File spoon-archives/foucault.archive/foucault_2002/foucault.0212, message 13


From: PsycheCulture-AT-cs.com
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 19:55:10 EST
Subject: The human body, the body politic (and war)



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      The "body politic" is the fantasy of many bodies united to form one, 
omnipotent body. Perhaps this is the basis of our attachment to culture. We 
imagine that we are fused with many other beings (and things). By attaching 
to this fantasy of union with an omnipotent body, we are able to separate 
from the body of mother.

      The new omnipotent body (the body politic) is the lure that draws us 
away from mother's body. We dream of partaking of the primal narcissistic 
condition again, but now in connection to the idea of one's nation or 
culture.

      One can discern the fantasies that sustain this ideology in the 
writings of many nationalistic thinkers. Jules Michelet, for example, called 
the French nation a "living person which the child touches and feels on every 
side. He cannot embrace her, but she embraces him, warms him with her great 
soul diffused throughout that multitude." He stated that the citizen of the 
nation should not only see and learn his country, but "feel her as 
Providence, recognize her as mother and as nurse, by her strengthening milk 
and vivifying warmth."

      Sri Aurobindo wrote of India as a place in which "you all meet and that 
is your common Mother...That is not merely a division of land but it is a 
living thing. It is the Mother in whom you move and have your being." He 
called the Indian nation a "mighty association which unites the people of 
East and North Bengal and defies partition, because it embraces every son of 
the land, --brother and brother massed inseparably together."

      We used to speak of "applied analysis," meaning that we derive concepts 
from the analytic situation and then "apply" them to other phenomena. Of 
course, we do not abandon the personal experience of psychoanalysis. However, 
it is also possible to directly analyze unconscious fantasies through 
observations of their DERIVATIVES IN CULTURE. 

I call this methodology "analysis of metaphor." By observing the images and 
metaphors bound to specific cultural objects, one is able to discern the 
unconscious fantasies that define these objects and cause us to be attached 
to them. Ideologies and cultural objects embody, contain and reflect 
unconscious fantasies. 
We perceive the fundamental fantasy of nationalism in the passages above. The 
fantasy of the body politic means MANY BODIES UNITED TO FORM ONE BODY. It is 
the fantasy of being physically connected to the body of others, and to the 
body of the mother.

      In Nazism, the Western fantasy of the body politic reached its 
apotheosis. Hitler insisted on the absolute unity of the German people. It 
was necessary that all Germans think and feel as one, that all of them be 
bound together to create ONE OMNIPOTENT BODY, the German nation. "In order to 
bring men gradually nearer to each other they must be thrown into the melting 
pot, the nation," Hitler said, "that they may be purified and welded one to 
another."

      What was (is) forbidden was (is) to dare to be SEPARATE from this 
absolute unity. Separation disturbs the fantasy of fusion with the bodies of 
the other(s). The "foreign(er)" is perceived and experienced as "not self," 
outside of the symbiotic orbit." The mission of Nazism, creation of a "true 
community of the German Volk" could be achieved in Hitler's view, only if the 
Movement worked to "uncompromisingly exterminate the things which tear our 
Volk apart."

      The beginning of violence, the source of rage, lies in the anxiety that 
the omnipotent body (politic) may be disintegrated, that one's own body will 
become separate/separated from the body of culture (mother). 

      The impulse toward war originates in the need to destroy that which is 
perceived to be separate, that would dare to separate (from mother). That 
which is separate disintegrates the illusion that we all are united as one 
body.

With best regards,

Richard Koenigsberg


Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D.
Director, Library of Social Science

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HTML VERSION:

      The "body politic" is the fantasy of many bodies united to form one, omnipotent body. Perhaps this is the basis of our attachment to culture. We imagine that we are fused with many other beings (and things). By attaching to this fantasy of union with an omnipotent body, we are able to separate from the body of mother.

      The new omnipotent body (the body politic) is the lure that draws us away from mother's body. We dream of partaking of the primal narcissistic condition again, but now in connection to the idea of one's nation or culture.

      One can discern the fantasies that sustain this ideology in the writings of many nationalistic thinkers. Jules Michelet, for example, called the French nation a "living person which the child touches and feels on every side. He cannot embrace her, but she embraces him, warms him with her great soul diffused throughout that multitude." He stated that the citizen of the nation should not only see and learn his country, but "feel her as Providence, recognize her as mother and as nurse, by her strengthening milk and vivifying warmth."

      Sri Aurobindo wrote of India as a place in which "you all meet and that is your common Mother...That is not merely a division of land but it is a living thing. It is the Mother in whom you move and have your being." He called the Indian nation a "mighty association which unites the people of East and North Bengal and defies partition, because it embraces every son of the land, --brother and brother massed inseparably together."

      We used to speak of "applied analysis," meaning that we derive concepts from the analytic situation and then "apply" them to other phenomena. Of course, we do not abandon the personal experience of psychoanalysis. However, it is also possible to directly analyze unconscious fantasies through observations of their DERIVATIVES IN CULTURE.

I call this methodology "analysis of metaphor." By observing the images and metaphors bound to specific cultural objects, one is able to discern the unconscious fantasies that define these objects and cause us to be attached to them. Ideologies and cultural objects embody, contain and reflect unconscious fantasies.
We perceive the fundamental fantasy of nationalism in the passages above. The fantasy of the body politic means MANY BODIES UNITED TO FORM ONE BODY. It is the fantasy of being physically connected to the body of others, and to the body of the mother.

      In Nazism, the Western fantasy of the body politic reached its apotheosis. Hitler insisted on the absolute unity of the German people. It was necessary that all Germans think and feel as one, that all of them be bound together to create ONE OMNIPOTENT BODY, the German nation. "In order to bring men gradually nearer to each other they must be thrown into the melting pot, the nation," Hitler said, "that they may be purified and welded one to another."

      What was (is) forbidden was (is) to dare to be SEPARATE from this absolute unity. Separation disturbs the fantasy of fusion with the bodies of the other(s). The "foreign(er)" is perceived and experienced as "not self," outside of the symbiotic orbit." The mission of Nazism, creation of a "true community of the German Volk" could be achieved in Hitler's view, only if the Movement worked to "uncompromisingly exterminate the things which tear our Volk apart."

      The beginning of violence, the source of rage, lies in the anxiety that the omnipotent body (politic) may be disintegrated, that one's own body will become separate/separated from the body of culture (mother).

      The impulse toward war originates in the need to destroy that which is perceived to be separate, that would dare to separate (from mother). That which is separate disintegrates the illusion that we all are united as one body.

With best regards,

Richard Koenigsberg


Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D.
Director, Library of Social Science
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