Of Mind and Murder: Toward a More Comprehensive Psychology of the Holocaust
George R. Mastroianni
Abstract
How could the Holocaust have happened? How could people do such things to other people? Were all or most of the perpetrators insane? Are psychologically normal people capable of committing such unspeakable violence? Were Germans willing participants in the genocidal enterprise, or were they mainly influenced by evil leaders? Is the potential for genocidal behavior universal—could something like the Holocaust happen anywhere, anytime? Such questions have motivated much discussion of the Holocaust, and psychologists have been contributing to the discussion from the very beginning. Of Mind and Mu ... More
How could the Holocaust have happened? How could people do such things to other people? Were all or most of the perpetrators insane? Are psychologically normal people capable of committing such unspeakable violence? Were Germans willing participants in the genocidal enterprise, or were they mainly influenced by evil leaders? Is the potential for genocidal behavior universal—could something like the Holocaust happen anywhere, anytime? Such questions have motivated much discussion of the Holocaust, and psychologists have been contributing to the discussion from the very beginning. Of Mind and Murder provides a brief reminder as to what the Holocaust was, and it offers a detailed look at the major approaches taken by psychologists in their attempts to explain the behavior of those caught up in the Holocaust. Of Mind and Murder also suggests some new ways of thinking psychologically about the Holocaust and argues for renewed interest in some old approaches.
Keywords:
Holocaust,
psychology,
Germans,
genocide,
violence
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2018 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190638238 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2018 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780190638238.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
George R. Mastroianni, author
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, US Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado
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