Territorial Phantom Pains

The chapter focuses on the question of territorial loss and explores what happens when a mismatch intervenes between the physical, geographical extent of the nation and the mental map held by its inhabitants. The chapter argues that lost territories, no longer included within the national body, remain nonetheless part of a previous national incarnation and elicit an affective force resembling phantom pains. Bringing into play recent insights from neuroscience, the chapter examines the commonalities between phantom pains and nostalgic longings for lost territory. Through this lens are also unpacked the geopolitical notions of buffer and backyard, and the idea of prosthetic territory—a phantasmatic extension of the national self where dreams and aspirations are mobilized, deployed, and (re)animated—is introduced.