It is not difficult to look back upon the Twentieth Century and to characterize many historical events and episodes as massively destructive and "sick." However, our human reaction has not been matched by a systematic effort to conceptualize the behavior of societal groups as forms of psychopathology.

We shy away from saying that pathology may be embedded within the normative structures of society; to articulate a concept of collective psychopathology.

We aren’t accustomed to saying that life as usual—ordinary cultural and political existence--is pathological. We shy away from conceiving of the "normal" historical process as a vast arena in which extraordinary forms of psychopathology occur.

Shared fantasies produce psychic pathologies which, however, are not recognized as psychopathology because everyone shares or buys into them. Leaders put forth psychotic fantasies and these come to define or construct everyday social reality.

The fantasies that define politics are articulated as the ordinary structures of society, in symbolic constructs such as “the nation,” “protecting the nation,” “the enemy,” “rescuing the nation,” etc.  Psychotic political ideas are embedded within normal ideological and institutional structures.