Identity, Otherness, and Psycho-Cultural Dynamics

Abstract

Many countries across Europe are currently dealing with a variety of disruptive socio-political processes that are at risk of undermining social cohesion, trust, wellbeing, and the general societal development. Examples of such processes are the decrease of solidarity and cooperation among European countries in dealing with the refugee crisis, the spreading of eurosceptic attitudes, and the rise of far-right parties along with waves of xenophobia and populism. All these phenomena entail, either as a premise or as consequence, the dramatic increase of intergroup conflicts and the negation of otherness. Intergroup dynamics, both in its physiological and pathological development, is based on the general psychosocial process that connects the construction of Self and Identity to the construction of Otherness, which are two sides of the same coin—as one only exists relative to the other. Several approaches and theories in human and social sciences account for the entangled self-other relationship. In the construction, reproduction and circulation of figures of Otherness, media discourses play a key role and are liable to affect public opinion as well as individual orientations, intergroup relationships, and policy-making decisions. To understand the contemporary unfolding of intergroup relationships, and the underlying identity-other dynamics, the analysis of cultural forms—namely, media representations—seems a fruitful strategy to look into the construction of some figures of Otherness, especially those that are perceived as the most threatening.