Distrust and aggression: an interpersonal-international analogy

Abstract

International disputes in which distrust and potentially destructive aggression figure importantly contain certain deep implications which are, I believe, analogous to those in interpersonal disputes of the same genre. This conviction has grown in me during many years of work, as a by-product of insights gained through prolonged and intensive psychotherapy of distrustful and aggressively destructive adult patients. The similarities between the interpersonal conflicts generated by the hostile patient and certain international conflicts can, I submit, be productive of the interdisciplinary application of a psychotherapeutic principle. This application would embody a deeper understanding of conflictive international encounters than is now evidenced in most negotiations. Admittedly, the psychoanalytic consulting room is a far cry from the international conference table. But the figurative distance shrinks considerably when one remembers that individual psychology does, after all, play a major role in the conduct and outcome of international conflicts (Klineberg, 1965; Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 1964). The same psychological mechanisms can often be found at work at the international conference table as in the