National Identity in Contemporary Theory

Author(s): Mary Caputi

Source: Political Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Dec., 1996), pp. 683-694
Published by: International Society of Political Psychology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3792133
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Political Psychology, Vol. 17, No. 4, 1996

National Identity in Contemporary Theory

Mary Caputi
California State University, Long Beach

This paper analyzes two psychoanalytic readings of national identity. It scrutinizes the work
of Vamik Volkan and Julia Kristeva, both of whom explain the emotional needs which
undergird this category. After exploring these approaches to national identity, approaches
which rebuff the postmodern insistence on fluidity, the paper then considers some problems
that inhere in too adamant a defense of the nation-state. It insists that, while national identity
is not easily jettisoned, this category should nevertheless be tempered by equivocation.

KEY WORDS: target of externalization; good narcissistic image; melancholia.

This essay offers a psychoanalytic reading of national identity. Specifically, it

demonstrates how national identity aids in the process of ego formation, arguing
that the cultural matrix which nationality bestows upon the individual plays a
crucial role in the latter's progress toward differentiation. The article thus explores
ways in which an empirical, geopolitical category-what it means to call oneself
an American, a French citizen, a South African-actually factors into psychic
processes that are internal and highly individualized.
It behooves us to consider a psychoanalytic reading of national identity. First,
the international arena is currently beset by numerous shifts in geopolitical bounda-
ries, shifts which give rise to sometimes prolonged and tragic disputes over the
meaning of this topic. One cannot help being aware, then, of the tremendous
emotional weight that national identity carries, given its ability to engage deep
emotions and to elicit irrational responses.
Yet there exists another reason why contemplating national identity from a
psychoanalytic standpoint proves timely. This arises from the fact that, as will
become clear, psychoanalysis understands national identity as part of the individ-
ual's larger project of establishing moorings. National identities strive to denote
stable, clearly defined sets of meanings, meanings unsullied by annoying ambigui-
ties and ambivalences. They aim at functioning as signifiers untrammeled by the
683

0162-895X 0 1996 International Society of Political Psychology

Published by Blackwell Publishers, 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA, and 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 lJF, UK.

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 684 Caputi

sometimes
self. They
only think
realize that
Given this
reigning po
contempora
the postmod
of fixed id
worn-out bo
at disabusin
national ide
suggest lim
Both autho
identity, re
for cohesio
Kristeva add
texts engage
not beset by
plays in its
begun in ch
to
reveal th
underpinni
proach, one
dismissal of
This does n
theoretical
rehabilitatio
need for co
read as an u
Where this
tion-the qu

VOLKAN AND KRISTEVA'S DEFENSE OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

A Cypriot Turk and practicing psychoanalyst, Vamik Volkan holds an

cially keen appreciation of the enormous complexities that surround the t
national identity. He recognizes the latter as being not only an ideologica
geopolitical issue, but one that is infused with emotional, unconscious, an
quently irrational dimensions. For Volkan, national identity represents a h
volatile subject, one that reaches deeper into the human psyche than we te
acknowledge.

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National Identity in Contemporary Theory 685

This is why his The Need to Have Enemies and All

to International Relationships (1988) insists that psyc
to the areas of diplomacy and international relations.
fields, Volkan maintains, is a grasp of those basic psy
the pre-Oedipal phase, processes that inform the pol
most polished diplomat. Missing is an understandin
play when alliances are formed and enemies targeted
issues of political legitimacy, religious heritage, prop
of power. And absent, too, is an appreciation of wha
actually represent to one another. Were those in positio
psychoanalytic dimensions of international relations
gain useful insights into the diplomatic process in
relations in general.
Volkan posits "splitting," a process associated with
central to the psychoanalytic contribution to interna
that this mechanism proves particularly useful in effo
ioral dynamics between political enemies and allies, t
understanding even the most emotional closing of
animosities. According to object relations theorists
splitting is a process employed by pre-Oedipal childr
differentiation. Unable to weld together the simulta
of mother-the mother who arrives promptly and the
who feeds and the one who takes away-the child exp
or she remains too cognitively and emotionally immat
of feelings that these good and bad images stir up, yet
by mother's bad image could prove detrimental. This in
to allow that good and bad images refer to the same pe
the contrasting images of mother one from another. In
resolve ambiguity no longer exists. Hence splitting m
not appear to coincide in one relationship. Instead th
of as discrete until the child is able to accept both pl
of the mother's behavior.

