The American Psychiatric Association describes Obsessive/Compulsory disorder as a clinical case “in which people have recurring, unwanted thoughts, ideas or sensations (obsessions).” To get rid of the fear and anxiety they feel “driven” to do something repetitive (compulsion) (APA. “What is Obsessive/Compulsory Disorder?). I have been observing the behavior of Algerian leaders and power élite for decades but what I have noticed over the last decade are disturbing cases of collective hysterical obsession with everything that is Moroccan, a case which requires due attention from psychologists and psychiatrist alike.
Other observers have noticed the rise of the same phenomenon. Tamba François Koundouno calls it a paranoia: stressing the banality of Algeria’s Moroccan obsession. He explains that “the festival of hyperboles, pseudo-facts, and cooked data one often encounters on Algerian outlets’ coverage of Morocco and the Sahara issue gives the impression of a country stuck in a quagmire of its own making and now frantically looking for an emotional balm or any cheap rallying cry” (“Morocco World News, March 2021).
Is it paranoia or obsession? I think it is both: paranoia being the feeling of being threatened even when there is no evidence of such a threat, it is in at the source of the fear and anxiety that create the obsession. In Algeria, the regime is paranoiac about Morocco, hence its obsession with everything that is Moroccan, which reinforces the feeling of threat itself…An infernal circle of fear, obsession, paranoia and the feeling of threat.
But two other terms further explain the constant Algerian ruling élite’s election of Morocco to a source of envy, hate, repressed love, fear, and anxiety: namely, hysteria and fetishization. « Hysteria is a term often used to describe emotionally charged behavior that seems excessive and out of control » (VeryWell Mind, «What is Hysteria? », March 2022).
The Algerian journalist Akram Belkaid, in an article published in le Quotidian d’Oran and Le Courrier International spoke of collective hysteria in Algeria in the wake of the controversy following the airing of Mustapha Kessous’s documentary film, Algérie, mon amour, on the French channel France 5 (“Après la diffusion d’“Algérie, mon amour” : “Tant d’hystérie ne peut qu’interpeller” 29 Mai, 2020). Maybe Belkaid does not have in mind the psychiatric sense of hysteria but the association is there and it is significant.
Fetishistic disorder is the result of the intense focus on an object (in this case Morocco) that causes enormous distress and functional impairment (George D. Brown, “Fetishistic Disorder”, MSD Manual, 2021-2022). For the Algerian élite and its manufacturers of public opinion ideas, everything bad that happens in Algeria comes from Morocco, Algeria could have been greater had it not been to Morocco, and Morocco’s successes are due to some malevolent forces at work and not to the hard work and resourcefulness of Moroccans.
Morocco is Algeria’s Eternal Fetish.
The challenge with psychiatry, psychoanalysis and psychology is that they deal with the individual but not with a group, in this case an oligarchy, an élite and the influencers it mobilizes to express the hate rhetoric, the fake news and the obsessional drives with regard to things Moroccan. Gustave Le Bon, more than a hundred and forty years ago talked of how individuals put together will resort to behaviors they would not consider when alone (« La psychologie des foules, 1885). Not only that, but the phenomenon could be exploited for political reasons. Less than fifty years after the publication of Le Bon’s book, the Nazis used the same tactics to mobilize hordes to claim their racial superiority, exterminate the Jews and fight imaginary enemies in Europe and elsewhere.
It is not difficult to create collective paranoia, hysteria and obsession. The Algerian case is worth studying to understand how a great part of public opinion has been mobilised to think of Morocco as the arch-enemy, the scapegoat, the evil-monger, the conspirator, the-reason-why-Algeria-has-problems, the super-intelligent and nerdy overdoer, the dissembler, the one-who-has-everything-we-want-but-we-cannot-admit-it, the-great-actor-who-makes-the-world-believe-that-it-is-successful-while-it-is-not, the drug dealer, the Jew-lover, the poor, the pimp for foreign tourists, name it…
The paradoxes are galore. But like in any clinical case, the paradoxes are entry points for analysts to find the cure. Algeria feels it could be great but is frustrated because bureaucracy, corruption, military overreach, rent economy, subsidies, social malaise, political repression, primitive nationalism, and the traumas associated with colonialism—all of these elements thwart its development and success. Instead of facing these problems with courage and abnegation, it is easier to elect a foreign foe, always ready to undermine Algerian greatness. That has been going on for decades. What is disturbing lately, is that this foe and its imaginary threats have become a national obsession, and the reactions a collective hysteria. Very disturbing developments that could become dangerous for the stability of the North African country and its relations with its neighbors.