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.
I dreamed that Dad died. The feel of the dream was similar to when he was in the hospital and almost died in real life. In my conscious world I had revisited some very old feelings from the era mom and dad kept splitting up and getting back together- once a year for almost a decade. These feelings came up talking about our wedding and listening to some music that reminded me of a trip I took a few years ago that also reminded me of dad’s infidelity and both mom and dad’s broken hearts. I remembered vividly huge waves of rage, disappointment, helplessness, and frustration. I had been unable to separate myself from their drama, and I spent my teenage years, already hard years, severely depressed. I was in so much pain, seeing them in so much pain, that I literally tried to kill myself. From what I gather, a symbolic death happened too in my psyche, a part of me split off, and my development was arrested at a time that I was angry that my parents were not taking care of me as they should. I have seen this manifest in my life, as I have emotionally held others responsible when it comes to my well-being. When I am sad, I need you to x, y, and z. 
Yoga postures are like the Platonic Forms
Queen Maeve- She is relevant today in world where the archetypal feminine has been “disenfranchised.” A shadow issue is the violence in the collective unconscious, as exhibited by the explosions in Irish towns: discord between the north and the south manifest. Also it is notable that wonen’s rights is the issue of our times. In the nineteenth century it was slavery, in the twentieth, totalitarian regimes, in the 21st, it is injustice against women. Look at the crimes that are happening in other countries towards women. (It is just inconscionable, what goes on…) In countries where there are no women’s rights, there is great poverty, and then also “fundamentalist chaos.”
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