Yet the process of differentiation more broadly conceived implies not only the
child's acceptance of the mother, but a gradual growing away from her, a lessening
need for her constant supervision. Whereas initially the child perceived its mother's
absence as signaling his or her personal disintegration, now her absence is tolerated
more easily. This form of maturity comes about thanks to the child's ability to hold
internalized representations of the mother within, to sustain mental and emotional
recreations of her which jettison the anxiety formerly produced by her absence.
Volkan writes:

The more enduring images are called representations. There is a close

relationship between the differentiating and maturing ego and the estab-

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686 Caputi

lishment of
and as objec
means of id
differentia

While the a
Volkan ackn
stable ego b
Important
developmen
Volkan's ins
tutes his co
dimension w
Volkan argu
emotionally
welded to t
these image
residual, una
mother. Fo
to overwhel
in the proce
... never co
What becom
nalized onto
them. Anyt
all-benevole
representat
same is true
overwhelm
search for
identities, o
externalizat
remnants b
origin of bo

[A] child d
with the w
coalesce in
ticated tho
self-image
images are
derivatives

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National Identity in Contemporary Theory 687

This insight constitutes the crucial link between p

relations, for it offers a cogent theory of the vi
identities, with their attendant enemies and allies,
Such a thesis creates parallels between Volkan's w
Julia Kristeva (1983, 1987, 1991, 1993). Kristeva co
the relationship between psychoanalysis and na
argues that internal mental dynamics loom large i
phenomena. Hence in such texts as Nations Witho
situates the discussion about national identity
postmodern polemic highlighting the danger of fi
draws Volkan's theoretical framework into a larg
argues vehemently in favor of our need for establish
and a clear sense of friend and foe. She insists
viewpoint, national identity performs a crucial fun

National pride is comparable, from a psychologica

narcissistic image that the child gets from its
through the intersecting play of identification d
both parents, to elaborate into an ego ideal.
underestimating, or degrading such a narcissisti
humiliates and lays subject or group open to dep

Hence in an open letter to Harlem D6sir, leader

Racisme!, who is admittedly skeptical about the nat

No, I do not believe that henceforth the futur

within the national framework. No, I do not cou
who consider that to insist on what is "national"
indirectly, racial values ... [The] ethical course
analysis but also, in different fashion, by c
phy . . . which is written as a defense of
strange ... does not exonerate us, quite the cont
"national" back into question. (1993, pp. 49, 5

A theorist rightly associated with postmodern p

less warns against dismissing the concept of a natio
tient with those who conflate national pride with r
intolerance, she insists that like all forms of cultu
deserves serious consideration as a discourse see
points of reference to a subject fundamentally beset b
Her clinical practice undoubtedly renders her espec
held together in speech, to be situated within establi
take our bearings.'
1In this, Kristeva's work parallels that of James Glass (1993
Personality in a Postmodern World. Ithaca: Cornell University

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 688 Caputi

Those fami
most status
politics, a
insistence o
way to an i
forms of k
approach to
from withi
resonates w
statements
earlier mave
"I was amon
ten years la
defending t
anticipated
in 1974?
Nations Without Nationalism partakes in this ideological shift. This text seeks
to rehabilitate the claim that national identity performs an important function.
Vehemently opposed to the easy conflation of national pride and an intolerant
disposition, Kristeva criticizes those who question the nation's role in an increas-
ingly interdependent world. She defends national identity, and in this endeavor
invokes not contemporary postmodernist thinkers, but 18th-century Enlightenment
philosophy. Convinced that les philosophes have been too summarily treated by
contemporary theorists, she explains that it is Montesquieu's concept of l'espirit
genral which most inspires her to cite the Enlightenment's favorable impact on
the modern nation-state. A central concept in his The Spirit of the Laws (1748),
l'espirit general insists that a distinct national identity, one rooted in a given country
with its own values, customs, and history, must admit a degree of heterogeneity
within its territorial boundaries. This notion finds favor with Kristeva in that it
breeds a tolerant, heterogeneous nation-state, one which does not seek uniformity
but remains open to difference. Kristeva quotes Montesquieu, who writes that under
l'espirit general, "Men [sic] ... would be confederates rather than citizens."
In keeping with this theory, then, the instantiation of a given cultural code must
nevertheless be predicated on tolerance and the acceptance of difference-"con-
federacy." Under l'espirit general, a given national identity (e.g., being French)
can and should coexist alongside tolerance (being a "confederate," one who accepts
other forms of Frenchness). Consequently, nations adhering to this premise would
never display the inhumanity predicted of all modern Western nations in Horkhe-
imer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. (1969) Kristeva extols Montes-
quieu's contribution: "I should like to argue that the nation as esprit gendral

