Thatcher, Politics and Fantasy

Nunn argues that our unconscious desires and fantasies play an important part in the symbolic identifications that are crucial in modern politics. Thatcher's positioning in relation to images of social chaos and violent unrest thus rehearsed a range of aggressive and submissive fantasy scenarios in which she or her loyal subjects faced a host of malefactors, oppressive state structures, or potential emasculating dependencies. Nunn also explores the idea of Thatcher as a "cultural super-ego", as a way of understanding how Thatcher's imaginary power was consolidated through an ambivalent laying bare of illegitimate violence, and a counter-investment in the violence of the state and the law. She suggests that in examining Thatcher's extreme persona one can start to consider the violence and aggression that underpin the modern British nation.