Individual and mass behavior in extreme situations.

Abstract

PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION »T-IHE author spent approximately one year in the two biggestJL German concentration camps for political prisoners, at Dachau and at Buchenwald. During this time he made observations and collected material, part of which will be presented in this paper.It is not the intention of this presentation to recount once more the horror story of the German concentration camp for political prisoners.It is assumed that the reader is roughly familiar with it, but it should be reiterated that the prisoners were deliberately tortured. 1 They were inadequately clothed, but nevertheless exposed to heat, rain, and freezing temperatures as long as seventeen hours a day, seven days a week. They suffered from extreme malnutrition, but had to perform hard labor. 2 Every single moment of their lives was strictly regulated and supervised. They were never permitted to see any visitors, nor a minister. They were not entitled to any medical care, and when they received it, it was rarely administered by medically trained persons. 3 The prisoners did not know exactly why they were imprisoned, and never knew for how long. This may explain why we shall speak of the prisoners as persons finding themselves in an "extreme" situation.The acts of terror committed in these camps arouse in the minds of civilized persons justified and strong emotions, and those emotions lead them sometimes to overlook that terror is, as far as the 1 For an official report on life in these camps see: Papers concerning the treatment of German nationals in Germany. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1939. 2 The daily food the prisoners received yielded approximately 1800 calories, whereas for the labor they were forced to perform the average caloric requirement is from 3000 to 3300 calories.

National socialism and the crisis of sociology

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The defense mechanisms inventory: Theoretical and psychometric implications

“…In studies of the defensive adaptation of concentration camp victims (Bettelheim, 1943) and hostages (Strentz, 1980), identification with the aggressor has often been demonstrated to become manifest as aggression toward others by victims who assume the values of those in control. It can be argued that this response is subsumed under intropunitiveness as well, since the "others" are fellow victims who represent the self symbolically.…”

Experience of Perceptual Distortion as a Source of Anxiety

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“…Affective and drive processes, exceeding the ego's controlling forces, are released directly into experience. 3. Defensive maneuvers, intended to pre¬ vent or minimize such invasion, themselves reduce perceptual accuracy by requiring the exclusion, distortion, or personalistic inter¬ pretation of experience.…”