Metástases do ódio: um olhar psicanalítico sobre as nuances da opressão sulista e seus efeitos em To Kill a Mockingbird

Abstract

This research investigates the psychoanalytic dimensions of hatred and its sociocultural metastases, focusing particularly on the context of segregation in the South of the United States, as depicted in the work that belongs to the Southern Gothic subgenre To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960). The analysis begins with the conception of hatred in archaic Greece, tracing how the genesis and role played by the Erinyes, were able to conceive one of the first conceptions of hatred through these goddesses, as they were directly associated with revenge and retributive justice, then supported by the interpretation Aristotelian philosophy, we will draw a parallel between the mythical and philosophical conception of this emotion. Subsequently, through a historical analysis of slavery in the United States, we will investigate how hatred fueled southern capitalist structures from the colonial period through the Antebellum, during and after the American Civil War, and how racial hatred was perpetuated after the Reconstruction era with the Jim Crow laws to the Civil Rights Movement. Furthermore, the study engages with psychoanalytic perspectives from Sigmund Freud's works 'Totem and Taboo,' 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,' and 'Civilization and Its Discontents,' in an attempt to unravel the origin and development of hatred in the context of psychoanalysis for a better understanding of how this feeling was expressed and amplified both individually and in mass social groups through the discourse, injustices and hypocrisy of American southern society within the context of Harper Lee's masterpiece, where hatred and injustice shared in fiction a sad contextualized reality that details the reality of AfricanAmericans before the achievement of their civil rights, in addition to revealing how hatred metamorphosed into prejudice and racial hatred that spanned centuries, it adds up as tool in this endeavor to psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's perceptions about prejudice and racial discrimination, how hatred is generated and perpetuated within the colonial system, the emotional and psychological implications related to injustice and especially the alienation of black identity, as well as the dehumanization inherent to colonialism. The conclusion of this work is a nuanced examination of the themes of hatred, injustice, and prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird, which offers a comprehensive understanding of the psychological roots of segregation and its infamous lasting legacy in American society.