The idea, one’s “nation,” is a projection of the idea of one’s self: a narcissistic, grandiose double of the self that one imagines will “live on.” People split off part of themselves and identify with this "third dimension:" the domain of “culture” imagined to constitutes a form of reality separate from concrete existence. This  primal fantasy everyone shares: the idea of a symbolic realm independent of the people who create and embrace it.

Unlike one's own body, the body of culture does not seem subject to disintegration or decay. It keeps on keepin’ on. To project one's self into this "higher level" is to identify with a dream of self-perpetuation: belief that existence is contained within “representations.” Though individuals die, this symbolic domain seems eternal; ever-lasting.

To free the self for concrete existence requires "splitting” from the omnipotent body called culture. This is equivalent to coming back (down) to earth. It’s the "unkindest cut of all:” the deepest trauma: separation from the symbolic domain; separation bringing recognition of one’s smallness and finiteness. When one realizes one is not bound to a body politic, one returns to one’s actual body: the frail self--living within concrete existence.

Lacan proclaimed, “There is no other but the Other,” implying that if you are not bound to the symbolic order (the “Great Other”) you don’t exist. Hitler made a similar claim: “You are nothing, your nation is everything.” It’s difficult to experience existence in separation from the omnipotent realm. Disconnection from the omnipotent system requires a capacity to tolerate shrinkage: a humiliating defeat.

Contraction means lopping off the symbolic world of culture; letting go of objects with which the self-had become identified; coming to know thy self in the absence of connection with the “Other.” This seems to be a sin: to acknowledge that one is disconnected, an individual; that you don’t share the fantasies that unite members of a culture.

As one lops off omnipotent identifications, one becomes smaller. One contracts into one’s frail body. One no longer is secure in the knowledge that one is united with omnipotent objects that seem to exist “out there.” The “return to the body” occurs when “grand narratives” begin to shatter; lose their grip upon the self. At first, this produces panic; hysteria.