Table Of ContentTHE FEELING OF CERTAINTY
PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVES
ON IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE
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EDITED BY NIKOLAY MINTCHEV
AND R.D. HINSHELWOOD
Studies in the Psychosocial
Series Editors
Stephen Frosh
Dept of Psychosocial Studies
Birkbeck, University of London
London, United Kingdom
Peter Redman
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Wendy Hollway
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
The Open University
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Studies in the Psychosocial seeks to investigate the ways in which psychic
and social processes demand to be understood as always implicated in
each other, as mutually constitutive, co-produced, or abstracted levels of
a single dialectical process. As such it can be understood as an interdisci-
plinary field in search of transdisciplinary objects of knowledge. Studies
in the Psychosocial is also distinguished by its emphasis on affect, the
irrational and unconscious processes, often, but not necessarily, under-
stood psychoanalytically. Studies in the Psychosocial aims to foster the
development of this field by publishing high quality and innovative
monographs and edited collections. The series welcomes submissions
from a range of theoretical perspectives and disciplinary orientations,
including sociology, social and critical psychology, political science, post-
colonial studies, feminist studies, queer studies, management and organi-
zation studies, cultural and media studies and psychoanalysis. However,
in keeping with the inter- or transdisciplinary character of psychosocial
analysis, books in the series will generally pass beyond their points of
origin to generate concepts, understandings and forms of investigation
that are distinctively psychosocial in character.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/series/14464
Nikolay Mintchev • R.D. Hinshelwood
Editors
The Feeling
of Certainty
Psychosocial Perspectives on Identity
and Difference
Editors
Nikolay Mintchev R.D. Hinshelwood
Institute for Global Prosperity Department of Psychosocial
University College London and Psychoanalytic Studies
London, UK University of Essex
Colchester, Essex, UK
Studies in the Psychosocial
ISBN 978-3-319-57716-6 ISBN 978-3-319-57717-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57717-3
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953907
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
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does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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For Karl Figlio
About the Book
This book is the result of a conference held at the Centre for Psychoanalytic
Studies (now Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies),
University of Essex, to recognize the work and career of Professor Karl
Figlio, who founded the Centre with colleagues in 1994. The conference
topic—the feeling of certainty—was one close to Karl’s heart and philo-
sophical interests. This topic has the virtue of bridging a spectrum of
different academic disciplines, making it particularly apt for the Centre,
which has the purpose of creating dialogue between multiple perspec-
tives in the academic world of the University. The editors would like to
thank Karl for his intellectual contribution to psychoanalysis and psy-
chosocial studies, as well as his personal contribution to the Centre for
Psychoanalytic Studies.
vii
Contents
Introduction: The Feeling of Certainty, Towards
a Psychosocial Approach 1
Nikolay Mintchev and R.D. Hinshelwood
The Mentality of Conviction: Feeling Certain
and the Search for Truth 11
Karl Figlio
What Is Subjectivity and How Can We Study
It Empirically? Understanding the Feeling
of Certainty Through Psychoanalysis and Ethnography 31
Nikolay Mintchev
Haunted by Uncertain Refrains 49
Stephen Frosh
Internal Racism: Belief in the Racist Mindset 69
M. Fakhry Davids
ix
x Contents
Being Racist: The Certainty of a Pathological Organisation
of the Personality 93
R.D. Hinshelwood
‘Instead of Trying to Help You, They Try to Screw You’:
The Feeling of Certainty and the Mexican-Origin Border
Patrol Agents 115
Natalia Hernández Jiménez
The Primitive Container of Fascism: Masculine Anxieties
and Defences in Times of Trauma and Uncertainty 129
Christina Wieland
Gender Certainty as a Defence: Oedipal Conflict
in Wartime Sexual Violence 149
Tamaki Noro
Collective Identities, Breivik and the National Container 165
Barry Richards
Index 187
Introduction: The Feeling of Certainty,
Towards a Psychosocial Approach
Nikolay Mintchev and R.D. Hinshelwood
The concept of certainty is widely used in everyday language to designate
a state of mind or experience which is rarely seen as politically charged or
controversial. However, as ordinary as it may seem, a feeling of certainty
can play a key role in shaping identity formation, social exclusion, preju-
dice and commitment to political causes. This raises a number of impor-
tant questions: what does it mean for the subject to feel certainty about
her or his role in society and relationship to others? From where does the
feeling of certainty originate, and how does it differ from modes of
thought that are open to scepticism about the order of things? What are
the consequences and effects of certainty on politics, social relations and
subjectivity?
N. Mintchev (*)
Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London,
London, UK
R.D. Hinshelwood
Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies,
University of Essex, Colchester, Essex, UK
© The Author(s) 2017 1
N. Mintchev, R.D. Hinshelwood (eds.), The Feeling of Certainty,
Studies in the Psychosocial, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-57717-3_1
