The Corporation: Variants of an Unconscious Phantasy in European Cultural Discourse

Abstract

AbstractThe need to be unified with our fellow human beings, once and for all to eliminate the pain and terror of separation and to regain a kind of primordial harmony, is a powerful unconscious phantasy that has been elaborated in European cultural discourse as the Corporation. The idea can be found in ancient religious texts and, later, in medieval political and theological discourse. Rationality plays a part to differing degrees in these elaborations, notably in: political philosophy, where the symbol provided ideological support to a fundamental aspect of the existing political order; in religious contexts (in the New Testament) it was used as a mythical image to depict the unity of the nascent Christian Church; finally, in its mystical elaboration (as in the so‐called Measurement of the Body motif) it is at our disposal in its purest, visionary form, open to psychoanalytic interpretation. The paper explores the different versions of this tradition using theories of various psychoanalytic schools to interpret them. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.