Reflections On Eyes Of Hate

This is my response to the piece that is written below. I share this as an antidote to the tendency to return  dehumanization with more of the same. And I'll add this piece that I wrote, among many others, regarding my mother, who was herself a malignant narcissist through most of her life — but not all: https://mollystrongheart.blogspot.com/2026/06/remembering-my-mom-on-what-would-have.html ...

Malignant narcissists have at their core self-loathing — something which they are compelled to project onto others rather than face and heal within themselves. And buried in their deepest unaddressed childhood trauma is the terror — the overwhelming fear that they will be exposed as flawed, unlovable, unworthy, shameful, rejected, a “loser.”

The projections of hatred and violence, grandiosity and entitlement, righteousness and power, total lack of empathy and compassion, an intolerance for narcissistic injury, and the devastating harm projected onto scapegoating others all arise as the result of severing their connections with their hearts as tiny vulnerable children in order to survive childhood trauma. The unbearable internalized experience of fear, shame, and not being safe and loved and held with compassion when they were young must be buried deeply inside and beyond all consciousness because it is too painful to bear.

My once malignant narcissist mother had these same eyes of hate which she projected onto everyone around her, including myself and my twin brother who committed suicide at age 26. 40+ years of healing and unburdening and transforming PTSD and complex trauma has freed me from addictions and many other symptoms of trauma. And today I don’t need to return hate with more hate, but I can clearly understand the circumstances and conditions that lead human beings to be so dangerous, delusional, and disconnected from reality, wisdom, and love. It doesn’t excuse their actions at all. I just don’t need to be a mirror for dehumanization.

We live in a culture awash in hatred, greed, and delusion — which are the roots of our individual and collective suffering. Understanding how the imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchal systems long embedded in American society have impacted us can empower us with the capacity to recognize larger pictures and understand the ancestral and cultural legacy burdens that we have absorbed.

Monsters don’t just fall from the sky. Hurt people hurt people. That is unless they and we are able to connect with the wise, compassionate, and loving resources that help us all remember who we truly are. At least this has been my experience. 🙏 Molly

EYES OF HATE

by LeeAnne Pantuso Clark

Some photographs are so iconic, they will go down in history. They capture a moment so perfectly that, decades later, we can look at them and immediately understand something about the people and the time in which they live.

One of the most chilling examples is the famous photograph known as “Eyes of Hate” - that 1933 photograph of Joseph Goebbels, captured in the moment after he learned that the photographer assigned to photograph him was Jewish.

Look at his eyes. You don't need a caption. You don't need an explanation. The hatred is right there.

And now, we have a new “Eyes of Hate” photograph for our generation - this one, snapped yesterday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit.

Look at their eyes. Really look at them. They show the very essence of these two people. There is no warmth. No joy. No humanity. Just that cold, unmistakable look of contempt.

And the question isn't whether they hate someone. The question is who they hate.

They hate the people who stand in their way. They hate the people who challenge them. They hate the people who refuse to bend the knee. They hate the journalists, the critics, the protesters, the immigrants, the political opponents, the institutions that constrain them, and anyone who dares to say, “No.”

Ultimately, they hate the very idea that the American people are supposed to be their masters - not the other way around.

That is what makes this photograph so chilling. Because sometimes a photograph captures far more than a facial expression. Sometimes it captures an entire moment in history.

We will look back at this photograph years from now and remember exactly what we were seeing. Eyes of hate.

And they were looking straight at us.