The Human Body & the Body Politic

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Whereas Foucault focuses on how the physical organism is shaped and
molded by discourse, I theorize that discourse functions as the vehicle for
the externalization, projection and articulation of the experience of the
human body into the external world.

I study the images and metaphors in the writings and speeches of
political leaders. My research supports and extends the research of linguists
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, who conclude, "Structures of our bodily
experience work their way up into abstract meanings and structures of
thought."

Lakoff speaks of "metaphorical mapping"--whereby slots in the "source
domain schema" get mapped into the "target domain." I study the manner in
which the source domain--the human body--gets mapped into the target
domain--the "nation" or body political.

Freud stated that the "ego is first and foremost a body ego." Nations are
created as a means toward recreating the idea and ideal of an omnipotent ego.
The narcissistic self is externalized into "territories."

The fundamental metaphor that generated the Final Solution was that of
the Jew as a "disease within the body of the people." Hitler stated early on
that he was not one of those politicians who "doctored around on the
circumference of the distress." He said that it was necessary to discover and
remove the "cause of the inflammation" in order to achieve a cure.

On February 22, 1942, when the Final Solution was in full swing, Hitler
expounded his conviction that the discovery of the Jewish virus was one of
the "greatest revolutions that has taken place in the world." The battle in
which he was engaged, he said, was of the same sort as the "battle waged by
Pasteur and Koch." Himmler stated that Germany had the "moral right to
destroy this people that wanted to destroy us. We do not want to be infected
by a bacillus and to die."

Genocide arose as the acting out of an immunological fantasy. It was
necessary to kill the source of the disease-the infectious agent-- in order
to save the nation.

Contemplating genocide Hitler said, "One must act radically. When one
pulls out a tooth one does it with a single tug and the pain quickly goes
away. The Jew must clear out of Europe."

Hitler was not "using" discourse in the name of doing something that he
wanted to do for other reasons. Rather, the meaning and purpose of Nazism and
genocide is revealed by the metaphors and images contained within the
ideology. Hitler propagated his ideology because he had a profound need to do
so.

Genocide grew out of Hitler's experience of the Jew as a diseased body lodged
within his own body (politic). Nazism was "mass-hysteria." The Jew was a
conversion symptom on the German body politic, pointing to a disease within
Hitler and the German people.

Mind cannot be separated from body. Thought cannot be detached from the
organism that thinks. The effort to conceptualize the world as "discourse"
represents a form of intellectualization, designed to "split off" painful
ideas (the burden of the Other inside the self). Symbolization provides
tremendous benefits, but also can be the source of tremendous destruction.

Just as dreams and slips of the tongue are meaningful productions of the
human mind, so are the collective materializations that we call culture.
Culture is not separate from human motivation. We can say that culture is a
social construction, but constructed based on what?

Discourse externalizes and shapes shared fantasies to create culture.
Ideology is manifest structure that contains and expresses latent content.
Metaphorical language reveals the bodily or psychosomatic source of fantasy.

Hitler spoke of the "increasingly rapidly falling to pieces of the
organic structure of the nation." As a response to this danger, it was
necessarily that millions of people be "fused into a unity" in order to
effect the "inner welding together of the body of our people."

Abraham Lincoln spoke of the "effort for disunion" that threatened to
"divide and destroy the Union," break the nation into "hostile fractions."

Sri Aurobindo called India a "place in which you all meet and that is
your common Mother. That is not merely a division of land but it is a living
thing. It is the Mother in whom you move and have your being."

Having separated from the body of one's mother, one seeks connection with
another omnipotent body. One's nation is the "mother and child reunion"
(Simon & Garfunkle).

Collective forms of violence are undertaken when it seems that the
"perfect union" is about to fall apart. Lincoln said, "We cannot separate. A
husband and wife may be divorced, but different parts of our country cannot
do this."

The fear that one will separate from one's nation is the fear that one
will become a "man without a country." One will lose one's anchor to
reality--the omnipotent body that had been bound to one's own body.

