The Hamas massacre of Oct 7, 2023, and its aftermath, medical crimes, and the Lancet commission report on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust.

BACKGROUND: The report of the Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, released in November 2023, calls for this history to be required for all health professions education, to foster morally courageous health professionals who speak up when necessary. MAIN BODY: The report was released a month after Hamas' October 7 invasion of Israel, with the accompanying massacre of over 1200 people, taking of civilian hostages, and gender-based violence. These acts constitute crimes against humanity including genocide. Post-October 7, war in Gaza resulted, with a legitimate objective of Israel defending itself within international law. The authors discuss an accompanying Statement to the report condemning Hamas crimes and denouncing the perpetrators' use of their own civilians as human shields, including in healthcare facilities, and with the Hamas attack unleashing immense and ongoing suffering in Israel and beyond. With some exceptions, the medical literature shows a marked absence of condemnation of Hamas atrocities and includes unsubstantiated criticisms of Israel's military. A significant surge in global antisemitism including on university campuses since October 7, 2023, has occurred; and health professionals, according to the Commission, have a special responsibility to fight antisemitism and discrimination of all kinds. In this context, the authors discuss the controversy and criticism regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion education programs ("DEI") including such programs failing to protect Jews on campuses, especially as the U.S. President Biden's "The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism," released in May 2023, calls for the inclusion of issues of antisemitism and religious discrimination within all DEI education programs. The authors support an evidence-based approach to the Hamas massacre, its aftermath and its relevance to health professionals both within medicine and their global citizenship, including refuting the international community accusations and anti-Israel libel. CONCLUSIONS: The report of the Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust has striking relevance to the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023 and its aftermath. This is further conveyed in an accompanying Statement, that describes the report's implications for contemporary medicine, including: 1) provision of skills required to detect and prevent crimes against humanity and genocide; (2) care for victims of atrocities; (3) upholding the healing ethos central to the practice of medicine; and (4) fostering history-informed morally courageous health professionals who speak up when necessary.

el degeneracionismo al exterminio en la psiquiatría nazi. De Arthur de Gobineau y Benedict Morel a Emil Kraepelin y Ernst Rüdin / From degenerationism to extermination in nazi psychiatry. From Arthur de Gobineau and Benedict Morel to Emil Kraepelin and Ernst Rüdin

Este artículo analiza, a partir el vínculo entre psiquiatría y antropología, cómo se consolidó un discurso organicista capaz de legitimar el exterminio nazi y las políticas eugenésicas en los países democráticos. Partimos del degeneracionismo del siglo XIX y contrastamos la vertiente étnica y racial de Arthur de Gobineau con la vertiente alienista de Benedict Morel, hasta llegar a la síntesis de Cesare Lombroso. Visibilizamos el vínculo que Emil Kraepelin estableció entre la “degeneración” de los individuos y la de las razas, señalando al pueblo judío, como determinante en la consolidación científica de la Rassenhygiene en la que Adolf Hitler fundamentó su Mein Kampf. Destacamos como la justificación para “destruir la vida indigna de ser vivida”, que emergió desde el ensamblaje entre la psiquiatría y la justicia, fue determinante en la transición del III Reich entre la esterilización forzosa y el exterminio. Abordamos el Programa de Eutanasia forzosa a través del importante papel político de Ernst Rüdin, sucesor de Kraepelin y fundador de la psiquiatría genética. Concluimos que el nacionalsocialismo llevó a su máxima expresión la lógica de muerte inscrita en el degeneracionismo. Finalmente, tras una reflexión sobre las reacciones y alternativas de posguerra, destacamos la persistencia contemporánea tanto del determinismo biológico como de la desigualdad legal que marcaron el destino de las primeras víctimas del exterminio nazi.(AU)

