Palestinian Psychologist on Our Craving for Certainty

In an opinion piece for the German newspaper der Freitag, Palestinian psychologist and psychoanalyst Nicola Sahhar, born in Jerusalem, reflects on the human desire for certainty and its political consequences. He argues that fear of vulnerability leads people to adopt rigid ideologies that exclude others, a dynamic that can escalate into fascism. Sahhar draws on his personal experience: his family was forced to leave their home when Jewish refugees from Germany found safety in Jerusalem, displacing Palestinians. He also mentions a Jewish colleague, an Israeli officer born in the same year in Jerusalem, whose son flies jets that kill in Gaza. The article, titled "Welt als 'kontrollierte Halluzination': Ein Psychologe über unsere Gier nach Gewissheit" (World as 'Controlled Hallucination': A Psychologist on Our Craving for Certainty), addresses topics such as Gaza, migration, and Corona, suggesting that fear-driven responses are not a healthy basis for an open society. The piece is part of a series called "Zeitgeist" and was published on the Freitag website.