Although he focused on the army and churches in the study, his findings relate to a wide array of groups including fraternities, sororities, religions, secret societies like the Freemasons, motorcycle clubs, and criminal organizations.įreud pointed out that among any relationship between two people there are some feelings of aversion and hostility. In 1921, Freud published a book called Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego in which he examined how groups form and function. They called themselves ‘brothers’ and had a loyalty for one another that rivaled the feelings of love we have for people related by blood. In my research, I found that outlaw motorcycle clubs-especially those who conducted criminal activities-seemed to function more like a pseudo family than an organization. Crime became an element of the fictional club, because it allowed them to live independent of a society, they no longer fit in. The Lawless were veterans of the Vietnam War, returning home to find that it was difficult to integrate into society. With Billy as the leader, the Lawless began to sell and run drugs across the U.S. Even so, an outlaw motorcycle club is where I was led, so I followed, referring to a wide array of resources to make the club seem as authentic as possible. What did I know of criminal families or even motorcycles? My family are postal workers and I’m known among friends as the ‘responsible’ one. They say write what you know, but it was only through Raqi’s experiences that I could do so. Somewhere along the way, I turned the fictional family into an all-white outlaw motorcycle club called the Lawless and gave the main character, Raqi, the same racial and ethnic identity as me. My goal was to write a story about a family with problematic views relating to race, ethnicity, gender, and identity because it was something that I, as a Mixed (half-Mexican, half-white) woman, was trying to understand within my own family. It was this idea that I held onto when I sat down to write my second novel, Half Outlaw. I’ve long wanted to understand how family members can love and hurt one another at the same time.
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