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Trauma, Home, and Geopolitical Bordering: A Lacanian Approach to the COVID-19 Crisis

Kinnvall, Catarina LU and Svensson, Ted LU (2023) In International Studies Quarterly 67(3).
Abstract
In this article, we read the COVID-19 pandemic from a Lacanian perspective, in which trauma and ontological insecurity are at the heart of the analysis. Using a psychoanalytical approach allows us to grasp why the most common response to the pandemic consisted of intensified commitments to home, nationalism, and exclusionary bordering practices and, in effect, a return to geopolitical notions of “sovereignty.” This can be read in light of Lacan’s discussion of memory as a form of repetition, implying that any attempt to construe history in terms of a coherent narrative misses the unconscious, traumatic compulsion to repeat. In light of this, we consider populist responses to the pandemic as well as how the pandemic has worked as a “great... (More)
In this article, we read the COVID-19 pandemic from a Lacanian perspective, in which trauma and ontological insecurity are at the heart of the analysis. Using a psychoanalytical approach allows us to grasp why the most common response to the pandemic consisted of intensified commitments to home, nationalism, and exclusionary bordering practices and, in effect, a return to geopolitical notions of “sovereignty.” This can be read in light of Lacan’s discussion of memory as a form of repetition, implying that any attempt to construe history in terms of a coherent narrative misses the unconscious, traumatic compulsion to repeat. In light of this, we consider populist responses to the pandemic as well as how the pandemic has worked as a “great unequalizer.” Such developments, we argue, must be read as representing a fragmentation of the national body and as heightening the vulnerabilities and asymmetric structures of power that inhere in what Lacan refers to as the symbolic order. Here, we propose that a postcolonial re-conceptualization of Lacan’s understanding of the mirror image and the Real is necessary if we wish to establish how the pandemic has reinforced existing patterns of abjectification and marginalization. (Less)
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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
psychoanalysis, International Relations, COVID-19, Lacan, ontological security
in
International Studies Quarterly
volume
67
issue
3
pages
11 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85169439912
ISSN
1468-2478
DOI
10.1093/isq/sqad053
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7a583d0d-aad7-4615-9f1f-6c91e639427a
date added to LUP
2023-08-13 15:28:38
date last changed
2023-10-04 04:01:10
@article{7a583d0d-aad7-4615-9f1f-6c91e639427a,
  abstract     = {{In this article, we read the COVID-19 pandemic from a Lacanian perspective, in which trauma and ontological insecurity are at the heart of the analysis. Using a psychoanalytical approach allows us to grasp why the most common response to the pandemic consisted of intensified commitments to home, nationalism, and exclusionary bordering practices and, in effect, a return to geopolitical notions of “sovereignty.” This can be read in light of Lacan’s discussion of memory as a form of repetition, implying that any attempt to construe history in terms of a coherent narrative misses the unconscious, traumatic compulsion to repeat. In light of this, we consider populist responses to the pandemic as well as how the pandemic has worked as a “great unequalizer.” Such developments, we argue, must be read as representing a fragmentation of the national body and as heightening the vulnerabilities and asymmetric structures of power that inhere in what Lacan refers to as the symbolic order. Here, we propose that a postcolonial re-conceptualization of Lacan’s understanding of the mirror image and the Real is necessary if we wish to establish how the pandemic has reinforced existing patterns of abjectification and marginalization.}},
  author       = {{Kinnvall, Catarina and Svensson, Ted}},
  issn         = {{1468-2478}},
  keywords     = {{psychoanalysis; International Relations; COVID-19; Lacan; ontological security}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{International Studies Quarterly}},
  title        = {{Trauma, Home, and Geopolitical Bordering: A Lacanian Approach to the COVID-19 Crisis}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad053}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/isq/sqad053}},
  volume       = {{67}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}