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Jun 27, 2022Liked by Claire Potter

Like many leaders committed to anti-abortion the wish to dike out punishment for sex is a fundamental wish unexpressed but only unconscious as to its motives —hatred of their own sexuality. This hatred of sexuality combines with lust for dominance and hypocritical stance. Countless members of the fundamentalist leadership have been exposed, as Thomas was by Anita Hill, for their abusive stance toward women and lies about their own sexuality. The pleasure in punishing poor pregnant women is a particularly strong motif as you have shown. Work, for the poor, is also a punishment. That chattel slavery embodied all these and other perversions is part of the unconscious legacy Thomas carries—except now he gets the enslaver. Heinous as it is, we must also recognize this psychology of identification with the aggressor. Also see Maurice Appreys work on how these intergenerational trauma have been transmitted

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thanks for writing this great essay; and, to Jessica Benjamin's excellent reply below: the need for punish those women who had experienced "carnal knowledge" -

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We need to play up Thomas's comments in the midterm elections!

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