October 15, 2003

Historical Personalities and Violence

Historical Period	Mode of Child- rearing	Personality	Ideal	Mother/God	Sacrifice	War
Tribal 33,000 B.C.	Early infanticidal	Schizoid	Shaman	Devours, seduces, abandons child.	To animal alter spirits. Creator gods are too remote and uncaring to be prayed to or addressed.	Tribal warfare against alter containing enemies.
Antiquity 33,000 - 0 B.C.	Late infanticidal	Narcissist	Hero	Kills, punishes. Child is evil.	To human alter gods. Soldiers killed in battle seen as sacrifices to mother=s/god=s bloodthirsty appetite.	Wars to restore men=s potency (prevent them from switching permanently into their mother alter and losing their self).
Early Christian ^(a) 0 -1100 A.D.	Abandoning	Lower Borderline/ Masochistic	Martyr	Forgives, if the child punishes himself.	Self-torture. Hope to get mother=s/God=s love if child shows her his pain and gets her pity.	Wars fought for masochistic purposes. Warriors glory in their wounds.
Middle Ages 1100-1500 A.D.	Ambivalent	Borderline	Vassal	Dominates, beats. The price of closeness is total devotion.	Subservient clinging. Mother loves if the child does not self-activate.	Witch hunts of the Renaissance and Reformation due to earlier psycho-classes decompensating from the rapid societal changes.
Historical Period	Mode of Child- rearing	Personality	Ideal	Mother/God	Sacrifice	War
Renaissance 1500-1700 A.D.	Intrusive	Depressive	Holy warrior	Disciplines. Empathy begins. Swaddling ends. Child must be obedient.	Obeying. Melanie Klein B merger of the good and bad breast split. Shakespeare=s Hamlet B a melancholy philosopher.	AReligious@ wars (wars organized by religious groups) are between psycho-classes, earlier ones afraid that change will unchain demon alters. The warrior sacrifices himself for Christ.
Modern 1700-1950	Socializing	Neurotic	Patriot	Manipulates. Parental needs and goals supersede those of the child as he attempts to separate.	Incomplete separation.	Wars, organized by nations, result from people switching into their social alters and forming national group fantasies. The soldier sacrifices himself for the mother/nation B the motherland. Leaders are chosen from earlier psycho-classes.
Post-modern 1950-	Helping	Individuated	Activist	Trusts, loves child.	No sacrifice of real self.	Wars not necessary. People want to disarm.

Saint Augustine (354-430 A.D.), born in Algeria; was Doctor of the Church, one of the four Latin fathers, bishop of Hippo, Algeria. His Confessions is considered a classic in Christian mysticism. He described the Amania for self-destruction@ of early Christians.

Augustine=s mother, jealous of his concubine with whom he had lived faithfully for years, made him dismiss her B presumably in order to keep him tied to her.

Augustine observed,

AWho would not shudder, were he given the choice

of eternal death or life again as a child?

Who would not choose to die?@

Bibliography

Table:

deMause, Lloyd, The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York. N.Y.), 2002, pp. 381-431.

St Augustine:

General:

The New Columbia Encyclopedia (Columbia University Press, New York, N.Y.), 1975.

Relationship with his Concubine:

deMause, Lloyd, The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York. N.Y.), 2002, p. 429 (no reference given).

AMania for self-destruction@:

Droge, Arthur and James Tabor, A Noble Death B Suicide and Martyrdom among Christians and Jews in Antiquity (HarperSan Francisco, San Francisco, CA), 1992, p. 5; cited in deMause, Lloyd, The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York. N.Y.), 2002, p. 414.

AWho would not shudder...@:

St. Augustine, Confessions; cited in deMause, Lloyd, The Emotional Life of Nations (Karnac/Other Press, New York. N.Y.), 2002, p. 285.

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