The Fraternal Complex in the Middle East: Group and Family Psychoanalysis for Peacemaking and Peacebuilding

The Fraternal Complex in the Middle East extends group and family psychoanalytic concepts to formulate hypotheses on the psychic functioning of nation-states as very large families.

Focusing on the history of Lebanon as a nation-state, the emergence and role of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rise and role of Hamas in the Palestinian sociopolitical field, Hana Salaam Abdel-Malek interprets historical events and conflicts as symptoms of unconscious group and family psychic functioning. This perspective offers insight into the unconscious forces that drive conflicts, especially for mediators and peace architects working on Middle East issues. Salaam Abdel-Malek also proposes a group psychoanalytic approach to provide peacemakers and peacebuilders with complementary mediation tools that can foster transformation and shield or decontaminate them and their practices from the potentially traumatic elements of their profession.

The Fraternal Complex in the Middle East will be of interest to group analysts, psychoanalysts in practice and in training, psychologists and mediators. It will also be relevant for readers interested in peacemaking, social conflict and conflict transformation.

Hana Salaam Abdel-Malek is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst, a member of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society and the International Psychoanalytical Association. She works in private practice in Beirut, specialising in couples, families and groups. She has practised law and received training in negotiation, mediation, and peacemaking.