Explores the ways people express subjective hate, including characterological, cultural, political, sexual and parent-child hate. Arguing that most people hate in destructive ways, it provides a history of the art of hating both in the psychotherapeutic laboratory and everyday life.

In a final chapter, "The Future of Hate", Schoenewolf confesses that this book is itself an expression of hate - objective hate - which he hopes will move readers to become more aware of how their subjective hate impedes them, It is written without psychoanalytic jargon and aims to be of interest to both professionals and lay people.