Narrative and the Politics of Identity The Cultural Psychology of Israeli and Palestinian Youth

by Hammack, Phillip L.

• ISBN13: 9780195394467
• ISBN10: 0195394461
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-12-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Since the late nineteenth century, Jews and Arabs have been locked in an intractable battle for national recognition in a land of tremendous historical and geopolitical significance. While historians and political scientists have long analyzed the dynamics of this bitter conflict, rarely has an archeology of the mind of those who reside within the matrix of conflict been attempted. This book not only offers a psychological analysis of the consequences of conflict for the psyche, it develops an innovative, compelling, and cross-disciplinary argument about the mutual constitution of culture and mind through the process of life-story construction. But the book pushes boundaries further through an analysis of two peace education programs designed to fundamentally alter the nature of young Israeli and Palestinian life stories. Hammack argues that these popular interventions, rooted in the idea of prejudice reduction through contact and the cultivation of 'cosmopolitan' identities, are fundamentally flawed due to their refusal to deal with the actual political reality of young Israeli and Palestinian lives and their attempt to construct an alternative narrative of great hope but little resonance for Israelis and Palestinians. Grounded in over a century of literature that spans the social sciences, Hammack's analysis of young Israeli and Palestinian lives captures the complex, dynamic relationship among politics, history, and identity and offers a provocative and audacious proposal for psychology and peace education.

Author Biography

Philip L. Hammack, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Orientations
A Note on Geographic Terminology	p. 3
Prologue	p. 7
Culture, Identity, and Story: A Framework for the Study of Lives	p. 15
Preliminary Provocations	p. 15
Capturing Culture	p. 19
Interrogating Identity	p. 27
The Cultural Psychology of Identity	p. 32
Experimenting With Identity	p. 35
The Cosmopolitan Ideal	p. 42
Identity as Burden or Benefit?	p. 44
Politicizing Psychology, Psychologizing Politics	p. 47
An Orientation	p. 49
A ôStrangerö in the Holy Land	p. 51
A Position	p. 51
A Personal Narrative	p. 54
Approaching the Study of Lives	p. 59
The Politics of the Field	p. 61
Field Sites in Israel and Palestine	p. 63
Jerusalem	p. 64
Ramallah	p. 66
Qadas	p. 67
Beit Jala and Bethlehem	p. 68
Tulkarm and Nablus	p. 70
Tel Aviv	p. 72
Taybeh	p. 73
Haifa	p. 75
The Gilboa	p. 77
Field Sites in the United States	p. 78
Seeds of Peace	p. 79
Hands of Peace	p. 92
The Interviewees	p. 105
The Interview Procedure	p. 108
Analytic Strategy	p. 110
Stories
ôJewish in My Bloodö: Stories of Jewish-Israeli Youth	p. 115
The Master Narrative of Jewish-Israeli Identity	p. 116
An Introduction	p. 116
Contestations	p. 118
Persecution and Victimization	p. 120
Existential Insecurity	p. 122
Exceptionalism	p. 124
Delegitimization of Palestinian Identity	p. 125
Summary	p. 129
The Stories of Youth	p. 130
Yossi: The Ambivalent Pragmatist	p. 130
Noa: The Kibbutznik	p. 137
Roai: The Settler	p. 142
Ayelet: The Cosmopolitan	p. 147
Summary: The Cultural Psychology of Jewish-Israeli Youth	p. 155
ôIt's Not a Normal Life We Leadö: The Stories of Palestinian Youth	p. 159
The Master Narrative of Palestinian Identity	p. 160
An Introduction	p. 160
Contestations	p. 161
Loss and Dispossession	p. 161
Resistance	p. 164
Existential Insecurity	p. 168
Delegitimization of Israeli Identity	p. 170
Summary	p. 173
The Stories of Youth	p. 175
Ali: The Unlikely Islamist	p. 175
Adara: The Pious Villager	p. 181
Luca: The Christian Fighter	p. 189
Lubna: The Survivor	p. 195
Summary: The Cultural Psychology of Palestinian Youth	p. 201
ôI Had a War With Myselfö: Palestinian-Israeli Youth and the Narration of Hyphenated Identities	p. 205
The Master Narrative of Palestinian-Israeli Identity	p. 206
Discrimination and Subordination	p. 209
Hyphenation and ôDouble Marginalityö	p. 211
Existential Insecurity	p. 216
Summary	p. 220
The Stories of Youth	p. 221
ôI am Israeli Firstö: The Story of Jibril	p. 221
ôI Had a War with Myselfö: The Story of Rania	p. 230
ôI Am Divided Between the Twoö: The Story of Sami	p. 233
Summary: The Cultural Psychology of Palestinian-Israeli Youth	p. 241
Interventions
Peace and the Politics of Contact: A Brief History	p. 247
Contact: The Allure and Challenge	p. 247
The Pathology of Prejudice	p. 250
The Normative Psychology of Prejudice	p. 254
From Personality to Identity	p. 256
Identity and the Cultural Psychology of Contact	p. 259
The Idea of Israeli-Palestinian Contact	p. 261
Contact, Narrative, and Identity	p. 267
Restorying Self and Other: An American Experiment	p. 269
The Synagogue and the Mosque	p. 269
Identity Transcendence	p. 271
ôI Had Never Even Spoken to an Arabö: The Story of Liat	p. 273
ôI Have Been Changed a Lotö: The Story of Laila	p. 276
ôMaybe They Are the Victim, the Real Victimö: The Story of Noa	p. 282
Summary: The Problem of Transcendence	p. 285
Identity Accentuation	p. 288
The Fatalist: The Story of Mohammed	p. 289
The Settler: Revisiting the Story of Roai	p. 297
The New Palestinian: Revisiting the Story of Jibril	p. 303
From Transcendence to Accentuation: An Analysis of Two Narratives Over Time	p. 310
The Cosmopolitan: Revisiting the Story of Ayelet	p. 310
The Realist: Revisiting the Story of Laila	p. 317
Conclusion: Contact and Identity	p. 321
Possibilities
Peace, Justice, and the Politics of Identity: Toward a New Praxis	p. 327
A Virtual Dialogue	p. 327
Ambitious Arguments	p. 331
Narrative and the Psychological Infrastructure of Conflict	p. 334
Against Cosmopolitanism	p. 342
American Intervention as a ôCivilizingö Project	p. 347
The Problem of Power and Social Structure	p. 351
The Meaning of Contact: Toward a Cultural Approach	p. 353
What's Wrong With Identity?	p. 356
Psychology and the Politics of a New Praxis: From Interpretation to Social Change	p. 359
Undisciplining the Discipline	p. 359
Politicizing Peace	p. 363
Peril and Promise in Israeli and Palestinian Lives	p. 366
References	p. 369
Index	p. 399
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