Brexit as suicide: The psychology of self-harm
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In the psychoanalysis of Brexit, we confront a suicidal patient. The question must then be asked: What is the rationale behind this compulsion to self- harm? Just as a body is comprised of multiple cells and systems, a country is organized in a similar way. When the body elects to suicide it is, in many ways, a democratic decision: Various subsystems make the calculation that things cannot go on as they are, and it is preferential to destroy the organism than for the pain to continue. When a country decides to suicide, such is the case with Brexit, a similar process is underway.
Whether Brexit is, ideologically, a good or bad idea is irrelevant to the undertaking of national suicide in the UK. The most casual observer can see that the theatrical performance in which the UK claimed it was leaving the European Union (EU) was never a collective attempt to either leave or remain in the union: This would require strategic planning and building of infrastructure. None of this has taken place. Instead we have witnessed an act of slow suicide.
The question of whether to remain in the EU or not was irrelevant throughout the process. It has served merely as a pretext for the eventual suicide. Brexit was simply a convenient framework in which to perform this act of self harm.
How a nation commits suicide
Humans who are suicidal may choose a high-bridge, a bathtub, or a garage. Countries choose larger arenas, so that all can participate in their own way. The UK chose something they call ‘Brexit’.
Just as an alcoholic repressing their trauma has no interest in alcohol beyond its function as a means to an end (destruction of the organism), Brexit has no function other than the means by which Britain has chosen to suicide. It is the means by which the UK has chosen to express its systemic understanding it must ‘die’ rather than contain more pain.
The question then is: What pain is the UK repressing that is so unfathomable that suicide (massive self-destruction of the country) is a rational alternative?
Why is the UK destroying itself?
The answers are manifold: We could begin with the endemic ongoing, and historical, rape of children by members of the UK government and aristocracy. We could move onto the BBC, who enabled the rape and abuse of over a thousand children in its own broadcasting buildings. We could explore the collusion between power and the media to concoct such brutal fantasies as Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. And we could finish by considering the Monarchy — that overarching symbol of wealth hoarding and oppression whose post-colonial blood-drenched claws still wrap sordidly around the constitutional neck of the country.
In short: On a deep, psychological level, the UK knows it must stop institutionally raping children and bombing foreign nations, but has struggled to find a means by which to stop itself. Now, however, the pain is too great, and a suitable method has occurred to it: Brexit.
A suicidal individual, often, has made a rational decision (though it may not seem this way). The decision is: This pain is greater than my body’s capacity to contain it. So too has the UK made a rational decision: Corruption, the abuse of children, and the ghosts of genocides past can no longer be carried in private. I can’t go on like this.
We have watched the UK’s last 1000 days of pontification and ruse, as we might watch a suicidal man drawing a hot bath in which he intends to slit his wrists. With a man, we could stop him; we could intervene; seek the cause of his pain and soothe him. But with a country, there is no such possibility. It is as an elephant; or a huge granite ball tumbling down a hill. It cannot be stopped once it has begun.
The bath water is near to full, and the UK intends to step in.
So much theatre and pomp has been involved in drawing this hot bath in which the UK’s national termination will occur, that to not go through with it now may seem like a profound loss of face worse than the suicide itself. And so, the UK grimly steps into the tub, waving a Union Jack flag and singing “God Save the Queen”, then quietly slits its wrists.
Suicide is an expression of overwhelming pain
There is a certain ritualistic aspect to the theatrical performance of Brexit because, as with most suicides, there is an underlying message struggling to be communicated. The message is: Please help me; please stop me; I am overwhelmed.
But the UK cannot be helped. Perhaps in a way, it must die. Nobody wept over Hitler’s suicide — or so we hope. Few of us will weep over the collapse of the UK.
For those, like the UK, who have abused children, exploited nations, and subjugated races on such a vast scale, self-termination is a fitting end. The country’s disgusting past of exploitation and cowardice has led it here, to the end of the road. To a lonely hotel room and its requisite bathtub.
People may ask of the UK, “How did he die?"
And the answer will be, “Alone. He cut his wrists with a Brexit.”
IMPORTANT NOTE
I have experienced suicidal thoughts and intentions in my life. They originated on account of childhood sexual abuse that I was subjected to by many institutions in the UK. Millions of other children have been abused too. If you are struggling with similar thoughts, be strong and find support. I send you love. The oppressor’s systems are collapsing.
The relationship between psychological/emotional pain and the act of self-harming is an interesting one. Self-inflicted physical pain, like scratching/cutting one's arms (and all the way up to suicide) seems to be an act of distracting from the 'greater' pain inside one's head/being. Thus the physical pain caused by self-injury is experienced as a 'lesser' order of pain than (a distraction from) the psychological/emotional pain....it may even be experienced as (relatively) 'pleasurable' for the relief it brings.
