The Lacanian Concept of the Real in Relation to Politics and Collective Trauma

Abstract

In the spirit of the previous chapter, I will now turn towards the place of the Lacanian category of the real in the field of politics. The link with trauma will become evident much sooner in this chapter, specifically when we discuss the formative role of shared fantasies in social groups — and the deteriorating effects that follow the traversal of such foundational structures. In recent years, several authors have argued that it is precisely in such moments of (traumatic) rupture that the political surfaces, as something distinct from and constitutive of politics as we know it (for example, Eisenstein & McGowan, 2012; Johnston, 2009; Laclau, 1990; Laclau & Mouffe, 1985; Stavrakakis, 1999).