A Psychoanalytic Perspective on an Interview with an Irish Republican Prisoner

Authors

  • Barry Geoghegan Geoghegan Middlesex University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15664/jtr.1199

Keywords:

nationalism, identity, trauma, transgenerational, guilt, mourning, revenge

Abstract

Abstract

 

Taking an interview with an Irish Republican Prisoner imprisoned at the Curragh Internment Camp for the duration of the Second World War, the principle objective of this analysis is to demonstrate that psychoanalysis as a depth psychology, can transcend political/ideological considerations in respect of the justice or otherwise of a cause, or moral opprobrium over the tactics employed. Arguing that the context of every conflict is historically unique and using the notions of national identity and the intergenerational transmission of guilt, the analysis demonstrates that the psychic position of the individual terrorist is not necessarily pathological.

 

 

Author Biography

Barry Geoghegan Geoghegan, Middlesex University

PhD student at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Research,

Middlesex University

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Published

2016-05-17

Issue

Section

Articles