Extreme Nationalism and the Hatred of the Liberal State

Abstract

This chapter will show how a psychoanalytically based approach to understanding the emotional dimensions of politics can throw valuable light on the psychological meaning of ideologies and on the drivers of political movements. It will describe the micro within the macro, and the convergence of broad political and cultural attitudes with patterns of individual, internal feeling. To this end it will focus on two examples of contemporary extremist discourse in the UK, both from the nationalist wing of politics, and so will also contribute to the understanding of present-day nationalist extremisms in Europe.