Institute of Criminology Public Seminars: 'The Fear of the Other: Demonization and Mass Killing'

Speaker: Dr Coline Covington, Jungian Training Analyst and Supervisor, Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation

What is it that incites ordinary men and women to participate in mass killings – and especially to kill their neighbours? In this seminar I will look at the various motivating factors – psychological, social, historical and political – that together constitute the driving force in mass killings. Drawing on extensive research from the Jewish pogrom in Jedwabne, Poland in 1941 and from interviews of killers engaged in the Rwandan genocide in 1994, it is possible to identify a constellation of elements central to the mass killings in these two, different, parts of the world. Against a background of disempowerment and ethnic humiliation, the advent of a power vacuum in both places seems to have opened the door to creating a perverse social norm that effectively provoked and sanctioned mass killing. Evil enters when there is no one keeping watch. With xenophobia, immigration and political instability on the increase throughout the world, do we need to be especially alert to the dangers of hate crimes and violence that could tip over into mass killing?

Coline received a DipCrim from the Institute of Criminology and a PhD in Sociology from LSE. She is a Training Analyst of the Society of Analytical Psychology and the British Psychotherapy Foundation and former Chair of the British Psychoanalytic Council. She is a Fellow of International Dialogue Initiative (IDI), a think tank formed by Professor Vamik Volkan, Lord Alderdice and Dr Robi Friedman to apply psychoanalytic concepts in understanding political conflict. From 2011 to 2013 Coline was Visiting Research Fellow in International Politics and Development at the Open University and Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Coline’s publications include Terrorism and War: Unconscious Dynamics of Political Violence (Karnac, 2002), Shrinking the News: Headline Stories on the Couch (Karnac, 2014), Sabina Spielrein: Forgotten Pioneer of Psychoanalysis, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2015), and Everyday Evils: A Psychoanalytic View of Evil and Morality (Routledge, 2016). Coline is in private practice in London.

This seminar starts at 5.30pm. A drinks reception in the basement foyer will follow this seminar for attendees

The IoC Public Seminar Series is open to all interested in attending, with no ticket required. If you wish to be added to the seminar mailing list, please contact: Joanne Garner, on: jf225@cam.ac.uk