The Will to Violence: The Politics of Personal Behaviour

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Susanne Kappeler

Sexual violence, racial violence, and the hatred of foreigners: how should we understand these and other forms of violent human behaviour? A brilliantly original analysis of violence in its many forms. Susanne Kappeler argues that violence is not just a social phenomenon which can be analysed scientifically: rather, it is a type of action which individuals ‘will’ or choose to perform. Kappeler maintains that contemporary culture is one where no one is any longer held responsible for their actions and where the conception of universal responsibility becomes the equivalent of universal acquittal. The Will to Violence is a powerful critique of the structural forces that control our relationships. Eloquent and passionate it exposes a number of assumptions considered fundamental to western philosophical discourse. It contains an important critique of psychoanalysis, discussions of the discourse of racism and the democratisation of violence.

1995 | ISBN 9781875559466 | Paperback | 230 x 155 mm | 288 pp

Susanne Kappeler

Sexual violence, racial violence, and the hatred of foreigners: how should we understand these and other forms of violent human behaviour? A brilliantly original analysis of violence in its many forms. Susanne Kappeler argues that violence is not just a social phenomenon which can be analysed scientifically: rather, it is a type of action which individuals ‘will’ or choose to perform. Kappeler maintains that contemporary culture is one where no one is any longer held responsible for their actions and where the conception of universal responsibility becomes the equivalent of universal acquittal. The Will to Violence is a powerful critique of the structural forces that control our relationships. Eloquent and passionate it exposes a number of assumptions considered fundamental to western philosophical discourse. It contains an important critique of psychoanalysis, discussions of the discourse of racism and the democratisation of violence.

1995 | ISBN 9781875559466 | Paperback | 230 x 155 mm | 288 pp

Reviews

'Kappeler ... takes us through why the personal is political, and where the private comes from, personal communication behaviours, ego-psychology, female desire and the democratisation of violence and relationships as trade.' 

–Michelle Mae, Muse

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Violence and the will to violence

  1. Why the personal is political, and where the private comes from

  2. Love of foreigners and love of the ‘other’

  3. Personal communication behaviour is political

  4. Is the political psychological?

  5. Psychotherapy, or the legitimation of irresponsibility?

  6. Ego-psychology, or My relationship and I

  7. Ego-philosophy, or the battle with reality

  8. Sex and the intimate relationship

  9. Female desire, or the democratization of violence

  10. Relationship as trade, or the free market of bodies and services

  11. Needs, or the legitimation or dominance

  12. Identity, or history turned biology

Resistance and the will to resistance

Notes

Index