The body and the world

This Essay was written after September 11, in the hope of better understanding the minds of those who made their bodies explode in order to shatter other bodies in the name of God. As analysts do not meet, in their practice, such individuals, the author put under scrutiny, three well-known authors and, for two of them, also film directors, Foucault, Pasolini and Mishima, in whom one may find a blending of sadism, extremist political views (whether on the right or on the left leading to an admiration for cruel leaders, such as Hitler, Staline or Khomeiny), a more or less unconscious identification with Christ, Jean Genet and others, although not present in this paper, fit with the psychic organization here described, to which, it is necessary to add suicidal ideas, attempts or accomplishments. The unconscious fantasy here at stake seems to be that the dismantling of one's own body, together with the shattering of other bodies, provokes a corresponding dislocation of the world and a final apotheosis resulting with a fusion with God.