The Return of the (foreclosed) Truth – Considerations on German Right-Wing Terror

Authors

  • Lutz Goetzmann University of Zurich

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i81-82.386

Keywords:

racism, terror, return of the truth, foreclosure, primitive acting

Abstract

On 19February 2020 right-wing extremist Tobias R. murdered nine people with migrant backgrounds before killing his mother and himself. Previously, he published a manifesto in which he expressed extreme right-wing attitudes and ideas of persecution. Based on this manifesto I argue the following: Tobias R.`s act of terror is a "return of the truth” that really had been foreclosed. These violent acts were his ultimate line of defense against personal agony. The perpetrator developed various lines of defense which led from triadic symbolization, already interwoven with psychotic traces, to the projection of affects onto political ideologies. Racist ideas served as “ideology containers”, which absorbed primary affects and reproduced them as prefabricated “hate speeches”. His third line of defense consisted of killing people in order to ban or neutralize the “return of the foreclosed”.

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Published

2021-05-10

How to Cite

Goetzmann, L. (2021). The Return of the (foreclosed) Truth – Considerations on German Right-Wing Terror. Free Associations, (81-82), 94–105. https://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i81-82.386

Issue

No. 81-82 (2021)

Section

Treats and Treatments

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