ABSTRACT
Confounding expectations to the contrary, nationalism remains an obdurate force in the contemporary world. Claims of global belonging may have indicated that the salience of this most ambiguous of projects was paling, but nationalism retains its grasp on our imaginations and our politics. While nationalism surely thus demands analysis, it defies comprehension within dominant political theories, which tend to rely on a convenient essentialism; nationalism is reduced either to various structural conditions or to an innate ‘human need to belong’. This chapter contends that psychoanalysis provides a rich resource for comprehending nationalism. Using the work of Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, and Jacques Lacan, the chapter describes nationalism as providing a powerful and enduring object of identification that promises to fulfill desire: a unified and harmonious imaginary community working alongside Anderson’s imagined community. The chapter warns that identification with the imaginary community is ultimately alienating. Nationalist fantasy is ever prone to construct a scapegoat or traitor who is the target of hostility and blame. A psychoanalytic account draws attention to the dark side of nationalism that is always liable to rupture the unity it offers. And yet, at the same time, the possibility of its disruption indicates the potential for its reinvention.
