ABSTRACT
This chapter establishes the distinction between an opinion (doxa) and knowledge (episteme), as we tend to guide our daily lives by opinions, which are a priori judgements that we establish by virtue of their economy and are instilled in us by our family and the social group to which we belong but which are prejudgements, superstitions or religious beliefs; they can be transmitted consciously but also from unconscious to unconscious and transgenerationally. Prejudices formally involve thought processes, mainly the judgement of reality. As studied in metapsychology, prejudices – like superstitions and religions – are much closer to primary processes and the pleasure principle than to secondary processes and the reality principle, and they therefore obey the realm of desire. Finally, prejudices are often anchored in very deep layers of our psyche and are therefore particularly refractory to change.
