Socio-ideological fantasy and the Northern Ireland conflict : the other side / Adrian Millar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Millar, Adrian.

Series:

New approaches to conflict analysis

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irish--Northern Ireland--Psychology.

Irish.

British--Northern Ireland--Psychology.

British.

Conflict management--Northern Ireland--Psychological aspects.

Conflict management.

Psychological aspects.

Psychology.

Northern Ireland--Social conditions--1969-.

Northern Ireland.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

v, 218 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2006.

Summary:

This book provides a Lacanian psychoanalysis of some of the most candid interview materials ever gathered from former IRA members and loyalists in Northern Ireland. The author conducts a careful examination of slips of the tongue, jokes, rationalisations and contradictions, revealing that it is the unconscious dynamics of socio-ideological fantasy - the unconscious pleasure people find in suffering, domination, submission, ignorance, failure and rivalry over jouissance - that lead to the reproduction of antagonism between the Catholic and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland. In light of this, the author concludes that traditional approaches to conflict resolution which overlook the unconscious are doomed to failure and that a Lacanian psychoanalytic understanding of socio-ideological fantasy has great potential for informing the way we understand and study all inter-religious and ethnic conflicts.

Whether the reader agrees with the arguments in this book or not, it is likely to be welcomed as a change from both the existing, mainly conservative, analyses of the Northern Ireland conflict and traditional approaches to conflict resolution. Conflict resolution practitioners, academics, postgraduates and second and final year students in the fields of peace studies, sociology, politics, psychoanalysis, cultural studies and ethno-national studies are sure to find something of interest here.

Contents:

1 Psychoanalytic theory 13

2 Conflict resolution 29

3 Explanations of the Northern Ireland conflict 51

4 The republican Real 81

5 The republican Imaginary 86

6 The republican Symbolic 126

7 Loyalists 151.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 210-215) and index.

ISBN:

0719066964

9780719066962

OCLC:

71238960