God, gays and good-enough enemies

Psychoanalytic social theorists who work in the relational tradition have analyzed the psychodynamics of enemy systems and identified persistent themes in the operation of these systems. Although enemy systems often involve enmity between ethnic, national or cultural groups, the psychodynamic symptoms of such systems are observable when social groups cast familiar outgroups as enemies. In contemporary American political discourse, Christian conservative leaders execute movement politics by linking gay people to terrorism and characterizing them as enemies of America. Sexual politics does not present a classic case of intergroup conflict of the sort usually investigated by psychoanalytic theorists. However, psychodynamic analyses of the intersections of religion, politics and sexuality hold great promise for explicating the domestic enmities that are situated at the center of American political life. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2009) 14, 41–48. doi:10.1057/pcs.2008.43