chapter 40
...................................................................................................................................................PARANOIA AND
POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
...................................................................................................................................................james m. glass
1 Paranoia as a Marker for Theory
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Thinking psycho-dynamically about political concepts raises the larger issue
of the relation between political theory, as a mode of organizing the public,
and defenses within the self, modes of organizing or protecting the inner or
private self. Hannah Arendt ( 1958 ) and others have argued that such corres-
pondences do not exist; to see a connection is to mystify the public space,
distort motive and intention, and posit a false link between unconscious
dynamics and actions in the public. However, in opposition to this view,
I would suggest that internal psychological conXict aVects political reality
through the force of belief systems. And belief derives from the complex
interplay between the structuralization, or its lack, of the inner self, its
aVective and developmental foundations, and what the external world pro-
duces as data and sensation. While it is an oversimpliWcation to suggest that
the internal life completely patterns external reality, internal psychological