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The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
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Nazi doctors did more than conduct bizarre experiments on concentration-camp inmates; they supervised the entire process of medical mass murder, from selecting those who were to be exterminated to disposing of corpses. Lifton (The Broken Connection; The Life of the Self shows that this medically supervised killing was done in the name of "healing," as part of a racist prog
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Start your review of The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide
Important memorial against transfiguration and oblivion of the frighteningly fast metamorphosis of the standard rule of law to dictatorship.
The doctors are the main topic of this nonfiction book, but the underlying, always actual problem of group dynamics is even more disturbing. The most mentionable thing about the doctors is the fact that they constructed, against the Hippocratic oath, sick theories that justified and relativized their atrocities with the explanation of a higher end goal, the ...more
The doctors are the main topic of this nonfiction book, but the underlying, always actual problem of group dynamics is even more disturbing. The most mentionable thing about the doctors is the fact that they constructed, against the Hippocratic oath, sick theories that justified and relativized their atrocities with the explanation of a higher end goal, the ...more
Fascinating. Not for the faint of heart. Martin Amis used this as background for his novel Time's Arrow.
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"National Socialism is nothing more than applied biology," said Deputy Party Leader Rudolf Hess at a 1934 meeting. Robert Jay Lifton, professor of psychiatry and psychology, examines the role medical doctors played in the Nazi genocidal project. From its beginnings, with the sterilizations of the unfit, the "euthanasia" of mentally defective or handicapped children, followed by adults, to its apotheosis in Auschwitz with the medical experiments of Josef Mengele and others, and the attempt to era
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I got my hands on this book after my Mom helped a librarian friend clean out the Stillwater High School library's non-fiction section. Since they're just going to toss the books anyway, she often sets aside any Third Reich related materials for me. I think they do this weeding because non-fiction becomes out of date so quickly, and library's use the average copyright date of their materials to gauge how up to date their collection is. In any case, after reading the book I felt that the HS could
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Apr 07, 2009
Valerie
added it
There are several points that get to the crux of this book. One is from the preface; Lifton, having interviewed both Nazi and prisoner doctors, was asked by one of the prisoner doctors "Were they monsters?" "No" he replied, "They were human beings." The prisoner doctor opined that it would've been simpler if they were monsters--but the book makes plain that it's not so simple.
Another critical point deals with a prisoner doctor who is sent to escort a child through the camp. He felt eyes on the c ...more
Another critical point deals with a prisoner doctor who is sent to escort a child through the camp. He felt eyes on the c ...more
This is an astounding book. On a second reading, I am, if possible, even more impressed by Robert Jay Lifton than I was the first time. He takes on an enormous question--how did doctors under the Nazis come to participate in the genocide of the Jews?--and not only does he answer it, but the bulk of his research is interviews with surviving Nazi doctors.
The idea makes my skin crawl, and I'm not Jewish. Robert Jay Lifton is.
So one of the things I admire in this book is Lifton's courage and honesty ...more
The idea makes my skin crawl, and I'm not Jewish. Robert Jay Lifton is.
So one of the things I admire in this book is Lifton's courage and honesty ...more
This book accounts for the Nazi takeover of the medical sector in Third Reich Germany and then goes into the medical implementations/experiments in the concentration camps. Full of information.
Nov 08, 2017
Erik Graff
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
everyone
Recommended to Erik by:
Kelly Kingdon
Shelves:
history
Lifton, a psychiatric physician and teacher himself, has written a host of books, many of them treating of the threat of nuclear war, all of them with a decided ethical concern, a concern which can be related to what Freud termed the 'thanatos' or death instinct. How does it happen, he asks, that people can become so destructive, so evil?
While treating of early Nazi extermination practices (f.i., of the disabled and infirm), most of this book concerns itself with Auschwitz, that enormous complex ...more
While treating of early Nazi extermination practices (f.i., of the disabled and infirm), most of this book concerns itself with Auschwitz, that enormous complex ...more
I'm not sure how one decides how to rate a book on such heinous crimes. I can't say that I enoyed it or that I would go about waving the book in the air recommending it to others. What I can say is that this author offers a well-researched historical account of the genocide movement which began and advanced insidiously during the pre-war era and reached epic proportions during WWII. The questions raised in The Nazi Doctors are not dissimiliar to the issues we debate when considering capital puni
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I read this a few years ago for research purposes but as it turns out, I never wrote a review for it. This study is absolutely fundamental for understanding the phenomena of medical killing and the psychology of the nazi doctors performing euthanasia and graduating to becoming the main perpetrators in the Auschwitz genocide. After conducting multiple interviews with the surviving nazi doctors, Dr. Lifton completed an unparalleled study that allows a rare glimpse into a psyche of a healer turned
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For anyone who wants to understand a little bit about how a society can become so comfortable with 1.2 million abortions in the US every year (over 42 million worldwide every year), this is a must-read. Many of the steps used by the Nazis to channel the medical profession into killing millions can be seen in what the pro-aborts have done. I'll plan to write more about this on my blog (http://speaking4life.com), please check it out.