2 For an in-depth discussion of this, see Jacqueline Rose (1988).

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National Identity in Contemporary Theory 689

(with the heterogeneous, dynamic, and confedera

gives to a political group) is one of the most prestigio
thought" (1993, p. 57).
Kristeva thus applauds the concept of a cohesive
cohesion it offers, touted by others as the precur
propitious in that it helps constitute human identit
references to Montesquieu and to l'espirit general s
topic of national identity resonates within politic
writings offer much useful psychoanalytic insigh
question, making clear that the ability to practice t
need not preclude a sense of political identity. In the
this form of human identity, then, Volkan and Krist
various positions (Marxist, theological, but especial
erode the validity of a stable sense of self. Volkan
ance-"With Freud ... we know that we are foreigne
the help of that sole support that we can attempt
p. 170)--but not at the expense of the nation's actin
one capable of reflecting a good narcissistic image.

MELANCHOLIA: IDENTIFICATION WITH A LOST OBJECT

Kristeva offers further elaboration on this challenge to postmodernist pre

in her book Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia (French edition, 1987).
in this piece that she explains the psychological tragedy that ensues when
individual loses all capacity to identify targets of externalization, to relate to
narcissistic image. Unaligned with the surrounding lexicon of cultural sign
such a person experiences melancholia, technically defined as that depres
brought on by the loss of a person with whom one experienced identific
Building on the writings of Freud (1917), Melanie Klein (1934), and Karl Ab
(1912), Kristeva suggests throughout this text that the classical reading o
melancholic's depression-a depression resulting from the now missing love
with whom one identified--can be construed more broadly. She suggests tha
particular emotional state can prevail not only where affective relations
persons are concerned, but where the relationship between an individual and
her surrounding culture is in question. However tenuous that culture's clai
truth, it serves the important function of providing the speaking subject
system of meaning, one with which there must be identification. When the cu
manners, and values of a given culture are thus invested with meanings, they p
in an established lexicon which the acculturated know how to read. Hence a
ensconced within a given culture is endowed with a specific reading of that cu

3 For a postmodern critique of stable cultural signifiers, see especially Jean-Frangois Lyotard

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 690 Caputi

semiology;
sense of be
identificatio
a state of m
into a psych
Identificat
defends th
sion-she pe
melancholic
good--dare
identity can
a maternal
narcissistic
self-reproac
mobilizing d
no longer h

I am tryi
unspeakabl
to the poin
for life its
life, a life
that stream
at times bu
p. 13)

The melancholic thus retreats from the lexicon of cultural signifiers, which
now stand bereft of meaning. To state that one is French or American, humanist or
postmodern, Democrat or Republican-none of this means anything. Such signi-
fying systems have been depleted, and are all but devoid of the ability to constitute
the speaking subject, to hold him or her together within a given discourse. For the
melancholic, "sadness is the only real object of desire: To be more precise, sadness
is the substitute object to which the melancholic becomes attached, the object which
he or she tames and cherishes for lack of any other" (Translation mine, 1987, p.
22). Whereas postmodernists applaud a subject's sense of fluidity in the name of
tolerance, intellectual honesty, and light-heartedness,5 Kristeva highlights the
sadness which such fluidity engenders.

4 For an extensive treatment of the theme of being at home, see Minnie Bruce Pratt (1984).
5 With regard to the latter, see Shane Phelan (1989).

