The War of Vladimir. Nationalism, Narcissism, and Childhood Battles

The war in Ukraine has had enormous media coverage in the West, generating a wide-ranging debate concerning its origins, responsibilities, and consequences. The debate in the media raises an interesting question seldom explored in the study of nations and nationalism, specifically, the scarce incidence or penetration by expert knowledge into the theories of common sense and profane knowledge. In fact, despite the current consolidation in the scientific literature of the constructionist and modernist paradigm – of a sociological nature – other visions and interpretations of the past continue to be widely accepted and popularized beyond academia. This article analyzes the weight and influence of psychology, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis in the social representation of nationalism. The persistence of psychopathological language in the profane interpretation of the conflict is explored using the discourse of the press and, in particular, the opinion columns published in various Western countries during the first weeks of the war. The article shows that the criticism and denunciation of nationalism are still being formulated nowadays with the voices of psychology and psychiatry, the psychodynamic vision of the authoritarian, and the vulgarized portrayal of Adolf Hitler.