The Politics of Destruction

When applied to social science, psychoanalytic concepts make it possible to analyze totalitarian action and its derivative, authoritarian action, by highlighting what such regimes have in common: the destruction of frames of reference for space and time; their replacement of those reference points with a restrictive surreality; and the assignation of individuals in the social space in terms of the love or hatred attributed to them by those in power. Whether in Stalinist Bolshevism, posited here as the matrix of the totalitarian personality; in its extreme form of totalitarianism with the Islamic State; or in a more diluted variant in the Polish ruling party 'Law and Justice' (PiS), each is characterized by the negation of temporal and spatial distance, and therefore by the negation of causal links, displacement and transformation of experience. These components are specific to the unconscious which, in dreams as Freud considered, acts upon factual datum, denies it, and reproduces it in another way, one that conforms more closely to the dreamer's desires. For this reason, the politics that arise from these regimes have much in common with a hallucination.

Offers a unique comparison of Weberian and Freudian concepts as related to current political events Explores the role of the unconscious and feelings in political science Offers a unique mix of disciplines and perspectives on issues of domination and political authoritarianism

Auteur

François Bafoil is an Emeritus Senior researcher, CNRS, at the Center for international research (CERI) Sciences Po, Paris, France. An expert of eastern Europe and energy politics, he is also a specialist of the relationship between psychoanalysis and social sciences, through the figures of Freud and Weber.

Contenu

Chapter One: Psychoanalysis and History. The Unconscious and Reason.- Chapter Two: The Matrix of the Totalitarian System. The Hallucinated Soviet Personality.- Chapter Three: The Law and Justice party in Poland. Family romances, national romances.- Chapter Four: The personality of the jihadist terrorist. Atemporal spaces of terror.- Chapter Five: The Unconscious and Political Science. A Freudian Reading of Weberian Types of Domination.- Chapter Six: Conclusion.