Fantasies of Hatred in Far Right and Islamist Politics

Abstract

This article draws on recent contributions in the field of hegemony studies that take a specific interest in the role of fantasies and affect (e.g., Glynos 2021, Stavrakakis 2019). Employing a psychoanalytic approach to the study of political ideology, the article explores the nature and function of fantasies of hatred in two competing ideologies. It focuses on hatred because, in psychoanalytic terms, it contains a radical force in mobilising people behind an antagonistic discourse that appears in congruence with social tolerance. This is made evident through an empirical engagement with a Dutch "new wave" far right party, Forum for Democracy, and a mostly clandestine islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, in the Netherlands—one of the few countries the organisation is still legally operative. The empirical findings are limited to fantasies of hatred embedded in the ideal institutions of both parties, or what I call "shadow institutions". These shadow institutions reveal the potential of far right and islamist politics to activate a civilisationist antagonism (between Islam and the West) based on a contingent subject.