Institutions do not decide whom to destroy or to kill, whether to make peace or war; those decisions are the responsibility of individuals. This book argues that the most important aspect of conflict resolution is for antagonists to understand their opponents as individuals, their ambitions, their pains, the resentments that condition their thinking and the traumas they do not fully themselves grasp. Gabrielle Rifkind and Giandomenico Picco here present two very different experiences of international relations - Rifkind as a psychotherapist now immersed in the politics of the Middle East, and...

Institutions do not decide whom to destroy or to kill, whether to make peace or war; those decisions are the responsibility of individuals. This book argues that the most important aspect of conflict resolution is for antagonists to understand their opponents as individuals, their ambitions, their pains, the resentments that condition their thinking, and the traumas they do not fully grasp themselves. Gabrielle Rifkind and Giandomenico Pico present two very different experiences of international relations Rifkind as a psychotherapist now immersed in the politics of the Middle East, and Picco...