This article analyses, from the link between psychiatry and anthropology, how an organicist discourse capable of legitimizing both, nazi extermination and eugenic policies in democratic countries, was consolidated. We depart from 19th century theory of degeneration and contrast the ethnic and racial facet of Arthur de Gobineau with the alienist facet of Benedict Morel, until reaching the synthesis of Cesare Lombroso. We highlight the link that Emil Kraepelin established between the “degeneration” of individuals and that of races, pointing out to the Jews, as determinative in the scientific consolidation of Rassenhygiene in which Adolf Hitler based its Mein Kampf. We stress the justification for “destroying life unworthy of live”, that emerged from the assemblage between psychiatry and justice, as determinant in the Third Reich transition between forced sterilization and extermination. We approach the forced Euthanasia Program through the important political role of Ernst Rüdin, Kraepelin’s successor and founder of genetic psychiatry. We conclude that National Socialism took to its maximum expression the logic of death inscribed in the theory of degeneration. Finally, after a reflection on post-war reactions and alternatives, we highlight the contemporary persistence of both biological determinism and legal inequality that marked the fate of the first victims of nazi extermination.(AU)

From the breakdown of psychiatry during nazism and the Nuremberg Code, to the materialist neuropsychological model in contemporary science and society: A bioethical analysis / De la quiebra de la psiquiatría durante el nazismo y el Código de Nüremberg al modelo neuropsicológico materialista en la ciencia y la sociedad contemporáneas: Un análisis en clave bioética

Abstract The breakdown of German psychiatry with the coming to power of the National Socialist regime in 1933 resulted in a revival after the war of bioethical issues, the immediate effect of which was the enactment of the Nuremberg Code. In many ways, this breakdown was the result of the historical evolution of psychomedical knowledge and the mass dissemination of reductionist discourses and ideas that created a breeding ground for tragedy. The cyclical discourse of psychic materialism, which has been repeated for centuries in the history of science in different formulations, can, if not properly interpreted, lead to far-reaching appropriations and risks, to which due attention must be paid. The latest manifestation of this issue, the view of mental life as basically cerebral, neurological, biochemical, and determinist, a view that has not been managed or presented adequately to the public, could become the basis for perverse new perspectives and applications in the current context of research and academic activity.

Resumen La llamada "quiebra" de la psiquiatría alemana en 1933, tras la llegada al poder del régimen nacionalsocialista, tuvo como resultado una reactivación de la cuestión bioética, cuyo efecto inmediato fue la promulgación del famoso Código de Nuremberg. En más de un sentido, tal ruptura fue el resultado del devenir histórico del conocimiento psicomédico, así como de la difusión masiva de discursos e ideas reduccionistas que terminaron por generar un caldo de cultivo propicio para la tragedia. El discurso cíclico del materialismo psíquico, que se reedita en la historia de la ciencia, en diferentes formatos y formulaciones, desde hace siglos, no bien interpretado, puede inducir apropiaciones y riesgos de largo alcance a los que se debe prestar la debida atención. Así, el último episodio de este asunto, la visión de la vida mental como vida básicamente cerebral, neurológica, bioquímica y determinista, no bien gestionado y presentado a la opinión pública, aunado a las condiciones actuales de la actividad investigadora y académica, podría convertirse en piedra angular de nuevas perspectivas y aplicaciones perversas de este asunto.

Knowledge of India as an Instrument of Nazi Politics: Ludwig Alsdorf, German Indology and Indian Anti-Colonialism.

Ludwig Alsdorf (1904-1978) is primarily remembered as a scholar of ancient and medieval India. This paper examines a little known aspect of Alsdorf's career: his role as an expert of modern India in Nazi Germany. Alsdorf, who was in India from 1930 to 1932, joined the NSDAP and a few of its subsidiaries after 1933. Political contacts as well as his claims of having "first-hand experience" of India secured Alsdorf writing assignments that aimed to fulfil the regime's political objectives. In return, he gained professional advancement and the reputation of being an authority on modern India. This paper reviews Alsdorf's trajectory within the NS state by focussing on the following aspects: the ways in which Alsdorf offered his knowledge of India to the Nazi regime; the material and symbolic resources that he received in return; the relative importance of political affiliations, professional networks and academic accomplishments for Alsdorf's career; the "politics of the past" practised by Alsdorf and some of peers after 1945; and the (re)presentation of the "uses" of Indology in the "Third Reich" and in the Federal Republic of Germany by Alsdorf and his colleagues.

Persecutee in the Third Reich, full professor in the GDR: The communist physician Carl Coutelle (1908-1993) and his post-war career as pathologist.

