Hate Hides Where We Are Hurting: Psychoanalytic-Meditative Reflections on Breaking Cycles of Violence

This article explores hate as a psychological response to injury rather than solely a moral, political, or ideological failing. Drawing on clinical material and psychohistorical examples, it argues that hate often functions as a defense against unbearable emotional states such as humiliation, abandonment, and psychic annihilation. Integrating psycho-analytic and meditative perspectives, the article examines how unacknowledged suffering can fuel cycles of interpersonal and collective violence and how disciplined attention to meaning may help interrupt them.