vol. 39:317
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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
UNCONSCIOUS RACISM
hidden motives. The occasion for reality-testing is not always available,
and all of us make prejudgments based on insufficient evidence. But
when these prejudgments become rigidly stereotyped thinking that es-
chews reality even when facts are available, there is reason to search for
a psychological function that the rigidity of the prejudgment fulfills.62
An examination of the beliefs that racially prejudiced people have
about out-groups demonstrates their use of other mechanisms ob-
served by both Freudian and nonFreudian behavioralists. For example,
studies have found that racists hold two types of stereotyped beliefs:
They believe the out-group is dirty, lazy, oversexed, and without con-
trol of their instincts (a typical accusation against blacks),63 or they be-
lieve the out-group is pushy, ambitious, conniving, and in control of
business, money, and industry (a typical accusation against Jews).64
These two types of accusation correspond to two of the most common
types of neurotic conflict:65 that which arises when an individual can-
not master his instinctive drives in a way that fits into rational and so-
cially approved patterns of behavior,66 and that which arises when an
62. "Racial prejudice, in its narrowest sense, is an attitude towards outgroups which
refrains from reality-testing, not just because the mental effort is too much, but because the
attitude itself fulfills a specific irrational function for its bearer." Id. Scientific thought repre-
sents a major effort at rationalization-i.e., the attempt to avoid the contamination of secon-
dary (rational) thought processes by primary (irrational) ones. Research on race questions
provides numerous illustrations of the failure to achieve that goal. See, e.g., id. at 18; A.
MONTAGU, MAN'S MOST DANGEROUS MYTH: THE FALLACY OF RACE (5th ed. 1974); Snyder, On
the Self-Perpetuating Nature of Social Stereotypes, in COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN STEREOTYPING AND
INTERGROUP BEHAVIOR 183 (D. Hamilton ed. 1981); White, The Definition of Legal Competence:
Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, 18 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 641 (1978). Other works on the race
question demonstrate that the less rational processes affect the rational processes. See, e.g., 1
G. MYRDAL, AN AMERICAN DILEMMA: THE NEGRO PROBLEM AND MODERN DEMOCRACY (1975);
G. SAENGER, THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PREJUDICE (1953); Bigoness, Efect of Applicant's Sex,
Race, and Performance on Employers' Performance Ratings. Some Additional Findings, 61 J. APPLIED
PSYCHOLOGY 80 (1976).
63. See G. ALLPORT, THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE 196-98 (1954); J. KOVEL, supra note 21, at
51-92; G. SELZNICK & S. STEINBERG, supra note 60, at 170-71.
64. See G. ALLPORT, supra note 63, at 192-96; G. SELZNICK & S. STEINBERG, supra note 60,
at 3-21.
65. See B. BETrELHEIM & M.JANOWITZ, supra note 60, at 156-59 (describing case histories
of antisemitic people under psychoanalytic treatment; the study found that these people pro-
jected culturally prevalent stereotypes of Jews to embody the conflicts they could not face in
themselves); see also M. JAHODA, supra note 55, at 28; Sofer, Working Groups in a Plural Society, 8
INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 68 (1954). A number of studies have demonstrated that this parallel
between racial stereotypes and the most basic human conflicts is not fortuitous. See, e.g., T.
ADORNO, E. FRENKEL-BRUNSWIK, D. LEVINSON & R. SANFORD, THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONAL-
ITY 474-82 (1950) (finding that the personality type most given to intense feelings of racial
prejudice is characterized by a rigid adherence to conventional values and a submissive, un-
critical attitude toward idealized authorities of the in-group; to achieve some sense of identity,
the authoritarian personality needs a black and white perception of the world; this need for
clear-cut categories inevitably disinclines such people to look closely at their own or other
people's motives; they fear that a full understanding of the world will blur the sharp divisions
that tell them where they belong and who they are).
66. See T. ADORNO, E. FRENKEL-BRUNSWIK, D. LEVINSON & R. SANFORD, supra note 65, at
474-75. Jean-Paul Sartre arrived intuitively at much the same picture as these empirical stud-
ies. See Sartre, Portrait of the Antisemite, 13 PARTISAN REV. 6 (1946); see also J. SARTRE, REFLEX-
IONS SUR LA QUESTION JUIVE (14th ed. 1954).
January 1987] 333
This content downloaded from 198.180.129.12 on Mon, 06 Jun 2016 15:30:31 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
STANFORD LAW REVIEW [Vol. 39:317
individual cannot live up to the aspirations and standards of his own
conscience.67 Thus, the stereotypical view of blacks implies that their
Id, the instinctive part of their psyche, dominates their Ego, the ration-
ally oriented part. The stereotype of the Jew, on the other hand, ac-
cuses him of having an overdeveloped Ego. In this way, the racially
prejudiced person projects his own conflict into the form of racial
stereotypes