Description
This paper aims to contribute to the emerging literature in IR which has been deploying psychoanalytical frameworks, particularly Lacanian, to the study of international politics. It argues that two of the themes explored by this literature – the constitution of the subject and the resonance of some political discourses – could be enriched and rendered more context-attuned if psychoanalytical and postcolonial insights are interwoven. Bringing to the fore the work of postcolonial authors who have employed and adapted psychoanalytical concepts and frameworks to colonial and postcolonial settings, it aims to discuss the difference between the frustration experienced in all processes of subject formation and the psychic pain and injury sustained in the processes of identification in hierarchical and violent contexts. Furthermore, this paper aims to problematize the assumption that political discourses tend to be more appealing if they promise stable and secure identities by calling attention to those who are not drawn to, and/or actively resist, discourses deemed politically effective. By situating the processes described by psychoanalysis, the purpose of this work is to develop a richer conceptual framework, attuned to the discursive and affective specificities of different contexts.