As an avowed communist, Carl Coutelle was one of the few (future) pathologists persecuted for purely political reasons in the Third Reich. Despite this peculiarity, his life has received little attention. The present article takes the existing research desideratum as an opportunity to elaborate on Coutelle's fate during the Nazi era, but also on his academic rise to the position of full professor at the University of Halle (GDR). The analysis is based on extensive files from various German archives. The article pursues a twofold question: On the one hand, it seems necessary to clarify how Coutelle's life between 1933 and 1945 can be characterized and classified, and on the other hand, it is of interest whether he owed his career in the GDR primarily to scientific merit or to state support. It can be shown that Coutelle's career path reflects the prevailing political power relations: With the beginning of the Third Reich, Coutelle was completely disenfranchised because of his political views; he was forced to emigrate, interrupted his nascent scientific career, and became actively involved in the international anti-fascist resistance. After the war, Coutelle became one of the protagonists of the socialist transformation and denazification of the health care system in the Soviet Occupation Zone. Now his career took the opposite course: Although his research performance was below average compared to other pathologists from the GDR, the avowed communist was appointed full professor - due to state intervention and against the declared will of the faculty in Halle.

Ethicizing history. Bioethical representations of Nazi medicine.

The article presents and analyzes different approaches of U.S. bioethicists in comprehending the Nazi medical crimes after 1945. The account is divided into two sections: one dealing with discussions on research ethics and the Nuremberg Code up until the 1970s and the other ranging from the 1970s to the present and highlighting bioethics' engagement with Nazi analogies. The portrayal of different bioethical scholars, institutions, and documents-most notably Henry K. Beecher, Jay Katz, the Belmont Report, the Hastings Center, Arthur L. Caplan, and Robert M. Veatch-provides a nuanced interpretation of the motives that bioethicists held and the strategies that they applied to establish an understanding of the Nazi medical crimes and their relation to contemporary bioethical issues. In this, the different approaches shared a common goal: To integrate the Nazi medical crimes into an ethical framework by means of selective acknowledgments and representation of their history.

Huir del nazismo: Alejandro Lipschütz y los casos de Alfons Nehring y Käte Pariser / Fleeing nazism: Alejandro Lipschütz and the cases of Alfons Nehring and Käte Pariser

Resumen Este trabajo estudia una red de acogida para científicos judíos desplazados por el nazismo a partir del archivo de Alejandro Lipschütz, fisiólogo que vivió en Chile desde 1926. A partir del contexto de la persecución antisemita y la forma en que afectó a la ciencia y a la universidad alemanas se analizan las cartas remitidas hacia y desde Lipschütz entre 1935 y 1936, con especial atención a personas que lo contactaron para huir de Alemania y que veían en América Latina una posibilidad. Proponemos que se trata de una red de agencias personales, cargada de subjetividades e intimidad, que debía tener en cuenta el antisemitismo y la xenofobia académica local.

Abstract This paper studies a shelter network for Jewish scientists displaced by nazism from the archive of Alexander Lipschütz, a physiologist who lived in Chile since 1926. From the context of the anti-Semitic persecution and the way in which it affected German science and their universities, we have analyzed letters sent to and from Lipschütz between 1935 and 1936, with special attention to people who contacted him to flee Germany and considered Latin America as a possibility to live. We suggest this was a network of personal agencies, charged with subjectivities and intimacy, which had to take into account local anti-Semitism and academic xenophobia.

Las diversas caras de la enfermería durante el Nacionalsocialismo (1933-1945): una revisión narrativa / As várias faces da enfermagem durante o nacional-socialismo (1933-1945): uma revisão narrativa / he diverse faces of nursing during National Socialism (1933-1945): a narrative review

In a certain period in the history of nursing, the care and attention characteristic of theprofession coexisted with the ignorance and cruelty of a society corrupted by tragedy and hatredtowards the human being. Objective: to make known the role of the supporters of the Nazi party asnurses of the Allied side and of the resistance during National Socialism in Europe and expose thedifferences between the care they provided. Methodology: narrative review developed through thebibliographic search of books and articles in various databases, selected based on inclusion andexclusion criteria. Results: the nursing care of the time was strongly differentiated between twosides, where empathy and affection were replaced by abuse and barbarism. In addition, a type ofnursing has been discovered which was forced to help the National Socialist regime against its will.Conclusion: the actions of those nurses who worked during the time of Nazism have been reflected,for the current nursing can know what happened in the past to learn and improve for the future.(AU)

