ABSTRACT
In Chapter 7, Brothers and Sletvold attempt to show how the trauma-generated binary of “us and them,” which lies at the heart of fascist experience, is utterly embodied. In an earlier chapter, they suggested that the creation of binaries is a tried-and-true way of providing simple answers to complex questions as a means of reducing complexity and uncertainty. In this chapter, they assert that no binary has more power than that of “us vs. them.” They contend that racism, sexism, xenophobia and virtually every form of political malevolence depends on it. In their view, fascist experience, which revolves largely around the us-them polarity, represents an extreme effort to find certainty in a world trembling with uncertainty.
They emphasize the crucial distinction between a we that is based on I and you, and a we without a you . Drawing on the work of Wilhelm Reich, who warned of the dangers of fascism even before the rise of Nazism, they suggest that being human involves being vulnerable to experiencing this ubiquitous binary. The authors also attempt to show how the us-them binary affects psychoanalytic organizations and practice. Each of the authors then describes being caught up in the us-them binary in relation to patients who supported fascistic leaders.
