Getting my Ph.D. – Studying the “Love of Hating”
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In 1984, at 34 years old, I received my Ph.D. from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. My dissertation centered on the dynamics of how men and women view and co-create warfare, and called sharply into question the almost universal belief that only men are inherently warlike, while women are inherently peace-loving. Subsequently, in a paper, "The Love of Hating", I refuted another faulty belief - that war has no intrinsic appeal and is only a necessary evil or last resort - and explored the conscious and unconscious attractions of war.
A time of immense pride
To explore unquestionable beliefs
Of war and peace
Shade and sunlight
Perhaps in the shadows
The truth would lie
I'd embark
On my lifelong quest
To examine the faulty notion
That men were mainly warlike
While women were capable of only peaceful actions