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Enactments: American Modes and Psychohistorical Models
Enactments addresses several needs. It introduces readers to the young field of psychohistory, examines the continuous interplay of psychoanalytic insights with the irrational forces that shape history, and systematizes a highly diverse field into six usable models.
These models begin with analogies to the theater as arena of accepted illusion and dramatic characters as types of imposters. Political processes then come into sharper focus as the leader serves as delegate for a host of popular wishes, fears, and agendas that extend into the unconscious and comprise a group-fantasy. Group-fantasy not only empowers the delegate, but also defines and occasionally destroys this chosen figure as well. From the classical stage to the modern political arena, the hero as leader and group-fantasy delegate becomes embroiled in sacrificial agendas as the heat for magical solutions is turned up.
The leader usually has three to find external enemies, to finger domestic scapegoats, or to submit himself as victim. Perceived in this psychohistorical light, history may be interpreted as various kinds of enactments; a key model overlapping the others. Other models include an evolution of childhood through changing modes of parenting, and a blending of Foucault and Freud, in which sexuality and aggression thrive culturally through the production of repression.
These models begin with analogies to the theater as arena of accepted illusion and dramatic characters as types of imposters. Political processes then come into sharper focus as the leader serves as delegate for a host of popular wishes, fears, and agendas that extend into the unconscious and comprise a group-fantasy. Group-fantasy not only empowers the delegate, but also defines and occasionally destroys this chosen figure as well. From the classical stage to the modern political arena, the hero as leader and group-fantasy delegate becomes embroiled in sacrificial agendas as the heat for magical solutions is turned up.
The leader usually has three to find external enemies, to finger domestic scapegoats, or to submit himself as victim. Perceived in this psychohistorical light, history may be interpreted as various kinds of enactments; a key model overlapping the others. Other models include an evolution of childhood through changing modes of parenting, and a blending of Foucault and Freud, in which sexuality and aggression thrive culturally through the production of repression.
356 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1996
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