With regards,

Richard Koenigsberg

Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D.
Director, Library of Social Science

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<HTML> Whereas Foucault focuses on how the physical organism is shaped and molded by discourse, I theorize that discourse functions as the vehicle for the externalization, projection and articulation of the experience of the human body into the external world. 
 
I study the images and metaphors in the writings and speeches of political leaders. My research supports and extends the research of linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, who conclude, "Structures of our bodily experience work their way up into abstract meanings and structures of thought." 
 
Lakoff speaks of "metaphorical mapping"--whereby slots in the "source domain schema" get mapped into the "target domain." I study the manner in which the source domain--the human body--gets mapped into the target domain--the "nation" or body political. 
 
Freud stated that the "ego is first and foremost a body ego." Nations are created as a means toward recreating the idea and ideal of an omnipotent ego. The narcissistic self is externalized into "territories."  
 
The fundamental metaphor that generated the Final Solution was that of the Jew as a "disease within the body of the people." Hitler stated early on that he was not one of those politicians who "doctored around on the circumference of the distress." He said that it was necessary to discover and remove the "cause of the inflammation" in order to achieve a cure. 
 
On February 22, 1942, when the Final Solution was in full swing, Hitler expounded his conviction that the discovery of the Jewish virus was one of the "greatest revolutions that has taken place in the world." The battle in which he was engaged, he said, was of the same sort as the "battle waged by Pasteur and Koch." Himmler stated that Germany had the "moral right to destroy this people that wanted to destroy us. We do not want to be infected by a bacillus and to die." 
 
Genocide arose as the acting out of an immunological fantasy. It was necessary to kill the source of the disease-the infectious agent-- in order to save the nation. 
 
Contemplating genocide Hitler said, "One must act radically. When one pulls out a tooth one does it with a single tug and the pain quickly goes away. The Jew must clear out of Europe." 
 
Hitler was not "using" discourse in the name of doing something that he wanted to do for other reasons. Rather, the meaning and purpose of Nazism and genocide is revealed by the metaphors and images contained within the ideology. Hitler propagated his ideology because he had a profound need to do so. 
 
Genocide grew out of Hitler's experience of the Jew as a diseased body lodged within his own body (politic). Nazism was "mass-hysteria." The Jew was a conversion symptom on the German body politic, pointing to a disease within Hitler and the German people. 
 
Mind cannot be separated from body. Thought cannot be detached from the organism that thinks. The effort to conceptualize the world as "discourse" represents a form of intellectualization, designed to "split off" painful ideas (the burden of the Other inside the self). Symbolization provides tremendous benefits, but also can be the source of tremendous destruction. 
 
Just as dreams and slips of the tongue are meaningful productions of the human mind, so are the collective materializations that we call culture. Culture is not separate from human motivation. We can say that culture is a social construction, but constructed based on what? 
 
Discourse externalizes and shapes shared fantasies to create culture. Ideology is manifest structure that contains and expresses latent content. Metaphorical language reveals the bodily or psychosomatic source of fantasy. 
 
Hitler spoke of the "increasingly rapidly falling to pieces of the organic structure of the nation." As a response to this danger, it was necessarily that millions of people be "fused into a unity" in order to effect the "inner welding together of the body of our people." 
 
Abraham Lincoln spoke of the "effort for disunion" that threatened to "divide and destroy the Union," break the nation into "hostile fractions." 
 
Sri Aurobindo called India a "place in which you all meet and that is your common Mother. That is not merely a division of land but it is a living thing. It is the Mother in whom you move and have your being." 
 
Having separated from the body of one's mother, one seeks connection with another omnipotent body. One's nation is the "mother and child reunion" (Simon & Garfunkle). 
 
Collective forms of violence are undertaken when it seems that the "perfect union" is about to fall apart. Lincoln said, "We cannot separate. A husband and wife may be divorced, but different parts of our country cannot do this." 
 
The fear that one will separate from one's nation is the fear that one will become a "man without a country." One will lose one's anchor to reality--the omnipotent body that had been bound to one's own body. 
 
With regards, 
 
Richard Koenigsberg 
 
 
Richard Koenigsberg, Ph. D. 
Director, Library of Social Science</HTML>

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