Thesis Proposal
Adversaries, Psychology, and World Politics
Statement of Study
In The Experience of “Negative Otherness”: How Shall We Treat Our Enemies (2002) psychologist Stephen Gilligan, Ph.D. argues for an alternative to dealing with our enemies rather than simply fighting or fleeing. He claims that these two options are often insufficient, limited in their effectiveness to resolve conflicts. Fight or flight is the traditional way in which creatures resolve conflict in the world. This calls forth images of a Hobbesian state of nature and the way creatures coexist in such a state. Gilligan writes that different ways humans display fight are: repression, domination, demonization, demonization, numbing something, analyzing, disassociating. Exhibiting flight, we: “check out,” take drugs, surrender, have anxiety, paralysis, or depression. Gilligan observes that responding in ways such as those listed above often does not seem to get us very far. We continually encounter conflict, threats to our happiness and freedom, and sometimes even other people who want to kill us. However, Gilligan poses that dealing with negative situations using fight or flight results in a continuation of cycles of violence and human suffering. Following an analysis of modern and pre-modern myths, Gilligan posits the possibility of another way to be in the world. Instead of responding to an adversary in one or another form of fight or flight, one could seek to transform a situation. He asserts that when one is able to stay connected to themselves during a conflict with a negative other, and maintain a relationship with it, the encounter can become creative, a “nonviolent event that leads to new understandings, new conversations, and new realities,” (3.) He offers us some examples of what this looks like for individuals.
A self-ascribed post-modernist, Gilligan wants to shift our consciousness from the fight and flight response. However, it must be noted that even Gandhi himself (who is put forth as an example of this third way of engaging with an adversary) said that there were situations were violence is the only correct response. (In Merton, 36) Although this may be the case, every encounter with a negative other is an opportunity to see if we can remain “connected,” and examine whether an alternate way is possible, even beneficial.
His essay is tailored to a discussion of personal psychology, but is Gilligan’s analysis of how we understand, perceive and act in relation to “negative others” applicable to social phenomena? In reading Gilligan, I believe to have discerned themes of his psychological analysis in a) religious terrorism, as discussed by Mark Juergensmeyer in his Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, and b) in the nonviolent protest of British rule in India by the followers of Gandhi, as portrayed in Steve York’s documentary India, Defying the Crown. Is it the case that these movements exemplify Gilligan’s analysis on a large scale? I will argue that they do. The goal of my study is to defend this position and consider the implications to social struggle around the globe.
Your essence is good.
I will always remember this day as the day I joined 80k supporters of the delightful opposition, the tremendous outpouring of support for Barack Obama at Denver’s Civic Center Park. I took the light-rail train from my sleepy suburb, and more and more people filled up the train the closer we got to downtown. Obama shirts, button, signs… throngs of people emptied out of the train at the Convention Center to walk to the park. The line to the “entrance” was three blocks long, but it moved quickly, and I took the opportunity to buy the button I wanted from one of the guys with the button-boards, who walked along with me (backwards) as I held my glove in my teeth, getting a $5 bill for him all while walking with the line moving towards the Capitol Building and the adjacent park. Usually it is just filled with street folks and drug-dealers, the occasional library-going pedestrian… but today it was like the LOVE PARADE in Berlin! (sort of.) I climbed up a crab-apple tree to see the little ants that spoke at the podium. It was flat and hard to see from the outer stretches. The crowd reached like ocean all the way up Capitol Hill to the Governor’s Mansion up the way. 
We heard from our Democratic Representative Diana Degette, whom I met at a brunch I went to years ago when I was going through a high-point of political activism with my dad as my date. Our democratic senator Ken Salazar spoke a few words, and Mark Udall the “Boulder Liberal” running for Senate on the Democratic ticket, who is also pro-alternate energy, education, and bringing home our troops… And one of my favorites, popular Denver mayor business-man, democrat, micro-brew beer man (formerly a geologist) whom I worked for at the Wynkoop Brewing Company in the late nineties. He was a very nice absentee owner, who made pleasant appearances at the brew-pub now and then again. Later I also worked for him as a temp- addressing his wedding invitations by hand when he was our new mayor, and I went to a city-council/mayor meeting one morning when I interned for the City Councilwoman from my district. Just last Friday night we had a 20th anniversary Wynkoop reunion, and he was there, and hugged me! The nice man stayed until the end of the night when we were all ushered out, goons and all the familiar faces from a fun job I had years ago.
And then Barack Obama said inspiring, and intelligent things. He called for personal responsibility too, which the libertarian part of me likes, and YES! Let’s tweak the system out so that it includes more and more of us. YES, infrastructure, and community effort! I just love being inspired for once. I’m on board!
The summer has launched with a feeling like it has felt like a really cosmic time for people with ideas coming together to talk about certain pertinent aspects to our times, our lives, and our society. At least it has been this way for me. Culture, sustainability… I’ve even seen a couple of amazing interviews on Charlie Rose, KRMA channel 6 public television: Zbigniew Brzezenski, former national security adviser to Carter had some interesting things to say about his new book, Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower who had some really interesting points to make about America’s interaction with the world, it’s state of affairs. One pertinent thing he said is that the symbol of America is no longer the statue of Liberty but Guantanamo Bay. He spoke to issues of the actions of American corporations in the world, war with Iraq, diplomatic conditions with Iran and South Korea. What he said that struck me as cutting edge in a way in which we can redeem ourselves. The impression I got about what he was saying is that “we,” as in the collective “America,” whose face we show the world, we need to change our actions and the way in which we treat people around the world. This must start with a certain serious political and economic self-reflection on the paradigm of things as they are in our society. God I hope we can vote an enlightened soul to help guide policy on the national level, the platform which facilitates the way “we” launch ourselves into the world. 
Nina Lois is a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Denver obtaining a Master's Degree in Humanities. Her passions are broad when it comes to the human condition. She is deeply interested in philosophy, psychology, yoga, gardening, music, myth, story-telling and shamanism. 
She understands that the greatest enemy is the self, and the Self the greatest source of nurture. For goodness's sake, love the body and feed the soul!
Thanks again