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I wanted to like this book, but I found it surprisingly dry and uninteresting. It's a topic that fascinates me, so I'm really surprised that I had to force myself to read this, and eventually just gave up.
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Fascinating. Not for the faint of heart. Martin Amis used this book as background for his novel Time's Arrow.
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Ending my 2017 with this book seems negative, but i just want to remind myself how weak our kindness could be altered due to different circumstances.
It was a very heavy book to read, also quite thick with many chapters of case studies.
I think the prefaces say the points about human rationalized their behaviors even though it's apparently wrong.
the evil of banality is everywhere.
below i copied preface to keep
.........................
本书的顺序如下：在这篇前言的后一部分，将谈谈我总体的心理学方法， 我的那些访谈，以及相伴而来的道德问题；然后，我将介绍基本的 ...more
It was a very heavy book to read, also quite thick with many chapters of case studies.
I think the prefaces say the points about human rationalized their behaviors even though it's apparently wrong.
the evil of banality is everywhere.
below i copied preface to keep
.........................
本书的顺序如下：在这篇前言的后一部分，将谈谈我总体的心理学方法， 我的那些访谈，以及相伴而来的道德问题；然后，我将介绍基本的 ...more
Jan 28, 2013
Michael
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
World War II buffs, undergraduates, Holocaust students
Recommended to Michael by:
serendipity
In this book, Robert Jay Lifton sought to understand how people trained to heal and protect life became involved as perpetrators of genocide and the destruction of life. It remains significant as a book which ties together the early eugenics laws and operations to sterilize or euthanize undesirables with the ultimate development of mass killings on the Russian front and in the extermination camps. It also remains one of the most comprehensive analyses of the men who carried out the selections wi
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This book is so hard to read...not from the writing, but the events and the people who perpetrated them. I am finding that I can only read a few pages at a time. The book is extremely well researched with footnotes and an extensive bibliography. A great deal of it comes from actual interviews.
The extent of Nazi crimes is far more unimaginable that I could have ever thought and nothing is worse than doctors, who are trained to heal, turning into killers. The book deals with the SS doctors, German ...more
The extent of Nazi crimes is far more unimaginable that I could have ever thought and nothing is worse than doctors, who are trained to heal, turning into killers. The book deals with the SS doctors, German ...more
A terrifying description of what humans are capable of doing to one another. Lifton does a wonderful job of dispelling the Nazi Doctor's mythical reputation while dutifully and accurately recording the horrors they committed. Exhaustingly researched and full of eye-witness interviews from both "patients" and "doctors"; this book should be on the shelf of every primary school and university library in the world.
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There's one thing that any author can learn from Lifton, and that's being as honest as possible with your readers.
Even though a Jew and even though he has some really personal feelings (which get in the way at some places) he paints a really good picture of everything and gives the reader the possibility to think for himself and to understand the issues.
Also, through the book you can't stop asking yourself "What would I do in this situation?" ...more
Even though a Jew and even though he has some really personal feelings (which get in the way at some places) he paints a really good picture of everything and gives the reader the possibility to think for himself and to understand the issues.
Also, through the book you can't stop asking yourself "What would I do in this situation?" ...more
I've always been fascinated in what makes people become monsters, and this books details the chilling metamorphoses of several with all of their delusional reasons and lingering mysteries. This is a very, very difficult read--the horrors leap off the pages and gave at least me nightmares. But I still think this is a very important book and a valuable read.
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Fascinating, in-depth look at how those who were charged with healing and saving lives as physicians were psychologically able to commit the horrendous crimes that they did during WWII. A must read for everyone on how "normal" people, healers even, could make the psychological adjustments necessary to allow themselves to be part of a genocidal machine; and those who could not.
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An excellent and chilling account of the process known as the healing-killing paradox in which doctors under the Nazi regime utilized their skills for death rather than life. I used this as a major component for my senior research seminar, and may challenge the author's concept of psychological doubling in future works, most likely my Master's Thesis.
