It is only war that keeps the corporate body from disintegrating; the integrated body is a body at war with itself. Norman writes: "There is only one psyche, in relation to which all conflict is endopsychic, all war intestine. The external enemy is (part of) ourselves, projected; our own badness, banished. The only defense against an internal danger is to make it an external danger; then we can fight it; and are ready to fight it, since we have succeeded in deceiving ourselves into thinking it is no longer us." Love's Body. 162.

The conflict is all in the family, a conflict between genders and between generations. The genital organization of the body is the body as organized conflict. The corporate body disintegrates when the conflict ends. I believe it was William James who once said, "Society would rot without war." Politics is civilized warfare; the physician does not cure disease, but rather maintains it as long as humanly possible. Politicians do not want to resolve the conflict; they live on it.

Does anybody really want the conflict to end?