ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the principles of group analysis to terror and the dynamics of hatred and polarization that give rise to it. Terrorism seeks to foster these dynamics, building its resources out of hatred. Group analysis is a clinical and theoretical discipline that locates the disturbance of social relations between the psyche and the social world (Brown & Zinkin, 1995). The discipline is used here to guide a survey that takes account of terror following 9/11 and relates this to threats and conflict in Israel during the period of the Second Intifada, 2000–2005. It examines contemporary culture within and outside the country, and four historical conflicts involving war crimes and crimes against humanity. It draws on group analytic sources to provide psychosocial foundations for the applied analysis of historical events to build a perspective on the generational transmission of trauma. This is investigated between the consulting room and the street, each of which serve this paper as emblems for the psyche and the social world.
