The Oncoming Psychotic Age in Globalizing Nepal

Nepal will soon enter a psychotic age as it globalizes, and as it enters a new phase of geopolitics. So far, Nepal, although exhibiting disorganization, does not exhibit signs of psychosis, such as collective delusions of grandeur, collective paranoia, a kind of disorganization/confusion in its interactions and relationships with other powers, and complete, self-destructive isolation. This has to do with a particular type of relation Nepal maintains with the outside world: this relation was confined to a relation with Western powers that were stronger, powers that in very real ways served as a paternal metaphor for weak nations. For instance, World Wars were fought between powerful nations only, as if to suggest that a paternal nation was protecting its child--its territory was considered its child. Also, colonial territories were considered the “sons and daughters” of the superpowers. 

In Lacanian terms, the subject's recognition of a paternal metaphor is what ultimately causes the subject to resist psychosis, meaning that as long as the subject recognizes a father figure, there is no psychosis. In psychosis, Lacanians consider that the “Name of the Father” is “foreclosed,” meaning that this ordering and organizing metaphoric "Name" of the father is unavailable to the psychotic subject. Without this authority, this strong name of the father, the psychotic does not enter the symbolic order at all and therefore exhibits the symptoms of psychosis.  

We are getting close, today in Nepal, to a situation where the paternal metaphor will be foreclosed for the generations to come, with the result being psychosis. The main reason for this foreclosure is that in globalization, Nepal is no longer seen as a “son or daughter” by the Western superpowers, but rather, it is seen as an equal, where it is genuinely expected that Nepal will significantly contribute to the global capitalist system. For instance, Information Technology firms may export work to Nepal, not only because hiring is cheap here, but also because they have seriously found work conditions to be similar to that of the West and a level of maturity in Nepali self-governance and self-management. Thus, Nepal will enter global capitalism as a contributor, as productive; not as a sheltered, protected territory, but as an active force in managing and creating global flows. Hence, the West will consider Nepal as a (sexual) partner, rather than as a muted child. A “sexual economy” will characterize Nepal's relationship with the West.

This sexual economy means precisely that the paternal function occupied by the Western superpower will now vanish, for in its place is the West as a “husband,” or, even more aptly for today's liberal times, a “boyfriend.” The paternal metaphor, so vital in maintaining order through authority, will give way to a figure who is far more liberal, but also volatile, prone to getting anxious and angry...in a sense the relationship between two immature equals will develop. And as soon as the paternal metaphor is absent from the picture, the end result will be a kind of (social) psychosis...paranoiac relations between social organizations and an overwhelming media commenting on every act of every individual could be some of the things that will structure Nepali society in its psychotic age.

From Nepal's side, Nepal's anti-authority radical left has been responsible in its movement towards the psychosis-inducing sexual economy model among its own subjects and for "Nepal" as a symbolic entity in geopolitics. The radical left is generally concerned with a “post-Oedipal” movement in subjects, and the desired goal for moving beyond the Oedipal conflict (“sex with parent”) is moving towards a sexual economy (“partnership with equal”). It may be that the radical left subscribe to the idea that psychosis is a kind of 'liberation' from the authority of the paternal-West, and their violence in Nepali space may be motivated by the explosive removal of objects that signify a paternal-Western order. Through the removal of the signs of a paternal-West, Nepali subjects of the future will not come to know paternal authority and thereby become psychotic. 

Even in being labeled "terrorists" by the West, the radical left has made progress: by being considered a “threat” instead of a nuisance or an irritation, the West is showing that Nepali political organizations are now to be dealt with as if they were more mature, and that they should be seen as adult rivals instead of as children. Lacan's famous formula that “there is no sexual relation” can be interpreted as meaning that there is no loving relation between the partners, but there is a kind of rivalry; the compatibility of love and sexual relation is a myth. But where the West seeks a balance between authority and liberal agendas through the "husband" function ("husband" suggesting both governmental authority and sexual liberation), the continuous destruction of paternal-Western objects in Nepali space will cause psychosis (including a very real increase in the number of psychotics) soon. This is indeed a threat to Nepal's very existence, its very name, as a symbolic, sovereign territory. Either it will break up (become disorganized) or it will be consumed, in either case, in the place of "Nepal" will be something else.