| Summary: | "The goal of this book is to present alternative perspectives on the psychology of hate. After the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis in World War II, the expression "never again" became a familiar refrain. Perhaps there were aspects of the Nazi horrors that would not be repeated, but the massacres and genocides inspired and committed by the Nazis were far from the last the world was to see. The last decade of the 20th century saw massacres and genocides in record numbers, and indeed, the last half of the 20th century witnessed a staggering number of massacres and genocides. The beginning of the 21st century has seen fresh waves of terrorism, such as those culminating in the events of September 11, 2001. These were not random killings or sudden bursts of irrationality on the part of crowds. Rather, they were carefully planned and orchestrated killings that, at times, approached the efficiency of the Nazi death machine in the sheer number of deaths produced. In many cases, although certainly not all, one of the underlying causes was one of the most powerful of human emotions: hate. Psychologists have not generated a lot of theories of hate, certainly fewer than theories of love. The goal of this book is to help redress an imbalance--to propose a number of different theories that answer questions about hate in related, but different, ways. The theories proposed in this book cover the gamut, including clinical, cognitive, social, and eclectic emphases on understanding hate. This book is addressed to anyone who has an interest in hate, whether a psychologist or not. Chapters are written at a level that should be comprehensible to any intelligent layperson"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).
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