ABSTRACT
The Ronald Reagan presidency reintroduced the body of the leader as an effective mechanism in US politics. Reagan made unification his political mission—a reunification, to be precise—of a "spiritual" rather than territorial nature. The unveiling of the new and improved Statue of Liberty coincided with one of the peaks in Reagan's popularity. Reagan himself was the prime-time master of ceremonies for one of the most expensive and self-indulgent displays of patriotic fervor in living memory. The most striking instance of the process was Reagan's legendary acceptance of the presidential nomination at the 1984 Republican Convention. Reagan manifested his amputational nature by disappearing into his ceremonial residence. The military-industrial complex under Reagan strove to produce a technological skin. A vulgar Freudian corollary to the "youth and vitality" theory had it that Reagan was a charismatic leader who presented the nation with an image of selfassurance, wholeness, and health: the perfect ego ideal.
