Surviving Charitable Hatred: Spiritual Violence and Queer Resilience

Queer studies have flourished in psychoanalysis in recent decades, but surprising lacunae remain. Little has been written on the role of religious trauma and spiritual violence in queer lives. The author explores the psychic reverberations of spiritual violence, especially as it manifests through Christian supremacy and "charitable hatred." A brief history of "charitable hatred" is discussed and linked to the current sociopolitical atmosphere in the United States where legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights have been on a dramatic rise. Links between homotransphobia within fundamentalist Christianity and conservative psychoanalysis are examined. Through case material, the author explores the traumatic sequelae of "charitable hatred" and the resilience involved in navigating this dangerous psychic and relational territory while holding on to what Winnicott called "continuity of being." The potentiality of the analytic relationship in opening space for a patient's compromised sense of futurity is also explored.