Nationalism and the Body Politic

Lene Auestad, PhD, is Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Oslo, and affiliated with the Centre for Studies of the Holocaust and Religious Minorities, Oslo. She moved to the UK to pursue long-standing interests in British psychoanalysis. Working at the interface of psychoanalytic thinking and ethics/political theory, her writing has focused on the themes of emotions, prejudice and minority rights. She is the author of 'Respect, Plurality, and Prejudice: A Psychoanalytical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Dynamics of Social Exclusion and Discrimination', and 'Psychoanalysis and Politics: Exclusion and the Politics of Representation', as well as a number of articles, including 'To Think or Not To Think', in the 'Journal of Social and Psychological Sciences', and 'Splitting, Attachment and Instrumental Rationality', in 'Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society'.

'Nationalism and the Body Politic is a fine, timely collection that should be read by anyone concerned by the rise of nationalist and far-right politics in Europe and beyond. Offering numerous insights and frequent provocations to further thought, it brings together an impressive selection of topics and national contexts. Informed by a generous range of theoretical traditions, the book is also a model of open-minded critical dialogue. Above all, the collection is testament to the ongoing relevance of psychoanalytically informed political and social analysis - perhaps needed now more than ever.'- Peter Redman, Editor of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society'Psychoanalysis has traditionally eschewed discussing politics and neutrality has been held as the touchstone of its scientific respectability. Nonetheless, this is tantamount to a major gelding of psychoanalytic thought and an undue restriction of its impact on human life, both individual and collective. This fascinating collection of articles on the subject of psychoanalysis and politics, meticulously edited by Lene Auestad, is a major effort to redress this long-standing omission. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested and engaged in psychoanalysis, group analysis, social science, philosophy, or politics. It is definitely worth your while.'- Juan Tubert-Oklander, training and supervising analyst at the Institute of the Mexican Psychoanalytic Association'This unique volume presents a selection of contemporary theoretical discussions of the recent revival of neo-nationalism, but reaching beyond the traditional political debates of the topic. The different contributions in the book offer new and fascinating perspectives by exploring the unconscious fantasies of neo-nationalist policies. As Adorno and Marcuse have already shown, xenophobia, racism, ethnocentrism, and prejudice are connected with deep-rooted emotions - with hatred, uncanny desires, anxieties, and overwhelming fears of annihilation. These emotions cannot be fought politically if it is not possible to understand them as expressions of unconscious and unresolved political conflicts within society. Therefore, this book is a most valuable and a much-needed contribution to a scientifically neglected issue that threatens Europe from within its own societies.'- Elisabeth Rohr, Professor of Intercultural Education, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany; group analyst; counsellor of group therapy training projects in Guatemala and Ramallah'This book is an eye-opener for all of us. It addresses dramatic changes in the political and socio-economic climate of our time and calls for simultaneous testing of external and psychic reality. If we fail to grasp how external reality, history, and trauma shape our experience of the world, we miss a fundamental momentum in the process of understanding and elaboration.'- Judit Szekacs-Weisz, psychoanalyst and co-editor of Sandor Ferenczi - Ernest Jones: Letters 1911-1933

• New International Library of Group Analysis Foreword , Introduction , Bodies and Boundaries: Xenophobic Imaginings , Editor’s introduction to Chapter One , Fortress hypochondria: health and safety , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Two , “Budapest, the capital of Hungarians”: Rhetoric, images, and symbols of the Hungarian extreme right movements , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Three , Idealised sameness and orchestrated hatred: Extreme and mainstream nationalism in Norway , Constellations of Nationalism , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Four , Funeral policy: the case of mourning populism in Poland , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Five , The theory of Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification as the fourth basic assumption in the unconscious life of groups and group-like social systems , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Six , The schizoanalysis of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, or the political between schizophrenia and paranoia , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Seven , Fundamentalism, Nazism, and inferiority , History, Longing, Identification , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Eight , The Mexican: phantasy, trauma, and history , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Nine , Psychoanalysis and peace: Erich Fromm on history, politics, and the nation , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Ten , The making of the isotype character in the panoptic system and its relation to globalised nationalism 1 , The “I” and Mourning , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Eleven , The evil I retreat from in myself: nationalism and das Ding , Editor’s introduction to Chapter Twelve , Between fantasy and melancholia: Lack, otherness, and violence , Appendix: Introducing Psychoanalysis and Politics: A conversation with Lene Auestad and Jonathan Davidoff