En un determinado período de la historia de la enfermería, los cuidados característicosde la profesión convivieron junto la ignorancia y la crueldad de una sociedad corrompida por latragedia, el miedo y el odio. Objetivo: dar a conocer tanto el papel de las enfermeras simpatizantesdel partido nazi como el de las enfermeras del bando aliado y de la resistencia durante el Nacionalsocialismo en Europa y exponer las diferencias entre los cuidados que prestaron. Metodología: revisión narrativa desarrollada a través de la búsqueda bibliográfica de libros y de artículos en diversas bases de datos, seleccionados a partir de unos criterios de inclusión y exclusión. Resultados: laatención enfermera de la época estuvo fuertemente diferenciada entre los dos bandos, dónde la empatía y el afecto se substituyeron por el maltrato y la barbarie. Además, se ha descubierto un tipode enfermería la cual se vio obligada a ayudar al régimen nacionalsocialista en contra de su voluntad. Conclusión: se han plasmado las actuaciones de aquellas enfermeras que trabajaron durante laépoca del nazismo, para que la enfermería actual pueda conocer lo que ocurrió en el pasado y mejorar de cara al futuro.(AU)

Num determinado período da história da enfermagem, o cuidado e a atenção característicada profissão coexistiam com a ignorância e a crueldade de uma sociedade corrompida pela tragédiae pelo ódio ao ser humano. Objectivo: dar a conhecer o papel dos apoiantes do partido nazi comoenfermeiros do lado aliado e da resistência durante o nacional-socialismo na Europa o expor as diferenças entre os cuidados que prestaram. Metodologia: revisão narrativa desenvolvida através dabusca bibliográfica de artigos em várias bases de dados, selecionados com base em critérios de inclusão e exclusão. Resultados: o cuidado de enfermagem do tempo foi fortemente diferenciado entreos dois lados, onde a empatia e o afeto foram substituídos por abuso e barbárie. Além disso, foidescoberto um tipo de enfermagem que foi forçada a ajudar o regime nacional-socialista contra suavontade. Conclusão: as ações das enfermeiras que trabalharam na época do nazismo foram reflectidas, para que a enfermagem atual possa saber o que aconteceu no passado para aprender e melhorarpara o futuro.(AU)

Politics and power in ultra-modernity.

This work addresses three main issues: (i) Jung's positions on the historical events that he lived through, which are mainly presented in Volume 10 of his Collected Works; (ii) a reflection from a psychological perspective on the times we are experiencing, identifying the main contemporary psychopathologies; (iii) the possibility and need for including the pathologies of our time in our psychotherapeutic work.

Ce travail s'occupe de trois sujets principaux: 1) les positions de Jung concernant les événements historiques qu'il traversa durant sa vie, et qui sont présentées principalement dans le Volume 10 des Œuvres Complètes, 2) une réflexion sur l'époque que nous vivons, du point de vue psychologique, en identifiant les psychopathologies majeures de notre époque, 3) la possibilité et la nécessité d'inclure les pathologies de notre époque dans notre travail psychothérapeutique.

El presente trabajo aborda tres temas principales: (i) La posición de Jung respecto a los eventos históricos que lo atravesaron, y que han sido principalmente presentados en el Volumen 10 de sus Obras Completas; (ii) una reflexión desde una perspectiva psicológica sobre los tiempos que estamos experimentando, identificando las principales psicopatologías contemporáneas; (iii) la posibilidad y la necesidad de incluir las patologías de nuestro tiempo en nuestro trabajo psicoterapéutico.

Este trabalho aborda três questões principais: (i) as posições de Jung sobre os eventos históricos que ele viveu, que são apresentados principalmente no Volume 10 de suas Obras Coletadas; (ii) uma reflexão a partir de uma perspectiva psicológica sobre os tempos que estamos vivenciando, identificando as principais psicopatologias contemporâneas; (iii) a possibilidade e a necessidade de incluir as patologias do nosso tempo em nosso trabalho psicoterapêutico.

