Genocide: An Overlooked Basic Assumption

Abstract

Abstract:Despite a voluminous literature on the Holocaust, following the discovery of mass murders, there was an absence of psychoanalytic investigation of “killing groups” or how they functioned. In its place, Pick describes how psychoanalytic theories retreated to theorize about superego development in children. So-called sanctioned violence offers no viable solution to the avoidance of studying violence or perpetrators. Destructive violence is justified by ideologies both before and after the violent events. The nature of Nazi group regression is explored as killing groups remain visible in society.