ABSTRACT
The link between the underlying strategy of evacuating bad objects and thought processes that prevent thinking is to be found in the special use of words typical when thinking is superseded by the effort to evacuate bad objects. The archetype of the use of words to create reality is the use of the words “good” and “bad” in primitive emotional life. The child knows he has been bad because his parent calls what he has done “bad” or, worse, calls him “bad.” Powerful words such as “racist,” “terrorist,” “evil doer,” and “illegal alien” may operate outside a context of meaning created through a thinking process, and derive their power from this fact. Magic words must be defended against any effort to articulate ideas about them; otherwise they lose their magic power. This defense inevitably takes the form of obfuscation, disconnection, and overt attacks on thinking, which is experienced as an effort to drain the words of their power.
