The appeal and behavior of the ku kiux klan in object relations perspective

Abstract

The conspicuous and peculiarly ruinous behavior of the Ku Klux Klan may provide an example of psychosocial pathology that can be usefully analyzed via an extension of object relations theory. This largely theoretical paper employs the concept, pioneered by Klein, of the split maternal presence and advances the theoretical hypothesis that this split is projected into social life. Some deprived and psychologically damaged adults experience the “maternal presence” of society as split and have special requirements for group support. Under certain circumstances, groups like the KKK may meet those requirements. In addition, the eruption of group violence of the KKK type may be explainable by analyzing the psychodynamics of group regression to an infantile level and the accompanying arousal of the “unmanageable mother.”