Here lies … Hermetics, psychoanalysis and ethnocentrism: Using Abraham and Torok to help explain the rise of reactionary social groups

Abstract

The thinking of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok reinvigorates traditional Freudian psychoanalysis by shifting its metaphorical register to a rubric with a more occult sensibility. This creepier and darker metaphorics brings to life beings like the crypt, ghosts, goblins and phantoms. In this essay, the latter is used, along with the help of its shadowy companions, to demonstrate how the transgenerational transmission of trauma passes through time and manifests itself in social and political groups. The analysis reveals that the recent wave of political ethnocentrism, that of neo-fascism and nationalism, announces a secret in sociality that is guarded by a global spectre.