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If this book doesn't alter the way you view our society today I don't know if anything will. This is far more than a chilling history.
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A long, detailed, but necessary slog that has finally answered all my questions about how the Holocaust happened. (I might actually remove all the other survivor memoirs from my to-read list.)
Unfortunately, I'm seeing some of the same logic and behaviors surfacing today. For example, "The physician was to be concerned with the health of the Volk even more than with individual disease and was to teach them to overcome the old individualistic principle of 'the right to one's own body' and to embr ...more
Unfortunately, I'm seeing some of the same logic and behaviors surfacing today. For example, "The physician was to be concerned with the health of the Volk even more than with individual disease and was to teach them to overcome the old individualistic principle of 'the right to one's own body' and to embr ...more
This is a tough book to read, from the very nature of the subject matter - which at times is very painful (sometimes excruciating and heartbreaking) - to the psychological concepts that for the lay-reader can be hard to grasp. It is a monumental but important work, a work that deserves a wide readership and will stand as a primary text for understanding what drove the medical profession in National Socialist Germany to virtually abandon the Hippocratic oath they had vowed to cross the line and b
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Robert Jay Lifton's "The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide" is a monumental, ground breaking work on how Nazi ideology, cultural history, and unique German national character played critical roles in radicalizing German medical establishment and doctors. He conducted many interviews with SS doctors, inmate doctors and others who had direct experience with the process that lead to the Final Solution.
From T-4, 14f13 euthanasia programs early in the war to Einsatzgruppen ...more
From T-4, 14f13 euthanasia programs early in the war to Einsatzgruppen ...more
A fascinating and chilling study into the political perversion of one of the worlds most noble professions. How roaring rhetoric, distorted doctrine and deep resentment combined to convince an institution established to save life, embark on a quest to destroy those very same lives they had sworn to protect. A chilling reminder of what happens when a warped ideology infects a health care system- picture a demonic and twisted NHS, where the object is not to save life but to destroy it. Picture a l
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A meticulously-researched, horrifyingly factual portrayal of the evil committed by the major Nazi players, especially Dr. Mengele. Not for the faint of heart by any means, I had to put this book down at times because it is so psychologically disturbing. I have an academic and historical interest in Nazis and WWII, and this book contains information that was entirely new to me. Expect detailed accounts of human atrocity told from the point of view of a factual narrator. I appreciate what I know a
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Makes you wonder, what is the thin line between duty as defined by the Hippocratic Oath and personal beliefs? How much can society, personal interest, obedience and fear turn a man from savior to murderer? I think this book is as much about 1940 - 1945 as it is about 2020. A question to all : how are society, the state and law (in general) really treating the undesirable, ill and elderly? What is mankind capable of in order to preserve the “health” of the “young” and cut down on the social assis
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This huge study, taken on by Lifton, must have been very painful in its execution. If you hated Nazis and Aryans before you read this, you will become enraged at their presumptuous impression that THEIR race was the only one that should survive in this world. Ugh. Anyone could be a target for murder: elderly, people with mental illness, homosexuals, Romanians, ...and Jews.
However, when you see Animals as sentient beings, instead of flesh on a plate, you are not as shocked by cruelty to humans as ...more
However, when you see Animals as sentient beings, instead of flesh on a plate, you are not as shocked by cruelty to humans as ...more
Couldn't finish this book, I'm afraid. It is very formal and academic; factual and linear. It's like reading an encyclopaedia or Wiki entry.
The information within the book is, of course, interesting and accurate but presented in such a dry manner that I just couldn't absorb it and found myself re-reading sentences over and over, just to make the info stick.
I appreciate this is my failing and I feel bad criticising such a well received and well researched book. I prefer personal stories and accou ...more
The information within the book is, of course, interesting and accurate but presented in such a dry manner that I just couldn't absorb it and found myself re-reading sentences over and over, just to make the info stick.
I appreciate this is my failing and I feel bad criticising such a well received and well researched book. I prefer personal stories and accou ...more
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Robert Jay Lifton is an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J... ...more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J... ...more
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“In all fundamentalisms, and they are usually religious or political, there is the sense of profound threat to what are considered fundamental beliefs and symbols, and a compensatory invocation of a sacred text (the Bible, the Koran, Mein Kampf) as a literal guide to every form of action. History stops so that murderous therapy can be applied. While medicine does not provide the sacred text, one can revert to ancient practices of shamans, witch doctors, and tricksters who could be expected to kill in order to heal. For physicians as well as charismatic spiritual physicians, there is a release from Hippocratic restraint.”
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