Language and collective identity

Wittgenstein famously proposed that language constitutes, rather than merely reflects, reality. We consider identity to be a dynamic, lifelong process shaped by both inherited factors and subjective choice. Collective identity emerges from a shared, unconscious matrix of values, fantasies and affects, with language functioning as a key organiser of belonging. In the current climate of social and political polarisation, language plays a central role in many identity-based conflicts. We examine several international cases in which linguistic tensions are indicative of cultural and historical divisions. Particular focus is given to the Basque Country, a region characterised by chronic identity instability and a long-standing linguistic divide. Through the lens of psychoanalytic theory, drawing on Freud's proposals and later contemporary contributions, we explore how language functions as a medium of representation, as well as a psychic container and scene of internal conflict. In contexts of collective crisis, the idealisation of a lost, “original” language often reflects a regressive drive toward a fantasised unity with the maternal imago and the Lacanian register of the Imaginary. The distinction between the “own” and the “alien” tongue becomes a site of projective identification and defensive structuring, aiming to restore coherence through a return to a mythical past.