As a psychiatrist I recognise Suella Braverman’s “failure of multiculturalism” comments as capitalising on a “split”, particularly as she embodies the success of multiculturalism herself (In one vulgar swoop, Suella Braverman has humiliated every single migrant in the UK, 2 October).
In psychiatry, “splits” describe primarily unconscious ways that we reconcile being unable to believe two seemingly competing ideas as being possible at the same time, and have their origins in pre-verbal infant development. It is the idea that, for example, one can either be only good or bad and not have features of both goodness and badness, and so we opt for one narrative only, arguably the one that suits our other splits or prejudices.
Braverman invites us to believe that there is only badness in multiculturalism for her own cynical means, and appeals to this binary and unsophisticated thinking that characterises politics and grabs headlines.
I would like to believe that the British electorate are more advanced than to fall for this psychological gaslighting.
Dr Bradley Hillier
Consultant forensic psychiatrist, London
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