Immagini del conflitto e paranoia politica nel Leviatano di Thomas Hobbes

The following essay aims to evaluate the hypothesis that Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan elaborates a political system grounded on a number of paranoid processes, in which “otherness” is imagined as a perennially conflicting event, both in the “state of nature” (as a constant danger of war) and in the political society (as fear of the absolute power of the sovereign). After having outlined the two analytical categories of the "paranoia of power" and the “power of paranoia”, the concept of “collective imaginary” will be clarified in its specific meaning. Some key elements of the text will then be examined (“imagination”, “otherness”, “enemy”, “sovereignty”). Therefore, on the basis of an exact evaluation of the relationship between desire and reason, the opposite reading of a political construction outlined on completely anti-paranoid bases will be proposed.