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National Identity in Contemporary Theory 691

NATIONS WITHOUT NATIONALISM? SOME RESERVATIONS

Inasmuch as they warn against a too facile dismissal of our need for
and articulated identity, Volkan and Kristeva make important argum
tively, their exposition on the significance of targets of externaliza
which provide the subject with moorings, countervails what can be
underestimation of our need for clearly stated forms of identity. Speci
writings illustrate the manner in which national identity, apparently b
solely ideological and geopolitical issues, in fact emanates from the p
dynamic of splitting begun in childhood. In this, they suggest that nat
is not so easily jettisoned.
I recognize the contribution made by Kristeva and Volkan, whose
surely timely. I support their assertion (implicit in the case of Volkan
forms of identity are so deeply entrenched within the human psych
off only with great difficulty, an assertion which makes trouble for p
claims. However, my reading of their texts is not without reservation
I would argue that in their eagerness to shore up the significance of
identities, these authors too willingly accept national identity as that co
able to provide the subject with a suitable target of externalization.
the importance of national identity without considering the extent to
complicate, intensify, and strain relations between potential enemies. St
ently, I would argue that Volkan and Kristeva scrutinize those psy
processes which undergird ideological and geopolitical constructs wh
appreciate how fully such processes are themselves affected by the p
This failure prevents each author from giving serious thought to altern
tiations around which those same psychic processes might concatenat
Are there no options other than the nation-state? Might there not e
targets for externalization less likely to encourage warfare? Unwillin
such questions, these authors posit the nation-state almost as an imm
and do not engage those positions highlighting the ominous, overstat
untruthful dimensions of national identity.
In Volkan's case, this tendency manifests itself when he discusse
definitive phases of national identity's formation. According to Volkan,
adolescence that this form of identity "crystallizes," and we conceive
as persons having meaningful bonds with a specific nation-state (or w
these), its history, culture, and language. Drawing on Freud's writings
psychology (1921), Volkan argues that adolescence is characterized b
for suitable social targets of externalization: we are eager to recogni
foe not just within the neighborhood, but on a larger, international
psychic processes long under way now engage the nation-state in a
externalize residual images produced during the process of splitting.
Nowhere in Volkan' s text, however, is there extensive consideration
that such an engagement can be unfortunate. Nowhere does he enter

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 692 Caputi

the notion t
claims, bom
quences. Vol
tities to beco
separate gro
sion under c
playful post
these examp
nation-state
narcissistic i
aggression?
egging on co
could otherw
inmotion th
were the na
Question" (1

[P]olitical e
emancipatio
real, individ
as an indiv
relationship

By "species-b
see beyond s
nists are ...
working me
True, Volka
to challenge
externalizati
occur were
marked by
pursuing.
My reservations are most pronounced, though, where Kristeva's work is
concerned. Unlike Volkan who merely describes the genesis and need for national
identities, Kristeva defends the latter. I have no complaint against her advocacy of
Montesquieu's esprit gendral; today, this concept should be upheld within all
geographic boundaries. Kristeva is right to point out the tolerant disposition which
l'esprit gendral encourages, and to insist that tolerance need not stand incommen-
surate with the need for a good narcissistic image. However, I am not ready for her
appeal to an Enlightenment thinker to summarily dismiss various critiques of that
intellectual movement. I would argue that her praise for Montesquieu does not parry
attacks on the Enlightenment-those, for instance, currently articulated in post-
modern and critical theory circles. Such attacks insist that deeply entrenched

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National Identity in Contemporary Theory 693

identities, if taken to extremes, can prove at least

suffering from melancholia. These attacks highligh
sadly abound in our century of national identitie
flexibility and variability that Montesquieu describe
state appears just as likely to produce violent, disastr
clemency. "In the most general sense of progressiv
and Adorno, "the Enlightenment has always aimed a
establishing their sovereignty. Yet the fully enlig
triumphant" (1969, p. 3).
Kristeva undoubtedly agrees with my suggestion
phy need always be tempered by critiques thereof
intellectual affinities with the postmodern rejection
be singularly enamored of the nation-state or to perc
of reflecting a good narcissistic image. Yet in her eag
against predictions of its demise, she fails to artic
least, of Nations without Nationalism). She fails to c
concatenations of a good narcissistic image, of a w
national identity is engaged more playfully.
Volkan and Kristeva rightfully caution against
question of national identities. They employ psyc
stymie this endeavor. However, their analyses mi
incredulity where the concept of the nation-state is
of cultural identification can deeply sadden the in
of the same can prove disastrous, turning a benign
cohort into a sinister herd mentality. National ide
into nationalism, producing a world which "radiate
postmodernism insists on the equivocal nature of al
ultimately help dispel the more ominous dimension

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank Tom Parisi for his help on this p

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694 Caputi

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