Weerwoord

Samenvatting

Responds to Wouter Gomperts's, Matthijs van den Bos's, and Geert de Vries's (all, 2000) comments on De Swaan's (1999) argument that the modern state monopoly on the exertion of violence may coincide either with the spread of civility or with dyscivilization (ie, the division of social groups and territories into socially acceptable and unacceptable compartments, thus officially tolerating maltreatment of the latter). De Vries's comparison with other authors is welcomed, and Gomperts's psychoanalytical interpretation is deemed very insightful. Van den Bos's criticism on the sociological interpretation of the psychological notions of "compartmentalization" and "disidentification," as well as his doubts regarding the relationship between dyscivilization and (Western) modernity, are countered with an explanation of the secrecy implied by compartmentalization, the causal order of psychological and social compartmentalization processes, and the differences between dyscivilization and the externalization of violence. S. Paul