Four Principles of Political Correctness

Abstract

This paper takes a psychoanalytic view of political correctness. PC is a consequence of a deep cultural transformation. Because of the necessity for the infant of maternal love, the mother is the most powerful force in the psyche. In traditional culture, the father is seen as having earned mother’s love, which makes him worthy of emulation. In the new culture, he Is seen as having stolen mother’s love, and is to be hated for his theft. Those from who he is seen as having stolen her love, called the marginalized, such as racial and sexual minorities, are to be loved in compensation. This whole project is based on the fiction that the father gained his love through theft, and therefore cannot be renewed by contact with reality. It must therefore be dramatized continuously. All this can be represented as four principles of political correctness: (1) Hate the father, (2) Love those from whom he has stolen love, (3) Keep the drama moving, and (4) Invoke the love and power of mother.