Main description:

A Group Analytic Approach to Understanding Mass Violence makes an analytic examination of the enactment of genocide by Nazi Germany during World War II to explore how mass and state-sponsored violence can arise within societies and how the false beliefs that are used to justify such actions are propagated within society. Bennett Roth makes use of Bion's concept of 'Hallucinosis' to describe the formation of false group beliefs that lead to murderous violence.

Drawing on both group analysis and psychoanalysis, Roth explores in relation to genocide:

how people form and identify with groups

the role of family groups

how conflict can arise and be managed

how violence can arise and be justified by false beliefs

how we can best understand these dysfunctional group dynamics to avoid such violence.

A Group Analytic Approach to Understanding Mass Violence will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and group analysts seeking to understand the role of false beliefs in their patients and society more generally. It will also be of interest to students and scholars of Holocaust studies programs or anyone seeking to understand the perpetration of genocide in the past and present.

Contents:

Introduction Chapter 1: The problems with Freud's Group Theory Chapter 2: The Role of Non-Kin Cooperation, Weapons that Kill at a Distance and Shared Beliefs in Group Formation Chapter 3: A New evolutionary Basis of Group Development Chapter 4: War Group Development and the Nazi Path to Violence Chapter 5: The Nazi Platform of Group Hallucinosis Chapter 6: Hallucinosis and Perversions Chapter 7: The Historical range of Mass Murder Chapter 8: Summary and the Imaginary Nation Chapter 9: Addenda; Bibliography; Appendix A: Himmler's Speech at Poznan; Appendix B: Friedrich Jecklen; Appendix C: The Kovno Massacre; Appendix D: EinsatzGruppen