ABSTRACT
The previous chapter considered how privilege and otherness are split apart in the construction of our ego. The means of maintaining this split is through the hatred that the ego has of its opposite, be it its privilege or its sense of otherness. This chapter looks at the types of overt and covert means of expressing this hatred; from marginalisation to microaggressions and other aggressive means, whilst also discussing projection and the power of projective identification.
The chapter then looks at the impact of this encounter for the opposite aspect of the psyche, that of shame, and opens with an important exploration of shame and how this emotion sits central to experiences as the other. Beginning with an overview of how shame is considered from a psychotherapeutic perspective, before looking at it from a developmental angle through the ideas of early psychodynamic writers such as Klein and Winnicott, before linking shame to supremacy and privilege, and also therefore to narcissism.
This part of the chapter explores how the narcissism of the subject, or the other, is then maintained by the sense of hatred or shame of its opposite. This exploration of the link between narcissism and othering, begins with a deeper understanding of just what othering is, together with presenting an understanding of just how narcissism and projection work to for an egoic sense of self.
Lastly, here for the first time in this book we see the difference between intersectional privilege and otherness, and superiority. This section understands that hate and shame when working together actually encourage a type of egoic superiority over the shadow and therefore the other.
