Mourning and progressive politics after 9/11

Abstract

Abstract This article offers a fundamental revision and expansion of the Freudian model of object loss in order to develop conceptual tools for analyzing contemporary American militarism and its political alternatives. The Bush administration's so‐called “war on terror” rests on the disavowal of losses suffered by Americans after the 9/11 bombings and on the displacement of anger that accompanied those losses. In response, progressive anti‐war politics today should promote a process of social mourning. Such a process will require the cultivation of a culture in which more Americans can tolerate a realistic ambivalence towards a nation that is, in part, responsible for the violence it has suffered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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