Psychology and social identity

Abstract

Turkish society was formed from the remnants of a disintegrating empire, the body of a sick man. The Kemalists intended to bind together the disparate elements of society that were divided by ethnic, religious, and sectarian differences, as well as, and to a lesser degree, by class. It was no coincidence that, in the name of social integration, the Kemalists invested radically in the corporatist ideology-the idea of society as a body with organs that require one another. The vision of society as a body with harmoniously functioning organs was the opposite of the image of the sick body, and it became the transcendental object of the republican ideology. For the official ideology, anything outside of 'the inseparability of the state from its land and its nation' was insufficient. Society was formed -or rather deformed-as the object of a corporatist-fascist ideology's fantasy, the motto of which was 'a unified mass with no class or concessions.' This was a fetish for unity and integrity. In its work of holding together the disparate parts of society, the corporatist ideology identifies those elements that are detrimental to social organization and produces new enemies and enmities.