Abram de Swaan, “The Killing Compartments:  The Mentality of Mass Murder” (Yale UP, 2015)

Abram de Swaan, “The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder” (Yale UP, 2015)

For a couple of decades, scholars have moved toward a broad consensus that context, rather than ideology, is most important in pushing ordinary men and women to participate in mass murder. The “situationist paradigm,” as Abram de Swaan labels this, concludes from studies by psychologists, sociologists, historians and others, that individuals are malleable, easily influenced by their surroundings, easily enough that they can be moved to do things that, in other contexts, would be easily recognizable as morally bankrupt. de Swaan rejects this conclusion. He asserts instead that most people would not participate in mass murder without a much deeper set of framing events and incentives. His book The Killing Compartments: The Mentality of Mass Murder (Yale University Press, 2015) lays out an alternate theory for the participation of both regimes and individuals in cases of mass murder. de Swaan brings his decades of experience in sociology to bear in crafting a thoughtful, well articulated and well-constructed argument. In particular, he argues that we should place more weight on the life-histories of perpetrators than has been common in recent discussions. As de Swaan points out early in the book, what is modern about mass violence is not that it happens, but that we are embarrassed about it. This reminds us of the importance of the debate he has so vigorously engaged. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/psychoanalysis

Avsnitt(399)

Madness & Acute Religious Experiences, with Richard Saville-Smith

Madness & Acute Religious Experiences, with Richard Saville-Smith

Host Pierce Salguero sits down with Richard Saville-Smith, an independent scholar of madness, religion, and psychiatry. We discuss Richard’s book Acute Religious Experiences (2023), which argues that ...

4 Sep 202551min

Eli Zaretsky, “Political Freud: A History” (Columbia UP, 2015)

Eli Zaretsky, “Political Freud: A History” (Columbia UP, 2015)

Back in the early 70s, Eli Zaretsky wrote for a socialist newspaper and was engaged to review a recently released book, Psychoanalysis and Feminism by Juliet Mitchell. First, he decided, he’d better r...

8 Aug 202556min

Daniel José Gaztambide, "Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique: Putting Freud on Fanon's Couch" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

Daniel José Gaztambide, "Decolonizing Psychoanalytic Technique: Putting Freud on Fanon's Couch" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

Both new and seasoned psychotherapists wrestle with the relationship between psychological distress and inequality across race, class, gender, and sexuality. How does one address this organically in p...

1 Aug 20251h

Foluke Taylor, "Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Writings and Practices in Living Room" (Norton, 2023)

Foluke Taylor, "Unruly Therapeutic: Black Feminist Writings and Practices in Living Room" (Norton, 2023)

In 1977, The Combahee River Collective, a group of Black American feminists issued a statement communicating the harrowing following: “The psychological toll of being a Black woman…can never be under...

29 Juli 20251h 4min

Marion Bower, "The Life and Work of Joan Riviere: Freud, Klein and Female Sexuality" (Routledge, 2018)

Marion Bower, "The Life and Work of Joan Riviere: Freud, Klein and Female Sexuality" (Routledge, 2018)

Joan Riviere (1883-1962) is best known for her role in promoting the ideas of others. She came to prominence in the world of psychoanalysis as Freud’s favorite translator and Melanie Klein’s earliest ...

27 Juli 202558min

The Tug of War: Why Racial Progress Often Meets Resistance and Backlash

The Tug of War: Why Racial Progress Often Meets Resistance and Backlash

Dr. Karyne Messina and Dr. Felicia Powell-Williams, the host and co-host of “Psychoanalytic Perspectives of Racism in America” sponsored by The American Psychoanalytic Association explored how employi...

23 Juli 202531min

Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee eds., "Sitting on a Suitcase: Psychoanalytic Stories" (Karnac Books, 2025)

Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee eds., "Sitting on a Suitcase: Psychoanalytic Stories" (Karnac Books, 2025)

Sitting on a Suitcase: Psychoanalytic Stories (Karnac Books, 2025) contains eighteen moving tales of disparate Jewish lives from Eliat Aram, Leslie B. Brissett, Louisa Diana Brunner, Halina Brunning, ...

22 Juli 202547min

Noëlle McAfee, "Fear of Breakdown: Psychoanalysis and Politics" (Columbia UP, 2019)

Noëlle McAfee, "Fear of Breakdown: Psychoanalysis and Politics" (Columbia UP, 2019)

In his classic essay on the fear of breakdown, Donald Winnicott famously conveys to a patient that the disaster powerfully feared has, in fact, already happened. Taking her cue from Winnicott, Noëlle ...

11 Juli 202557min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
svd-nyhetsartiklar
p3-dystopia
allt-du-velat-veta
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
rss-ufo-bortom-rimligt-tvivel
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
det-morka-psyket
rss-vetenskapsradion
medicinvetarna
bildningspodden
sexet
rss-geopodden-2
vetenskapsradion
rss-experimentet
4health-med-anna-sparre
halsorevolutionen
rss-spraket
rss-arkeologi-historia-podden-som-graver-i-vart-kulturlandskap
hacka-livet