Basic trust and alienation or "we have nothing to reproach ourselves with"

Abstract

The article examines prejudice from the point of view of what it performs. Using Winnicott's understanding of 'basic trust' transposed into a social context, I argue that discrimination undermines 'basic trust'. Fassbinder's film Fear Eats the Soul (1974) shows how 'everyday racism' impacts on the addressee's sense of self and surrounding others, and orientation in the world. Since 'basic trust' denotes something that is usually pre-reflectively taken for granted, it is not within the range of an average person's imagination in a normal setting to know what it means for it to be taken away. I argue that Fear Eats the Soul does some work towards compensating for this absence.