Abstract
This article addresses the seductions, dynamics, and consequences of war discourse from psychoanalytic and theological perspectives. Following a brief definition and description of war discourse, I argue that war discourse and the narratives of exceptionalism manifest an existential insecurity that keeps people captive to the seductions of this type of discourse. Relying on psychoanalytic concepts, I contend that war discourse functions as a transformational object, transforming shared existential anxiety and insecurity into hostility and aggression. This existential anxiety results, in part, from an unstable, idealized identity that is rooted in a paranoid-schizoid mode of organizing experience and maintained by rationalization, moralization, projection, and denial. From a theological perspective, I argue that war discourse signifies the presence of idolatry and totalizing faith.
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Notes
In his exploration of mourning and melancholia, Freud (1917) used the phrase “The shadow of the object falls upon the ego” (p. 249).
http://www.afa.org/media/enolagay/chrono.asp (accessed 3 April 2007)
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LaMothe, R. Fever and Fervor: The Seductions, Dynamics, and Travails of War Discourse. Pastoral Psychol 61, 319–332 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0431-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-012-0431-6