Preface

The War Hotel is about how our psychology is used as fuel for violent conflict. We are active and complicit. We get outraged and we go silent. Throughout history there have been ‘experts’ who know how to use human nature to divide communities and carry out atrocities. The manipulation of our psychology to create violent conflict is deeply disturbing. Yet there’s something profoundly hopeful here. If we are the players in violent conflict, our awareness can make a difference.

I’ve been working on this book for about 7 years. Political events and the
changing spirit of the times have created a dramatic increase in public discussion about such issues. The film-maker Jean-Luc Godard once said, ‘In a book, the primordial space is the margin, because it joins with that of the preceding page. And you can write in the margin, and take notes, which is as important as the “main text”’. I hope you will take a pencil along – not only to help keep the book current, but to bring it meaning from the contexts where you live, work and dream.

I work as a psychologist and conflict resolution facilitator, and also in theatre. My approach and most of the ideas in this book arise out of my training and practice working with individuals, organizations and community groups, using the orientation and methods of Process Oriented Psychology.

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