@article{AbdelMalek, author = {Abdel-Malek, Hana Salaam}, title = {Hezbollah: Lebanon's identified patient?}, series = {International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 31 (No. 1, 2022), pp. 046-056.}, journal = {International Forum of Psychoanalysis, Vol. 31 (No. 1, 2022), pp. 046-056.}, abstract = {In this article, I interpret Hezbollah's birth and role in Lebanon's sociopolitical life from a group and family psychoanalytic perspective. In particular, I examine whether Hezbollah, as one of Lebanon's >children,< can be seen as the >designated patient< and >symptom< of its large family, nation-state >incestual< dynamics and complicated separation and individuation process. As a designated patient, Hezbollah performs the double-sided function of gluing its fragmented nation-state together while carrying the weight of being its breaking force. In this logic, Hezbollah's paradoxical role in the Lebanese nation-state family would be similar to that of a >scapegoat/Messiah,< who carries both the family's incestual dynamics and internal tensions and its hope for a solid and cohesive nation-state identity. To build a cohesive nation-state identity, Hezbollah's ideology acts as a prosthesis for Lebanon's narcissistic fragility, which replenishes the narcissistic hemorrhage of its perforated bodily and psychic envelopes. I also reflect on whether a national mediation process informed by a group psychoanalytic approach could help Lebanon constitute a more functional ego-nation-state and thus renounce the need for a designated patient. Hezbollah would be better capable of giving up its pathological ideological position.}, language = {en} }