ABSTRACT
This self-reflective personal chapter explores how human psychological constructions of others, notably those from whom one differs in subjectively significant ways, are related to the developmental requirement to distinguish self from other. Pathological othering is implicitly construed as a perversion of the normal maturational process of attaining a sense of identity. Drawing on Melanie Klein’s notion of the paranoid-schizoid position and the consequent need for a “bad object,” the author explores the ubiquitous human tendency to objectify and demean the other. Commenting on the relationship of othering to rage, envy, and shame, she challenges the culturally prevalent myth of progress and concludes with some observations about the undertheorized therapeutic attitude of respect.
