In CIVILIZATION &ITS DISCONTENTS, Freud stated that:
"Originally the ego includes everything, later it separates off an external world from itself. Our present ego-feeling is, therefore, only a shrunken residue of a much more inclusive-indeed an all embracing-feeling which corresponded to a more intimate bond between the ego and the world about it."
Nations" exists in order to enable us to restore a more inclusive, "all embracing" ego feeling. Countries provide the experience of a grandiose, narcissistic ego that contains and encompasses everything: "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain."
The idea of the nation persuades us that we are at one with a gigantic body of territory: "From the mountains, To the prairies, To the ocean white with foam. God bless America, My home sweet home."
Ordinarily the word "home" refers to something intimate and cozy. The song cited above generates the feeling that we are in our home, at home NO MATTER WHERE WE ARE. More precisely, we are instructed that we may feel at home within a vast space AS LONG AS THIS SPACE IS OUR OWN NATION.
Freud stated in CIVILIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS that, "The ego appears to us as something autonomous and unitary, marked off distinctly from everything else." He said that, "Toward the outside, at any rate, the ego seems to maintain clear and sharp lines of demarcation."
On the one hand, the ego seeks to be gigantic--to be everything and everywhere. Freud used the term primary narcissism to describe this human tendency toward omnipotence. On the other hand, the ego seeks clearly demarcated boundaries between self and non-self.
Montreal is not far from New York. Yet, New Yorkers rarely pay attention to what is going on there. Indeed, Americans have little feeling for Canada, though this country touches our borders. On the other hand, New Yorkers have strong feelings toward places like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle that are located over 3000 miles away.
Our ego expands only to contain or encompass that which exists within the boundaries of "our nation." The national boundary is like an ego boundary. Nations tend to demarcate themselves against other nations. They ward off or exclude that which is "foreign" or not self.
In THE EGO AND THE ID, Freud said that "The ego is first and foremost a bodily ego." He stated that the ego is "ultimately derived from bodily sensations, chiefly from those springing from the surface of the body. It may thus be regarded as a mental projection of the surface of the body."
This is why I speak of the "body politic." The nation--a projection of an omnipotent, narcissistic ego--is experienced as if a GIGANTIC BODY BOUND TO OUR OWN BODY. This is why we defend nations so virulently. We equate them with own bodies. We imagine that we exist in a state of fusion with a "body of territory" whose boundaries could be penetrated and punctured.
This is why I speak of the "immune response" in relation to nations. In identifying our body with the body politic, imagining that our personal body IS this body, we react to repel "invaders" and "internal enemies." The reaction of the body to the fear of penetration is called paranoia. National violence is paranoid violence.
Rudolf Hess often said, "Hitler is Germany, just as Germany is Hitler." Hitler equated his body with the German body politic. Therefore, he existed in a constant state of vigilance, lest his body (politic) be penetrated.
Hitler said:
"If Germany wanted to defend herself against England, then she first had to seek to cover her rear with Russia."
"Germany could develop a maritime policy only when Germany's rear was completely covered by Russia."
"The covering of the rear was thought of primarily against Austria."
Advanced psychoanalytic training is not required to interpret the meaning of these metaphors. It may seem humorous to imagine that Hitler's foreign policy originated in his need to "cover the rear." However, Hitler's anxiety led to the loss of nearly 30 million lives.
Historians ask why Hitler attacked Russia when he was in the midst of a battle with Britain. They discuss the issue of whether Hitler could have "won" the war if he had not attacked Russia.
Hitler himself had a better understanding of his motivation. In his statement to the Croation puppet, Marshall Kvaternik on July 21, 1941, he called Jews the "scourge of mankind" and said that they had become a "plague for mankind." Even if only one state was to tolerate a Jewish family in it, this would become the "bacillus for renewed decay." In his SECRET BOOK, Hitler stated that it was necessary to wage war on the Eastern Front in order to confront the danger of an "inundation by disease bacilli, which at the moment have their breeding ground in Russia."
In the movie, DR. STRANGELOVE, General Jack T. Ripper explained to Mandrake that he launched the attack against the communists because a "foreign substance" was being "introduced into our precious bodily fluids." Like Hitler, he hoped to stem the tide of Bolshevism through a preemptive attack against an infectious agent that threatened to penetrate into and destroy his body (politic).
With regards,
Richard Koenigsberg
Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D. Director, Library of Social Science -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20030105/759a9fe0/attachment.htm>