ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the use of the term ‘gestalt’ in psychoanalysis, particularly in the work of Jacques Lacan. Lacanian psychoanalysis sees the subject’s self-consciousness as given to them as ‘gestalt’ during the mirror stage of development. This gestalt gives the subject an idealised image of themselves, known as the ideal-I. This ideal image is internalised; the subject is driven to emulate this ideal but is never able to fully identify themselves with it. This alienation of the subject is a theme throughout Gibson’s work and particularly in the Blue Ant trilogy. This chapter focuses on Spook Country (2007), in which Gibson shows the aftermath of 9/11 through the theme of US engagement in Iraq during the Iraq War. With reference to Fredric Jameson’s reading of Lacan in dialogue with Marxist criticism, this chapter investigates the lack and alienation at the heart of the subject and how this is expressed through the macrocosm of America’s collective consciousness and repression of its ‘spook country’ as the narrative deals with espionage and black operations.