O saber nos labirintos do poder: a Europa e a (inter)nacionalização da ciência na primeira metade do século XX / Knowledge in the labyrinths of power: Europe and the (inter)nationalization of science in the first half of the twentieth century

Resumo A primeira metade do século XX foi globalmente marcada por uma vaga nacionalista que não deixou a ciência incólume. As iniciativas de bloqueio de algumas "ciências nacionais" (em particular a ciência oriunda da Alemanha) e as ruidosas discussões que então inundaram o espaço público ocidental constituem marcas ineludíveis das transformações radicais que o saber, o poder e a relação entre ambos então conheceram. O artigo explora, com base na literatura histórica da época, a crescente politização do discurso científico na primeira metade do século XX. É dada especial atenção ao período entreguerras, à (re)fundação, após 1918, dos organismos científicos internacionais sediados na Europa (como o International Research Council), e à proibição, em 1937, da revista Nature na Alemanha nazista.

Abstract The first half of the twentieth century was marked globally by a nationalist shift, which also affected science. The initiatives to block some "national science" (especially from Germany) and the discussions that flooded Western public space are hallmarks of the radical transformations that knowledge and power underwent at the time. Based on historical literature from the time, the article explores the growing polarization of scientific discourse in the first half of the twentieth century. Special attention is given to the interwar period, the (re)founding (after 1918) of international scientific organisms based in Europe (like the International Research Council), and the prohibition of the journal Nature in Nazi Germany in 1937.

The Farm Hall Transcripts: The Smoking Gun That Wasn't.

Over 75 years after their creation, the Farm Hall transcripts remain a tantalizing source from the dawn of the atomic age in 1945. Declassified in 1992, the transcripts document ten prominent German nuclear physicists, including Werner Heisenberg, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, and Otto Hahn, contemplating the Nazi defeat, their complicity in the German war machine, and - after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima - whether they truly intended to build a nuclear weapon for Adolf Hitler. As a written record of conversations, one might expect the transcripts to be the proverbial smoking gun that determines, once and for all, whether German physicists intended to build a nuclear weapon for the Nazi regime. Yet the Farm Hall transcripts have been used to support starkly divergent arguments. Some have used them to assert that the Germans would have willingly provided Hitler with a bomb if only they could; others view them as evidence of scientific resistance inside the Nazi regime. This article explores why the Farm Hall transcripts are not the smoking gun they appear to be.

Kristine Bonnevie's theories on the genetics of fingerprints, and their application in Germany.

This paper offers a historical reconstruction of the efforts to geneticize fingerprints, focusing on the theories put forward by the Norwegian biologist Kristine Bonnevie. The criminological and colonial roots of the preoccupation with fingerprints led to the creation of huge catalogues of fingerprints, which later became the starting point of Bonnevie's analysis. Building on insights she gained from her studies on the inheritance of human pathologies, Bonnevie insisted that all ten fingers exhibited varying manifestations of a single, underlying genotypic design. In 1923-4, she identified several theoretical genes that presumably constituted this hypothetical genotypic finger; five years later she revised her theory in light of a series of embryological dissections she conducted. Her new theory was adopted by German jurists, doctors and racial-anthropologists who relied on it to determine legal questions of disputed paternity. The extensive application of Bonnevie's genetic theory also exposed its deficiencies, and by the late 1950s her model was abandoned. At the same time, one of the most important genetic variables that Bonnevie discovered (or, invented) entered mainline genetic theory, and is still being used to this very day. The paper examines these developments, highlighting the multiple and complex relations between scientific theory building, practical considerations related to the gathering and processing of data, and social, racial and gender biases that shaped the process of "Mendelization" of finger print patterns.

History of Ataxias and Paraplegias with an Annotation on the First Description of Striatonigral Degeneration.

The aim of this paper is to carry out a historical overview of the evolution of the knowledge on degenerative cerebellar disorders and hereditary spastic paraplegias, over the last century and a half. Original descriptions of the main pathological subtypes, including Friedreich's ataxia, hereditary spastic paraplegia, olivopontocerebellar atrophy and cortical cerebellar atrophy, are revised. Special attention is given to the first accurate description of striatonigral degeneration by Hans Joachim Scherer, his personal and scientific trajectory being clarified. Pathological classifications of ataxia are critically analysed. The current clinical-genetic classification of ataxia is updated by taking into account recent molecular discoveries. We conclude that there has been an enormous progress in the knowledge of the nosology of hereditary ataxias and paraplegias, currently encompassing around 200 genetic subtypes.

