Abstract This article is a critique, first, of the theory of identityadvanced by Judith Butler and many of the feminist critics of identitypolitics, and, second, of identity politics itself. I argue that Butler’srejection of the modernist subject for its opposite, the fictional,substanceless subject, is untenable. Looking to object relations theory, Iargue instead for a concept of the subject as an ungrounded ground,occupying a middle ground between the postmodern and the modernsubject. With regard to identity politics I argue that instead ofpopulating the political realm with multiple identities, we shouldinstead remove identity entirely from the political realm.