Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms
<p>How do individuals navigate international politics and mitigate the anxieties it elicits in the everyday? Giddensian literature on ontological security suggests that (collective) internalized routines and narratives provide a sense of certainty and stability that enable individuals to &...
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2024
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| _version_ | 1811139216075128832 |
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| author | Houde, A-M |
| author_facet | Houde, A-M |
| author_sort | Houde, A-M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>How do individuals navigate international politics and mitigate the anxieties it elicits in the everyday? Giddensian literature on ontological security suggests that (collective) internalized routines and narratives provide a sense of certainty and stability that enable individuals to “go on” with their daily lives. This article adopts a Kleinian psychoanalytical approach to show that when faced with anxiety about their internalized narratives being ruptured, individuals do not <em>necessarily</em>, as Giddens suggests, fall into “chaos.” Rather, they rely on psychodynamic defense mechanisms such as denial and idealization to protect their sense of self and, by extension, maintain a sense of ontological security. The article investigates everyday practices of how people cope with anxiety related to international politics. It focuses on the case of the European Union by analyzing the reactions to political cartoons of participants from eighteen focus groups conducted in Belgium, France, and Italy. The findings provide, in turn, a deeper understanding of individuals’ everyday defense mechanisms in response to threats to collective narratives of being and belonging. The article thereby advances our theoretical and empirical knowledge of how international politics can affect individuals’ everyday life and sense of self as well as shape political behavior and attitudes.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:02:33Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:e29186d5-51f1-48fd-b90b-e68622253bf7 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:02:33Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:e29186d5-51f1-48fd-b90b-e68622253bf72024-04-25T14:04:20ZNavigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanismsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:e29186d5-51f1-48fd-b90b-e68622253bf7EnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2024Houde, A-M<p>How do individuals navigate international politics and mitigate the anxieties it elicits in the everyday? Giddensian literature on ontological security suggests that (collective) internalized routines and narratives provide a sense of certainty and stability that enable individuals to “go on” with their daily lives. This article adopts a Kleinian psychoanalytical approach to show that when faced with anxiety about their internalized narratives being ruptured, individuals do not <em>necessarily</em>, as Giddens suggests, fall into “chaos.” Rather, they rely on psychodynamic defense mechanisms such as denial and idealization to protect their sense of self and, by extension, maintain a sense of ontological security. The article investigates everyday practices of how people cope with anxiety related to international politics. It focuses on the case of the European Union by analyzing the reactions to political cartoons of participants from eighteen focus groups conducted in Belgium, France, and Italy. The findings provide, in turn, a deeper understanding of individuals’ everyday defense mechanisms in response to threats to collective narratives of being and belonging. The article thereby advances our theoretical and empirical knowledge of how international politics can affect individuals’ everyday life and sense of self as well as shape political behavior and attitudes.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Houde, A-M Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title | Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title_full | Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title_fullStr | Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title_full_unstemmed | Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title_short | Navigating anxiety: international politics, identity narratives, and everyday defense mechanisms |
| title_sort | navigating anxiety international politics identity narratives and everyday defense mechanisms |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT houdeam navigatinganxietyinternationalpoliticsidentitynarrativesandeverydaydefensemechanisms |