Niebla en agosto (2016) y la sombra del pasado (2018). Aktion T4: el plan de eutanasia nazi para la eliminación de las personas con discapacidad / Fog in August (2016) and Never look away (2018). Aktion T4: The nazi euthanasia plan for the elimination of persons with disabilities

El ascenso al poder del nacionalsocialismo en Alemania y sus consecuencias ha sido una fuente inagotable para la inspiración de producciones cinematográficas. Sin embargo, el programa Aktion T4 más conocido por plan de eutanasia nazi, no había sido tema principal de una película hasta fechas recientes. Niebla en agosto (2016) y La Sombra del pasado (2018) son dos cintas que abordan los métodos empleados para el control y eliminación de las personas con discapacidad o, mejor dicho, de aquellas personas que no cumplían los cánones de la raza aria y además eran una carga económica para el estado alemán. Las leyes de esterilización, primero, el programa de eliminación de bebés nacidos con alguna clase de discapacidad y, por último, el programa Aktion T4 que seleccionaba y ordenaba el asesinato de las personas ingresadas en instituciones son las tres fases de un calculado plan de exterminio. Psiquiatras, personal de enfermería y otros médicos y sanitarios fueron los diseñadores, colaboradores y ejecutores de ese crimen contra la humanidad que fue, sin duda, un ensayo para el posterior genocidio judío. Todavía hoy se reclama en Alemania verdad, justicia y reparación para las casi 300.000 personas víctimas de esos crímenes olvidados. (AU)

The rise to power of National Socialism in Germany and its consequences has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for film productions. However, the Aktion T4 program, best known for a Nazi euthanasia plan, had not been the main subject of a movie until recently. Fog in august (2016) and Never look away (2018) are two films that address the methods used for the control and elimination of people with disabilities or, rather, of those who did not comply with the canons of the Aryan race and they were also an economic burden for the German state. The sterilization laws, first, the program for the elimination of babies born with some kind of disability and, finally, the Aktion T4 program that selected and ordered the murder of people admitted to institutions are the three phases of a calculated plan of extermination. Psychiatrists, nursing staff and other doctors and health workers were the designers, collaborators and executors of this crime against humanity that was, without a doubt, a trial for the subsequent Jewish genocide. Truth, justice and reparation for the almost 300,000 people of these forgotten crimes are still claimed in Germany today. (AU)

A lesson from history? Worsening mortality and the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis that worsening mortality rates in the early 1930s were associated with increasing votes for the Nazi Party. STUDY DESIGN: The study consist of panel data with fixed effects. METHODS: We used district- and city-level regression models of Nazi vote shares on changes in all-cause mortality rates in 866 districts and 214 cities during federal elections from 1930 to 1933, adjusting for election and district/city-level fixed effects and sociodemographic factors. As a falsification test, we used a subset of deaths less susceptible to sociopolitical factors. RESULTS: Historical downward trends in mortality rates reversed in the early 1930s in Germany. At the district/city level, these increases were positively associated with a rising Nazi vote share. Each increase of 10 deaths per 1000 population was associated with a 6.51-percentage-point increase in Nazi vote share (95% confidence interval = 1.17-11.8). The strongest associations were with deaths due to infectious and communicable diseases, suicides, and alcohol-related deaths. Worsening mortality had no association with votes for the Communist Party or for other contemporary political parties. Greater welfare payments were associated with smaller increases in both mortality and Nazi vote share, and adjusting for welfare generosity mitigated the association by approximately one-third. CONCLUSIONS: Worsening mortality rates were positively associated with the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany. Social security mitigated the association between mortality and Nazi vote share. Our findings add to the growing evidence that population health declines can be a 'canary in the coal mine' for the health of democracies.

The fate of Jews hospitalized in mental hospitals in France during World War II.

The fate of Jewish psychiatric patients in occupied Europe during World War II is inseparable from the fate of the disabled and mentally ill, as planned by the Nazi regime. But Jews found themselves at the confluence of eugenics, Christian anti-Judaism and Nazi racist and anti-Semitic madness. They faced the twin promise of death - both as Jews and as mentally ill. They did not escape from the euthanasia programme and, if by a miracle they survived, they disappeared into the extermination camps. The modalities of annihilation of Jewish psychiatric patients are inseparable from the forms of German occupation, which differed from country to country. In this research we focus initially on various countries in occupied Europe, and then on France.

Genocides and processes of subjectivation: Auschwitz as a paradigm of destructiveness towards the I-Other link.

