ABSTRACT
A prominent characteristic of the Anita Hill testimony during the confirmation hearings for the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1992 was the suppressed violence that pervaded its tone. Social and political life takes for granted a working rift between public presentation and private feelings, a rift that can be inherently violent and lead to violence. Part of the drama of the hearings involved an underlying hysterical affect, an affect usually controlled and modulated by schizoid, paranoid, and psychopathic maneuverings. In the psychopathic attitude, one feels justified in twisting things to one’s advantage. Exposing the other is only incidental to aggrandizing the self. Together with paranoid structuring and the psychopathic manipulation of underlying hysterical affect, there was a cold, detached, untouched, and untouchable spirit or tone. One of the odd things about violence is that the perpetrator, and even the victim, may not be aware of the real impact and consequences of his or her violence.
