Obsession for National Security and the Rise of the National Security State-Industry: A Pastoral-Psychological Analysis

摘要

In this article, I examine, from a pastoral-psychological perspective, the U.S. obsession with national security and the corresponding rise and consequences of the military-industrial complex and national security state-industry. I argue that preoccupation with national security reflects a paranoid-schizoid (P-S) mode of organizing experience—a mode of experience supported by and represented in political policies and discourse, as well as socially shared narratives and myths. This subjective and intersubjective mode of organizing experience, which is maintained by the defenses of projection, rationalization, moralization, splitting, and denial, accompany the eclipse of the reflective function. From a theological perspective, the obsession for national security signifies both an idolatrous relationship and the presence of bad faith.