The wonder of reason at the psychological roots of violence

Abstract

Aggression, violence and destructiveness have been part of human nature since its origins. Their roots can be traced in unconscious and from an elaboration of mourning that uses division in order to save oneself from anguish and guilt, attributing all good to one’s own object of love and all evil to an external enemy—just as happens in the anguish of the stranger, considered dangerous and an enemy, not because he really is, but because onto him the internal enemy is projected. This paper seeks to show how this permanent psychic tension derives from the meeting of opposing, heterogeneous and unpredictable forces and movements which can be neutralized but are never cancelled out. The balance between instinct and rationality can be lost at all times and, on an individual or collective level, it can degenerate into pure violence. But if the life expresses itself through biological functions of a very high complexity, it also does so through history and culture. In other words, a sense of guilt elaborated for the construction of better civilization.