Autonomy in the Extreme Situation: Bruno Bettelheim, the Nazi Concentration Camps and the Mass Society

(Hardback)

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Bettelheim upheld that the inmate's struggle in a concentration camp is the extreme example of the modern dilemma of maintaining autonomy in the depersonalizing mass society, such as the in the United States and Western Europe. This study elucidates, critiques and further develops Bettelheim's pathbreaking and controversial insights on the behaviour of concentration camp inmates. It provides the rudiments of a new framework for conceptualizing inmate behaviour and presents a treatment of Bettelheim's views on the dangers of contemporary society. The author accomplishes his goals in part by drawing from such social theorists as Michel Foucault, Anthony Giddens, Erving Goffman, Zygmunt Bauman and Emmanuel Levinas, as well as psychoanalytically oriented thinkers such as Roy Schafer. The book concludes with a discussion of the significance of Bettelheim's findings about inmate behaviour in the camps, and how we in our mass society can protect ourselves, resist and fight back against the assaults on our autonomy, individuality and humanity.

Reviews

"Marcus has written a highly intelligent, provocative book on the connection between the concentration camps and mass society that strongly challenges the current Bettelheim-bashing climate. He demonstrates convincingly that Bettelheim has been greatly misunderstood by most of his critics."-William B. Helmreich, Professor of Sociology and Judaic Studies CUNY Graduate Center and City College of New York
"Not only is this an important book on Bettelheim, but it is one of the most important books in social thought to come along in several years. Not only will it change how we think about Bettelheim, but how we think about society."-C. Fred Alford Professor of Government, University of Maryland
"With a remarkable fund of knowledge of the literature regarding psychological survival in extremity, Paul Marcus set out to demonstrate that Bettelheim "was significantly misunderstood by most of his critics." The reader will be rewarded by the extensive citations from authors whose views had shaped contemporary thinking regarding the complex relationship between individual autonomy and integrity on the one hand and living in a mass society, on another. As a psychoanalyst and Auschwitz survivor, I highly recommend this important book."-Anna Ornstein, M.D. Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati Training and Supervising Analyst, Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute
It is refreshing that Marcus's study almost entirely refrains from becoming engaged with the recent polemical disputes about Bettelheim and instead focuses on certain aspects of his major intellectual contributions....Marcus's study is a rich and valuable assessment of Bettelheim's writings about the concentration camp experiences and attempts to preserve a sense of autonomy, integrity, and personal freedom under the negative pressures of life in the mass society. True to his intent, Marcus does present a balanced review of Bettelheim's various positions, and he is clearly generous and respectful in his responses to Bettelheim's critics....It is to Marcus's great credit that his book is also written very much in the spirit that he so admires in Bettelheim.-Psychoanalytic Psychology
Marcus...has written a highly intelligent, provocative and in many ways extraordinary book on the connection between the concentration camps and the mass society...one that challenges the current Bettelheim-bashing climate....I strongly recommend this thoughtful volume. It is an essential text about an essential thinker on the camps, a must for both Holocaust scholars and interested lay persons.-Martyrdom and Resistance
Newcomers to Holocaust studies can learn a great deal about the range of issues under discussion. Scholars will find Marcus's approach a new and refreshing one to this area of scholarship, and the general community can be intellectually edified. This is simply a masterpiece.-Mind and Human Interaction
This book eludicates, critiques, and further develops Bettelheim's controversial insights on the behavior of concentration camp inmates, which the author believes have been misunderstood by both his critics and admirers because of an inadequate appreciation of Bettelheim's central thesis, that the inmate's struggle in a concentration camp is the extreme example of the modern dilemma of maintaining autonomy in the depersonalizing mass society, such as in the United States and Western Europe.-Shofar
This scholarly book will interest graduate students and researchers investigating either side of the Bettelheim argument.-Choice
"Marcus...has written a highly intelligent, provocative and in many ways extraordinary book on the connection between the concentration camps and the mass society...one that challenges the current Bettelheim-bashing climate....I strongly recommend this thoughtful volume. It is an essential text about an essential thinker on the camps, a must for both Holocaust scholars and interested lay persons."-Martyrdom and Resistance
"Newcomers to Holocaust studies can learn a great deal about the range of issues under discussion. Scholars will find Marcus's approach a new and refreshing one to this area of scholarship, and the general community can be intellectually edified. This is simply a masterpiece."-Mind and Human Interaction
"This book eludicates, critiques, and further develops Bettelheim's controversial insights on the behavior of concentration camp inmates, which the author believes have been misunderstood by both his critics and admirers because of an inadequate appreciation of Bettelheim's central thesis, that the inmate's struggle in a concentration camp is the extreme example of the modern dilemma of maintaining autonomy in the depersonalizing mass society, such as in the United States and Western Europe."-Shofar
"This scholarly book will interest graduate students and researchers investigating either side of the Bettelheim argument."-Choice
"It is refreshing that Marcus's study almost entirely refrains from becoming engaged with the recent polemical disputes about Bettelheim and instead focuses on certain aspects of his major intellectual contributions....Marcus's study is a rich and valuable assessment of Bettelheim's writings about the concentration camp experiences and attempts to preserve a sense of autonomy, integrity, and personal freedom under the negative pressures of life in the mass society. True to his intent, Marcus does present a balanced review of Bettelheim's various positions, and he is clearly generous and respectful in his responses to Bettelheim's critics....It is to Marcus's great credit that his book is also written very much in the spirit that he so admires in Bettelheim."-Psychoanalytic Psychology

Author Bio

PAUL MARCUS is a psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist in private practice. He is the co-editor of Healing their Wounds: Psychotherapy with Holocaust Survivors and Their Families (Praeger, 1989), Psychoanalytic Versions of the Human Condition, Philosophies of Life and Their Impact on Practice (1998), and Blacks and Jews on the Couch (Praeger, 1998).