Abstract
In this article, I examine, from a pastoral-psychological perspective, the U.S. obsession with national security and the corresponding rise and consequences of the military-industrial complex and national security state-industry. I argue that preoccupation with national security reflects a paranoid-schizoid (P-S) mode of organizing experience—a mode of experience supported by and represented in political policies and discourse, as well as socially shared narratives and myths. This subjective and intersubjective mode of organizing experience, which is maintained by the defenses of projection, rationalization, moralization, splitting, and denial, accompany the eclipse of the reflective function. From a theological perspective, the obsession for national security signifies both an idolatrous relationship and the presence of bad faith.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The national security industry comprises private security and intelligence gathering companies, as well as ancillary private companies that provide logistical and other services for the U.S. military and other intelligence agencies and companies (e.g., Kellogg, Brown, and Root, or KBR). The state or government is distinct from this industry, but I hyphenate state and national security industry because they are inextricably yoked together. In other words, they are interdependent, feeding off each other. Just as Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex cannot be separated from the state, so too the national security industry cannot be seen or understood as separate from both the military and the state.
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm accessed 22 December 2010.
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm accessed 20 December 2010.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html accessed 19 April 2009.
This speech is readily available on numerous websites.
References
American Rhetoric. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/search/speeches/speech_srch.html. Retrieved 22 December 2010.
Bacevich, A. (2002). American empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishing.
Bacevich, A. (2005). The new American militarism. London: Oxford University Press.
Bacevich, A. (2010). Washington rules: America’s path to permanent war. New York: Metropolitan Book.
Bacevich, A. (2011). The tyranny of defense inc. The Atlantic Monthly, 307(1), 74–79.
Black, M. (2003). Enactment: Analytic musings on energy, language, and personal growth. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13(5), 633–655.
Boggs, C. (2010). Crimes of empire. New York: Palgrave.
Bush G. W. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/01/20080128-13.html Retrieved 10 October 2008.
Chilton, P. (1996). Security metaphors: Cold war discourse from containment to common house. New York: Peter Lang.
Chomsky, N. (2005). Imperial ambitions. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Chomsky, N. (2010). Hopes and prospects. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Fairbairn, W. R. D. (1952). The repression and return of bad objects. In: Psychoanalytic studies of the personality (pp. 59–89). London: Tavistock.
Farley, E. (1990). Good and evil: Interpreting a human condition. Minneapolis: Fortress.
Fingarette, H. (1969). Self-deception. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Fisher, H. (2009). Iraqi civilian death estimates. CRS report to Congress. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22537.pdf. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
Fonagy, P., & Target, M. (1997). Attachment and reflective function: Their role in self-organization. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 679–700.
Franklin, B. (1988). War stars: The superweapon and the American imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Freud, S. (1924). The dissolution of the oedipus complex. Standard Edition (Vol. 19, pp. 172–179). London: Hogarth Press.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. New York: Avon Books.
Goleman, D. (2003). Destructive emotions. New York: Bantam Books.
Gutierrez, G. (1985). A theology of liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Hofstader, R. (1963). The paranoid style of American politics. New York: Vintage Books.
Johnson, C. (1999). Blowback. New York: Owl Books.
Johnson, C. (2004). Sorrows of empire. New York: Owl Books.
Johnson, C. (2006). Nemesis: The last days of the American republic. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Johnson, C. (2010). Dismantling the empire. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Kaplan, A. (2002). The anarchy of empire in the making of U.S. culture. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Keylor, R. (2003). Subjectivity, infantile Oedipus, and symbolization in Melanie Klein and Jacques Lacan. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 13(2), 211–242.
Kinzer, S. (2006). Overthrow: America’s century of regime change from Hawaii to Iraq. New York: Times Books.
Klein, M. (1930). The importance of symbol-formation in the development of the ego. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 11, 24–39.
Klein, M. (1949a). Contributions to psychoanalysis. London: Hogarth.
Klein, M. (1949b). The psychoanalysis of children. London: Hogarth.
Klein, N. (2007). Shock doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism. New York: Henry Holt and Company.
LaMothe, R. (2009). The problem of patriotism: A psychoanalytic and theological analysis. Journal of Pastoral Psychology, 58, 403–422.
Lifton, R. J. (1979). The broken connection. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Liu, E., & Hanauer, N. (2007). The true patriot. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.
Marris, P. (1996). The politics of uncertainty. London: Routledge.
Min, A. (2004). The solidarity of others in a divided world. New York: T&T Clark International.
Moïsi, D. (2010). The geopolitics of emotion. New York: Anchor Books.
Moltmann, J. (1973). The gospel of liberation. Waco, TX: Word Books.
National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/2011/03/07/134316624/battle-over-budget-cuts-moves-to-senate. Accessed 23 May 2011.
Niebuhr, H. R. (1941). The meaning of revelation. New York: Collier Books.
Ogden, T. (1986). The matrix of the mind. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
Reiger, J. (2003). Opting for the margins. New York: Oxford University Press.
Segal, H. (1957). Notes on symbol formation. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 38, 391–397.
Segal, H. (1987). Silence is the real crime. International Review of Psycho-Analysis, 14, 3–12.
Sobrino, J. (1984). The true church and the poor. New York: Orbis Books.
Tarnoff, C. (2004). Foreign aid: an introductory overview of U.S. programs and policy. CRS report for Congress. http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/31987.pdf. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
Tillich, P. (1951). Systematic theology (Vol. 1). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Tillich, P. (1957). Dynamics of faith. New York: Harper and Row.
Vidal, G. (1986). The decline and fall of the American empire. Tucson, AZ: Odonian.
Vidal, G. (2002). Perpetual war for perpetual peace. New York: Nations Books.
Zinn, H. (1998). The twentieth century. New York: Harper Perennial.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
LaMothe, R. Obsession for National Security and the Rise of the National Security State-Industry: A Pastoral-Psychological Analysis. Pastoral Psychol 61, 31–46 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0380-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0380-5