The genocides of the previous century made it possible for a group, presenting itself as bearer of legitimacy and common interests, to organize itself in order to eliminate another group of people, regardless of their individuality, merely because they belonged to another group. This is a violation of the basic I-Other bond, which enables identification, communication, psychic life itself. This violation is described in literature on the individual level, from the victims' viewpoints, and socially, from the viewpoints of the perpetrators and unconcerned spectators. The author analyses how the destruction of this basic bond may be tackled in the analysis room, conferring on the analyst the function of participating witness, and on a social level: the collective trauma produces the collapse of the unconscious narcissistic alliances that guarantee both the individual's and the group's psychic survival. Alongside the two great differences that provide grounds for violence - the differences between the sexes and between generations - Kaës asserts that there exists another great difference that is just as significant in causing violence, that which organizes the narcissistic position of the individual with respect to the group. The work of elaboration concerns the narcissistic contracts rooted in intersubjectivity, which allow for a shared life without annihilating healthy individual narcissism in its self-referential and group aspects.

The Treachery Trope: Anti-Semitism as Indicative of a Psycho-Spiritual Disease Associated with the Betrayal of Cultural Ideals and of the Self.

The study seeks to place anti-semitism in a wider context by exploring the dynamics of betrayal-a designation often attributed to Jews, but also attributed to many victimized groups who are also deemed to be treacherous. The study argues that what lies at the heart of this practice is the betrayal (on the part of the victimizers) of ideological or personal principles that have not been realized. Instead of taking responsibility for this painful failure, those who have betrayed their principles project their treachery onto a set of victims who are accordingly punished as the 'true' embodiments of treachery. In view of this, cultural and personal health can only be improved if there is a greater consciousness of this psycho-spiritual dynamic; and, as the study suggests, principles associated with enlightenment may be brought to bear against this harmful affliction, which I have named the treachery rope.

How the humanities shape medical culture: Knowing Wegener and other Nazi eponyms.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. While the medical humanities have experienced a renaissance, they are still largely a peripheral component of medical education. This is troublesome because the humanities include a number of disciplines that are foundational in understanding medicine and how it should be practiced. Nonetheless, current medical culture makes it difficult to fully incorporate the humanities into curriculum. We therefore propose an incremental approach to shaping the medical culture that can easily be incorporated into daily teaching as opposed to designing additional classes and resources that must be added to existing educational structures. An example of this approach is reviewed here through teaching historical and ethical lessons surrounding Nazi eponyms. The use of names like Wegener provide brief opportunities for sidebars during clinical lectures to remind learners that empirical data do not provide ethical direction and that our medical history has included atrocities that remind us to practice conscientiously. We provide other examples that can be included in daily learning. This approach eschews the burdens associated with large curricular changes, such as student resistance/apathy and logistical barriers, and can be easily implemented. It also enables change to be gradual and through structures that have already been established, allowing learners to see the benefits of insights from the humanities in small, digestible segments. Through this approach, medical culture can be shaped towards a greater appreciation toward the medical humanities.

Uses of guilt in the treatment of dehumanization.

It is likely that under the impact of impending Nazism, aggression theory in late Freud, as presented in Civilization and its Discontents (1930), left the entirety of guilt to self-punishment, thus retracting his view that love functions in the superego as remorse and restitution. This change however, essentially withdraws provision for treating victims of abuse, violence and terror. This paper proposes a paradigm shift that reframes Freud's late instinct theory into a theory of dehumanization by recovering reparative and relational components of guilt. This reframe has major implications for the position taken with regard to the role of witnessing and the moral imperative in recovery from dehumanizing experience, which orthodox psychoanalytic theory has essentially bypassed. It is propose that victim treatment, as case examples illustrate, reformulates guilt as drawing on the life instincts to revivify victims' humanity through analytic witnessing and acknowledgment. Indeed, unless breaches of humanity are confronted by a witness, the life instincts stay merely rhetorical, if not contradictory, by leaving the death instincts to grow unseen and, thus, unopposed. A two-fold formulation of guilt may better address and redress disorders of dehumanization, whereby 'death guilt' (under the sway of aggression) signifies the orthodox, irrevocable guilt of self-reproach for the bad we may have done, and 'life guilt' (under the sway of a moral imperative) the redeemable guilt for the good we have still to do.