‘Screen confessions’: A fresh analysis of Nazi perpetrators’ ‘newspeak’

Amir, Dana

doi:10.1057/s41282-017-0066-8

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…They conducted a thorough textual analysis of the testimonies, integrating linguistic and psychoanalytical paradigms with the aim of exposing form‐related features, content‐related features and the interrelations between them, differentiating between transformative confessions and screen confessions. The focus of the analysis was on the use of the following psychological and psycho‐linguistic defense mechanisms as suggested by Amir (2017):…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When the disease is the splitting of language, the one possible basis for recovery is the reclaiming of language. Such reclaiming, in the case of perpetrators' screen confessions implies the reclaiming of the inner witness, the inner judge and the inner function of creating meaning, and thus the reclaiming of the "referent" (Amir, 2017).…”

Section: Reclaiming the Inner Thoumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This erasure of the referent is achieved by the emergence of a double language, marked by a dissociation between its explicit and its implicit meaning. While pretending to generate meaning and adhering to a chronological sequence, this language in fact yields a phenomenon which we call screen confessions : confessional texts which share the main characteristic of subtly and unconsciously subverting themselves (Amir, 2017).…”

Section: The Erasure Of the Referentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Not the concrete facts are omitted from these confessions (therefore they are completely reliable in terms of their factual value), but their deep meaning. Distortion or error, here, does not inhere in the concrete details but in the syntax which interferes in different ways with the original utterance, removing its deep meaning even if all of its components are accurate and correct (Amir, 2017). Screening in these cases is much more implicit than in some other forms of conscious screening.…”

Section: The Erasure Of the Referentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Screen confessions: The test case of “breaking the silence”

Amir

HaCohen

2020

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reclaiming the Inner Thoumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Erasure Of the Referentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Erasure Of the Referentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Screen confessions: The test case of “breaking the silence”

Amir

HaCohen

2020

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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“…But the banality of evil is expressed not only in concrete obedience to the commands but also in retrospective testimony about injustices done in the name of that obedience, testimony characterized by language that makes extensive use of deceptive screen mechanisms. I have coined the term screen confessions to denote a common feature of perpetrators’ language (Amir 2017, 2020; Amir and HaCohen 2020, 2021). What are these screen confessions?…”

Section: Banal Evil and False Pardonmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Revenge, Pardon, and Forgiveness

Amir¹

2022

J Am Psychoanal Assoc

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Political violence has long been a focus of psychoanalytic writing. Jessica Benjamin’s concepts of the complementarity, or twoness, and that of thirdness can serve as a point of departure allowing us to challenge the dichotomy between positions of revenge and forgiveness (on the victim’s part) and positions of evil and remorse (on the perpetrator’s), and to suggest a spectrum of encounters between victims and perpetrators that includes four types of interaction: (1) between the position of extreme evil on the perpetrator’s part, and the position of revenge on the victim’s; (2) between the perpetrator’s position of banal evil, and the victim’s position of false pardon; (3) between the perpetrator’s position of guilt and atonement, and the victim’s position of full pardon; (4) between the position of remorse on the perpetrator’s part, and the position of forgiveness on the victim’s. A thorough analysis of various testimonies illustrates how these four positions manifest, with varying degrees of dominance, in every encounter (whether concrete or imagined) between victim and perpetrator.

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The function of the inner witness in interrupting screening mechanisms of perpetrators' language

Amir

HaCohen

2020

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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This paper analyzes testimonies taken from Israeli soldiers by the organization "Breaking the Silence," focusing on the interaction between the screening mechanisms of perpetrator's language, which split between the overt reporting of actions and the deep recognition of their meaning-and what we call "the function of the inner witness," which operates against these mechanisms. Three types of transformation, allowing a move from turning one's back to looking things in the eye, are described by means of three types of confrontation: the confrontation between one perpetrator and another; the confrontation between perpetrator and witness; and the confrontation between perpetrator and victim.

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‘Screen confessions’: A fresh analysis of Nazi perpetrators’ ‘newspeak’

Cited by 9 publications

References 4 publications

Screen confessions: The test case of “breaking the silence”

Screen confessions: The test case of “breaking the silence”

On Revenge, Pardon, and Forgiveness

The function of the inner witness in interrupting screening mechanisms of perpetrators' language

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