The Nazi Doctors; Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

New York: Basic Books, Inc, 1986. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Good. xiv, 561 pages. Occasional Footnotes. List of Abbreviations. Notes. Index. Previous owners stamp on half-title page. The book has a personal inscription on the half-title page, not from the author, that reads: "June 6, 1988 Mary, We hope this book helps further your personal studies of the holocaust! Happy Graduation! Love always, Ana & Teresa". Part I "Life Unworthy of Life": The Genetic Cure; Part II Auschwitz: The Racial Cure; Part III The Psychology of Genocide: Aftreword: Bearing Witness. In his most powerful and important book, renowned psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton presents a brilliant analysis of the crucial role that German doctors played in the Nazi genocide. Now updated with a new preface, The Nazi Doctors remains the definitive work on the Nazi medical atrocities, a chilling exposé of the banality of evil at its epitome, and a sobering reminder of the darkest side of human nature. Robert Jay Lifton (born May 16, 1926) is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory. From 1951 to 1953, Lifton served as an Air Force psychiatrist in Japan and Korea, to which he later attributed his interest in war and politics. During the 1960s, Lifton, together with his mentor Erik Erikson and historian Bruce Mazlish of MIT, formed a group to apply psychology and psychoanalysis to the study of history. Several of his books featured mental adaptations that people made in extreme wartime environments. Derived from a Kirkus review: Lifton starts from the premise that understanding how physicians could embrace Nazism's racist ideology and murderous behavior is the most difficult aspect of Nazism to comprehend. Physicians, Lifton notes, played a crucial role in the Nazi drive toward genocide. Thus, the author wants to know how these doctors became killers, how educated, ordinary people allowed themselves to commit barbaric acts. To do this, he examines what he calls "medicalized killing," specifically, how doctors functioned in Auschwitz. In doing so, he analyzes in depth three particular physicians: Ernst B., who seemed to be what passed for compassionate in the world of the camp; Josef Mengele, presented as the archetypal Nazi fanatic; and Eduard Wirths, a model of how a decent man allowed himself to be transformed into a killer. In a concluding section, Lifton presents a psychiatric theory called "doubling" which he uses to explain the evil. (Doubling involves an individual forming a second self, more or less autonomous from the first, which becomes the evil part of the self and which therefore allows the decent part to remain guiltless.) Lifton finally suggests the application of such a doubling theory to the post-Nazi age, one pregnant with the possibilities of holocaust and nuclear destruction. Based on 10 years of research and writing, on interviews with Nazi physicians, other Nazis, and survivors, Lifton has written a compelling book, which is admirably unflinching and provocative. We are finally left shaken by the Nazi doctors' moral failure, but with a far clearer understanding of what they did and why they did it. The book is a major contribution to Holocaust study and medical ethics.