Xenophobia and Intrusion : The Remus Effect
Xenophobia, as its etymology suggests, involves not so much hatred as a fear of the foreigner. On the other, that which is outside of us, is projected the enigmatic, scary other that is inside of us (what psychoanalysis calls the « repressed sexual unconscious »). Successive acting-outs are experienced as reactions of self-defense. These acting are even less inhibited when the other is less protected by the laws of the group, and/or when its degree of closeness is experienced as an intrusion, both in terms of one’s own territory (excessive encroachment) and in the sense of identity (an unbearable resemblance). European anti-Semitism is seen as a textbook case, and the fear of « Arabs » follows in its wake. By showing the consistency of seemingly scattered actions induced by the demonization of the other, two axes allow us to illustrate the « Remus Effect » (Romulus annihilates Remus for not being « destroyed ») : the first one is the instinct/drive theory mentioned by Freud (interaction of self-preservation behavior and sexual drive), while the other one represents the semiotic registers of contiguity and similarity.