It's a psychosomatic phenomenon: the idea of the nation--the FANTASY of a nation as an object representation--gets into the body of a human being. The nation becomes an internalized object, an introject that is simultaneously supportive and malignant.

 The "body politic" (the fantasy of an omnipotent body) comes to be experienced as if contained within the self (an omnipotent object within the self). Obedience is based on the fact that the individual cannot resist or escape the body politic that has become part of the self. The fantasy of an omnipotent body (the mental representation of a nation) comes to be experienced as if contained within the fibre of the individual's being.