In the psychoanalysis of Brexit, we confront a suicidal patient. The question must then be asked: What is the rationale behind this compulsion to self- harm? Just as a body is comprised of multiple cells and systems, a country is organized in a similar way. When the body elects to suicide it is, in many ways, a democratic decision: Various subsystems make the calculation that things cannot go on as they are, and it is preferential to destroy the organism than for the pain to continue. When a country decides to suicide, such is the case with Brexit, a similar process is underway.

Whether Brexit is, ideologically, a good or bad idea is irrelevant to the undertaking of national suicide in the UK. The most casual observer can see that the theatrical performance in which the UK claimed it was leaving the European Union (EU) was never a collective attempt to either leave or remain in the union: This would require strategic planning and building of infrastructure. None of this has taken place. Instead we have witnessed an act of slow suicide.

The question of whether to remain in the EU or not was irrelevant throughout the process. It has served merely as a pretext for the eventual suicide. Brexit was simply a convenient framework in which to perform this act of self harm.

How a nation commits suicide

Humans who are suicidal may choose a high-bridge, a bathtub, or a garage. Countries choose larger arenas, so that all can participate in their own way. The UK chose something they call ‘Brexit’.

Just as an alcoholic repressing their trauma has no interest in alcohol beyond its function as a means to an end (destruction of the organism), Brexit has no function other than the means by which Britain has chosen to suicide. It is the means by which the UK has chosen to express its systemic understanding it must ‘die’ rather than contain more pain.

The question then is: What pain is the UK repressing that is so unfathomable that suicide (massive self-destruction of the country) is a rational alternative?

Why is the UK destroying itself?

The answers are manifold: We could begin with the endemic ongoing, and historical, rape of children by members of the UK government and aristocracy. We could move onto the BBC, who enabled the rape and abuse of over a thousand children in its own broadcasting buildings. We could explore the collusion between power and the media to concoct such brutal fantasies as Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. And we could finish by considering the Monarchy — that overarching symbol of wealth hoarding and oppression whose post-colonial blood-drenched claws still wrap sordidly around the constitutional neck of the country.

In short: On a deep, psychological level, the UK knows it must stop institutionally raping children and bombing foreign nations, but has struggled to find a means by which to stop itself. Now, however, the pain is too great, and a suitable method has occurred to it: Brexit.

A suicidal individual, often, has made a rational decision (though it may not seem this way). The decision is: This pain is greater than my body’s capacity to contain it. So too has the UK made a rational decision: Corruption, the abuse of children, and the ghosts of genocides past can no longer be carried in private. I can’t go on like this.

We have watched the UK’s last 1000 days of pontification and ruse, as we might watch a suicidal man drawing a hot bath in which he intends to slit his wrists. With a man, we could stop him; we could intervene; seek the cause of his pain and soothe him. But with a country, there is no such possibility. It is as an elephant; or a huge granite ball tumbling down a hill. It cannot be stopped once it has begun.

The bath water is near to full, and the UK intends to step in.

So much theatre and pomp has been involved in drawing this hot bath in which the UK’s national termination will occur, that to not go through with it now may seem like a profound loss of face worse than the suicide itself. And so, the UK grimly steps into the tub, waving a Union Jack flag and singing “God Save the Queen”, then quietly slits its wrists.

Suicide is an expression of overwhelming pain

There is a certain ritualistic aspect to the theatrical performance of Brexit because, as with most suicides, there is an underlying message struggling to be communicated. The message is: Please help me; please stop me; I am overwhelmed.

But the UK cannot be helped. Perhaps in a way, it must die. Nobody wept over Hitler’s suicide — or so we hope. Few of us will weep over the collapse of the UK.

For those, like the UK, who have abused children, exploited nations, and subjugated races on such a vast scale, self-termination is a fitting end. The country’s disgusting past of exploitation and cowardice has led it here, to the end of the road. To a lonely hotel room and its requisite bathtub.

People may ask of the UK, “How did he die?"
And the answer will be, “Alone. He cut his wrists with a Brexit.”

IMPORTANT NOTE

I have experienced suicidal thoughts and intentions in my life. They originated on account of childhood sexual abuse that I was subjected to by many institutions in the UK. Millions of other children have been abused too. If you are struggling with similar thoughts, be strong and find support. I send you love. The oppressor’s systems are collapsing.