It is fascinating to apply this notion of suicide or self-harm to a nation, and I totally see it - collectively, individually, ancestrally there is a great deal of brutality, guilt and alienation in the UK experience. Personified, the UK does indeed appear to be going through a deep psychosis with no supportive TLC, nor guidance, nor the tackling of anything but symptoms and knee-jerk reactions........
A breakdown therefore seems to be well underway - Brexit is largely 'unplanned' as you say, therefore 'action' is bound to be emotionally driven (like the vote to leave :). This could end up in further self-harm and/or suicide.
But 'breakdown' can also lead to 'breakthrough'. 'Suicide' in this sense, could be the 'death of the ego'.
I hold an open future of possibilities, this is what we all seem to be striving for, wishing for. I believe that both will likely happen - breakdown, followed by breakthrough.
Very true and a wonderful perspective for all of us. Thank you, @barge, for once again expressing a positive message from your hearts in a way for our stupid minds to understand what should be felt anyways …
Thank you for a beautifully insightful perspective, @barge.
Also: R.D.Laing has always been one of my favourite psychologists.
I am on-board with your perspective that the UK may be, collectively, in in the throes of an ego-death. The question, as always with such transformations is: To what extent will the patient (the UK) scream, bluster, and grab destructively at objects in his immediate environment, before concluding that the only sensible way through this transition is to sit and breathe quietly, surrendering to the panic of extinction, yet confident in the knowledge that metamorphosis — a necessary rebirth — is imminent.
The UK strikes me as a 'patient' who will likely throw many more chairs through the windows of the ward before this transformation is done.
Utterly delighted to hear that @matrjoschka! "The Politics of Experience" helped me tremendously towards the end of a month-long psychosis (self diagnosed :) - effectively guided me out, in a way. That was the third time I read it, and it was also my third major psychosis (as I can gather from a retrospective look at my life)!
As for this psychotic 'patient', it does seem as if 'rock-bottom' has not yet been reached and there will certainly be more drama and suffering to come before he rejects the toxins he is being fed as 'medicine', regurgitates the poison, grieves his losses and begins to believe that 'alternative' methods and modes of healing are available and possible......and that he can forgive and be forgiven (possibly the toughest of all?)!
I can't resist copying the final page of R.D.Laing's 'The Bird Of Paradise' (from this post):
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To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
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I won't pretend to understand the psychology of the collective, as this is the first I've contemplated it.
I do think that people are mad at their leaders, and don't know what to do about it. People (not just in Britian) are beginning to catch on that 'voting for the other guy' is not enough, in fact is not different, but the same.
Not all people, mind you, maybe I am optimistic of such enlightenment. But I see people around the world eager to do anything besides voting for the 'lesser of two evils', including whatever this Brexit is.
Thank you for reading, @ecoinstant
I agree that people are mad at their leaders. I am optimistic that we (as a species) are learning faster than ever and, hopefully, this phase won't last much longer. I feel there are only so many times that those in power can use the same tricks before the entire audience works out how it is done.
At that point, there won't be enough people left in the theatre to sustain the show.
Not to mention a profound waste of water.
In other comment: you have opussed. Your perspective is enlightening.
I wonder, can you explain why Britain has today drawn out the drawing of its bath?
Thank you, @lenskonig
I feel the drawn-out drawing is on account of a mild intervention from the UK's neighbours (the EU), metaphorically ringing on the doorbell at the last-minute and shouting through the letterbox, "Is everything ok in there?"
You can ring on the doorbell too (as I have done), if you feel like having a shot at convincing him not to step into the bathtub.
Ring the doorbell by going here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584
I am reminded, of course, of Nathalie Loiseau who told Le Journal du Dimanche that she has named her cat 'Brexit' because, “He wakes me up every morning meowing to death because he wants to go out, and then when I open the door he stays put, undecided, and then glares at me when I put him out."
Yes. But. May asked for the drawing out.. So... ?
Last minute nerves? I guess it's scary to suicide a whole country, no matter how decayed a person's heart.
As Luke says of Vader, "I know there is still good in him".
Perhaps May is in the process of remembering her own abuse as a child and will throw the Emperor (The British Royal Family) to its doom, down the ventilation chasm of the Death Star.
I think the May-requested-drawing-out is the scene where The Emperor fires relentless electricity at Luke. At this point, Vader begins to look like he's a-bit-unsure-of-the-whole-thing-now.
The idea of killing the whole country probably seemed 'a fresh new start', 'liberating' and 'larksome' during the whiteboard-brainstorms at Downing Street. But enacting destruction on this scale can often seem less appealing when the lightning bolts really start flowing and there's the smell of burning flesh in the air.
Vader didn't have the stomach for this brand of mindless violence in the end. Perhaps May doesn't either.
What do you feel?
Exactly.
I feel like Britain isn't the only country on the cusp of suicide. Is it the end of the world as we know it? Things are reaching a peak and it feels like it will either destroy us or heal us. I really hope it doesn't just keep drawing out.