The nuclear bomb: a concretization and erotization of power

This article contends that the nuclear bomb is the concrete representation of an archaic idealizing system. It uses concepts published by Atwood and Stolorow (1984) to demonstrate how the bomb is no protection at all to our national defense; rather it compensates for empty or poorly developed psychological structure and function of individual and group. The continued proliferation of the bomb--some 70,000 at last count--despite the knowledge that just a few can obliterate our world is testimonial to the need for a concrete and visible mound of weapons. Since this need can never be satisfied by these means, there can never be enough bombs to be sufficient. The article extends the concept of this faulty or absent development of psychological structure to the weakening or loss of primary affiliative bonding between individuals and groups, which has psychohistorical roots. Three historical developments intertwine and reinforce one another: (1) the isolation of national defense to weapons and war; (2) the evolution of a modern science based on a duality between body (affects) and mind (cognition) and contributing to sexual polarization, in which masculinity has been identified with valued objectivity and femininity has been identified with devalued affiliative affects; (3) the equation of sex and aggression with power and their use as substitutes for derailed development of affiliative needs and functions.