Jean-Jacques Pluchart
The day of 17 October was marked by the behaviour of “savage hordes” who attacked the law enforcement officers and destroyed public buildings and shops. The day was described as “historic” and was the subject of numerous comments in France and abroad, from political leaders and economic experts, but also sociologists and psychologists. The Psychanalyse et Management Institute noted, in particular, that the analysis of the impacts of this event on collective psychology required a thorough understanding of the concepts of catharsis and repression, as well as certain fundamental notions of Freudian psychoanalysis. Only an analysis of the root causes of the phenomenon will make it possible to judge the more or less creative nature of the destruction.
The disturbances of 17 October reflect, according to most observers, the catharsis of a minority of “thugs” and “looters” who cannot control their anger and manage their emotions in the face of deadlocked situations and/or an oppressive system that they consider unjust and which can only be rectified through forms of verbal and physical violence, but also creatively, through radical reforms or liberating utopias. Ventilation can have positive effects when it calms conflicts and opens up social dialogue, but more often, it only serves to fuel tensions, especially when the venting is expressed by individuals who are susceptible to mimetic contagion (to the bandwagon effects of contagion and impunity of anonymity encouraged by crowds). In this case, the venting of frustration is the enduring expression of influences of various kinds, of various kinds, combined according to the personalities and the family and school upbringing of the individuals.
But 17 October was also marked by manifestations of repression that did not affected not just a few thousand but probably several million French people, in response to the ubiquitous media coverage of physical violence and material damage. Repression is an unconscious psychological defence mechanism unconscious psychological defence mechanism that helps to suppress thoughts, moderate emotions, to temper anxiety and/or to regulate an internal conflict. This repression reflects a particular form of anger and/or sadness on the part of the subject in the face of the impotence of a state, the failure of an institution, the failure of a system, but above all, to the physical inability and/or the quasi-legal prohibition on confronting an attack, or else suffering the humiliation of fleeing or going into exile. This repression is all the more profound and long-lasting when it is combined with the feeling of guilt at being indirectly responsible for the events, through negligence of their warning signs, by failing to foresee their effects and failing to prepare their solutions. Repression has a protective function in the short term, but it gives rise to long-lasting internal conflicts the psychological effects of which are still partly unknown.
The combination of these manifestations of catharsis and repression has effects on social life and on economic activity. While the venting of some people has measurable consequences for public finances, insurers’ balance sheets and retailers’ accounts, the repression of millions of citizens has consequences that are more difficult to discern in the medium and long term on productive activities, on saving behaviour and/or on economic patriotism. Only by measuring these disruptive effects economic and societal disruption will make it possible to judge the more or less historical significance of 17 October.