בבואתו של נתניהו: מבט פסיכואנליטי על ההתרחשויות בישראל

How can we explain the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu enjoys such overwhelming support from those who lead lives far-removed from his ostentatious lifestyle? Why is it that voters who struggle for their daily living are prepared to accommodate, with love and devotion, the comforts of leadership that the prime minister demands for himself? This article explores these questions from a psychoanalytical perspective. It would seem that the answer lies, not in the historical feuds of the 1950s, and not in Netanyahu’s English fluency. Instead, his increasing self-preoccupation compensates for the daily hardships of his voters, who put him in the place of their ego ideal, thus becoming a mass. Another factor is the need of living creatures to be part of something larger than themselves; a kind of "death drive" operating in nature. Why, however, would anyone revere a leader to the extent that one’s own individuality disappears? The answer lies in narcissistic love. The narcissist arouses love because of the quantity of libidinal energy invested in his own ego. Such is the case with a leader. Referring to the lure of Nazism, Lacan explains that there is nothing more powerful in human nature than the tendency to sacrifice to a dark god manifesting the satisfaction of the drive. Those in positions of power in Israel today offer an irresistibly seductive mixture of narcissism, combined with a call to sacrifice for an ideology whose truth is the satisfaction of the drive in the wildest sense, and without limits. In this article, we will sketch the links between narcissism and leader worship – specify the roots of this adulation – and follow its consequences in major spheres of Israeli life, including the army, education, and religion. We will also show why the protests in Israel do not reflect a narcissistic dynamic, and we will explain the modes of operation available to civilization for coping with the "dark magic" of narcissism.