All Topics  
Hatred

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Hatred
 
 
  Topics Hatred Topic Home

Hatred (or hate) is a word that describes intense feelings of dislike. It can be used in a wide variety of contexts, from hatred of inanimate objects (e.g. vegetables) to hatred of other people, or even entire groups of people.

osophers have offered many influential definitions of hatred. Rene Descartes
René Descartes

Ren? Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosophy, mathematician, scientist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic....
 viewed hate as an awareness that something is bad, combined with an urge to withdraw from it.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Hatred'
Start a new discussion about 'Hatred'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Hatred (or hate) is a word that describes intense feelings of dislike. It can be used in a wide variety of contexts, from hatred of inanimate objects (e.g. vegetables) to hatred of other people, or even entire groups of people.

Philosophical views

Philosophers have offered many influential definitions of hatred. Rene Descartes
René Descartes

Ren? Descartes , , also known as Renatus Cartesius , was a French philosophy, mathematician, scientist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic....
 viewed hate as an awareness that something is bad, combined with an urge to withdraw from it. Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza

Baruch or Benedict de Spinoza was a Netherlands Philosophy of Iberian Jews origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death....
 defined hate as a type of pain that is due to an external cause. Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
 viewed hate as a desire for the annihilation of an object that is incurable by time. Finally, David Hume
David Hume

David Hume was a Scotland philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment....
 believed that hate is an irreducible feeling that is not definable at all.

Psychological views

In psychology
Psychology

Psychology is an academic and applied science discipline involving the science study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally it also relies on symbolic hermeneutics and critical theory, although these traditions are less pronounced than in other social sciences such as sociology....
, Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian psychiatrist who founded the psychoanalysis of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of Psychological repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for curing psychopathology through dialogue...
 defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness. In a more contemporary definition, the Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines hate as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object." Because hatred is believed to be long-lasting, many psychologists consider it to be more of an attitude or disposition than a (temporary) emotional state.

Neurological research

The neural correlates of hate have been investigated with an fMRI procedure. In this experiment, people had their brains scanned while viewing pictures of people they hated. The results showed increased activity in the medial frontal gyrus
Frontal gyrus

Frontal gyrus may refer to:* inferior frontal gyrus* middle frontal gyrus* superior frontal gyrus...
, right putamen
Putamen

The putamen is a round structure located at the base of the forebrain . The putamen and caudate nucleus together form the dorsal striatum. It is also one of the structures that comprises the basal ganglia....
, bilaterally in the premotor cortex
Premotor cortex

The premotor cortex is an area of motor cortex in the frontal lobe of the brain. It extends 3mm in front of the Primary motor cortex near the Sylvian fissure before narrowing to approximately 1mm near the Medial longitudinal fissure, where it has the prefrontal cortex....
, in the frontal pole, and bilaterally in the medial insula
Insula

Insula may refer to:* Insular cortex, a human brain structure* The singular of insulae, Roman apartments for the low and middle classes* ?nsula Barataria, the governorship assigned to Sancho Panza as a prank in the novel Don Quixote...
 of the human brain
Human brain

The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. It has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over five times as large as the "average brain" of a mammal with the same body size....
. The researchers concluded that there is a distinct pattern of brain activity that occurs when people are experiencing hatred.

See also


  • Ethnic cleansing
    Ethnic cleansing

    Ethnic cleansing is a euphemism referring to the persecution through imprisonment, expulsion, or killing of members of an ethnic minority by a majority to achieve ethnic homogeneity in majority-controlled territory....
  • Genocide
    Genocide

    Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.While precise genocide definitions, a legal definition is found in the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ....
  • Hate crime
    Hate crime

    Hate crimes occur when a perpetrator targets a victim because of his or her membership in a certain social group, usually defined by Race , religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, Ageing, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation....
  • Hate speech
    Hate speech

    Hate speech is a term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against a person or group of people based on their Race , gender, age, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, language ability, ideology, social class, list of occupations, appearance , mental...

Further reading

  • The Psychology of Hate by Robert Sternberg
    Robert Sternberg

    Robert J. Sternberg , is an American psychologist and psychometrics and the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University. He was formerly IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale University and the President of the American Psychological Association....
     (Ed.)
  • Hatred: The Psychological Descent into Violence by Willard Gaylin
  • Why We Hate by Jack Levin
    Jack Levin

    Jack Levin, Ph.D. is the Irving and Betty Brudnick Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University, Boston in Boston, Massachusetts where he teaches courses in prejudice and violence....
  • The Psychology of Good and Evil : Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others by Ervin Staub
  • Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence by Aaron T. Beck
    Aaron T. Beck

    Aaron Temkin Beck is an American cognitive therapy and a professor emeritus at the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Beck is known as the father of cognitive therapy and inventor of a number of the widely used self-report measures, including the Beck Depression Inventory , Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Scale for Su...
  • Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller
    James Waller

    James Edward Waller Jr. is a Professor of psychology at Whitworth University, in Spokane, Washington, and was the Edward B. Lindaman Chair from Fall 2003-2007....