David Bell

Psychoanalyst Dr David Bell discusses the light Freudian theory casts on our society. Freud, he says, writes about the civilising influence of Christianity but points out that, after St Paul demanded that we love each other as brothers, extreme intolerance of groups outside Christianity built up. If all you can feel for your brother is love, and not hatred and rivalry as well, then the cost of joining the group is repressing your violence which will then be directed at others outside the group. If we don’t allow for the darker side to our natures then it is easy to fan flames of hatred because they are flames we all already have.