“Both believed that members of the other group were sadistic, uninhibited, unintelli-gent, of an inferior race, and addicted to sexual perversions, both groups accused each other of caring only for material goods and having no respect for ideals, or for moral and intellectual valu-es… But the strange similarity indicates that both groups were availing themselves of analogous mechanisms of defence. Moreover, each group thought of the other in terms of a stereotype and was thus prevented from realistically evaluating any member of the other group and thus its own situation.”
Bruno Bettleheim’s book, The informed heart
