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term whose meaning has transcended his imaginative literature and applies to real-life situationsthat are incomprehensible, complex and traumatic to individuals unfamiliar with the law. Worksof trauma have a duty to tell and to direct us toward the future. Although Kafka’s The Trialrepresents an inquisitorial system of law, his tale can also be applied to those embroiled in theadversarial system. As an attorney, I will focus on the Kafkaesque in real-life legal experienceswhere individuals often are trapped inside an obtuse world of mirrors seemingly beyond theircontrol. Kafka’s fictionalization of trauma in The Trial foreshadows the trauma of realindividuals standing before the law, engulfed by the fear and hopelessness of being mired insidemyriad unknown and unrecognizable legal mazes, their lives forever changed with the trauma oftheir experiences living on in their psyches.Politics and Religion: Sources of Neurosis in a County’s National PsycheJohn O. Ifediora, University of Wisconsin at Platteville (ifedora@uwplatt.edu)In all nations, the quality and relevance of countervailing social institutions matter. That this isthe case is particularly of import since institutions are rules that govern individual and collectivebehavior in any society. In this regard reference is here made to primary and enabling rules andobservances that inform and guide conduct; specifically religious, political and economicinstitutions. In nations where these social institutions have evolved to the point where individualrights and freedom of choice are accorded universal cognizance with appropriate checks andprotection, the polity is reasonably well-adjusted. Under this state of affairs, malfunctions in anyof the constituent institutions are unlikely to have lasting effects, and minimal correctivemeasures are needed to restore normalcy; this sentiment enjoys durable currency. In advanceddemocracies such as the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and the United States, abnormalitiesare generally reflections of discontent, and may pose no serious danger to established norms,unless left unattended. It is thus presumed that advanced democracies have built-in mechanismsthat inexorably return them to long-run equilibrium in the event of temporary malfunctions inany of their institutions. Events within the last decade, however, have made this presumption lessserviceable. In this paper, I propound that malfunctions in religious and political institutions arealways and everywhere responsible for all forms of societal neurosis that inflict a nation’s psychein times of stress and uncertainty. That individuals, in extreme cases, are willing to kill theinnocent in order to advance religious and political goals attests to the potency of deranged andmalfunctioning institutions that guide and inform collective action. Suicide bombers readilycome to mind – but whether society acknowledges it or not, these suicide bombers, once wellfunctioningmembers of society, were mentally deranged. No well-adjusted and healthy personwants to die; only the neurotic chooses to die. And to a large extent, they are victims of distortedreligious and political institutions that cut across nations at various stages of socio-politicaldevelopment. My research highlights this growing epidemic in Nigeria, and grapples withsolutions.230