THE QUESTION OF A POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL DISTURBANCE AND DENIALS OF KNOWN GENOCIDES SUCH AS THE HOLOCAUST AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
Israel Charny is the author of Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind which has been hailed as one of the outstanding works of the decade. The Book was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2006, and will be republished in the Spring of 2008 as a paperback
Perhaps it is because I am also a practicing clinical psychologist, but I suspect others will also identify with the observation that at some point, another question crosses one's mind as to whether there is any possibility that some deniers of the Holocaust or other genocides are, in fact, quite crazy, or in more polite scientific parlance, mentally ill. For on the surface of it, the basic claim that a major historical event of genocide, which the whole world knows took place, never took place, is madness; let alone that many of the particularly sloppy kinds of denials and revisions of history, for example the claim that the gas chambers in Auschwitz were built only after the war in order to vilify the hapless Nazis, are manifestly the ravings of mad men.
In one case where a denier of the Holocaust was involved in court proceedings which had been initiated by him, a reporter for a major American newspaper (The Atlantic Constitution) described the structure of the denier's thought processes in the courtroom as "rambling," and in another instance characterized the structure of the denier's argumentation as "bizarre." In textbooks of abnormal psychology, these are both characteristic of the thinking of a paranoid.
Is there not room to pause to think about the fact that classical psychiatry describes various paranoid conditions as characterized by tortured accusativeness of someone(s); litigiousness or a need to go to legal or other kinds of overt conflict with said other(s); a concealing framework of ostensible and at times even intricate and impressive logic but in which are embedded bizarre denials of and breaks with reality, including delusory fantasies and wild constructions of a non-existent reality. Thus, in the earlier days of the 20th century, many self-respecting paranoid patients would understandably seize on themes of radio waves speaking to them, penetrating them, or what have you as civilization grappled with the mystery of the new-found radio; in subsequent years, chemical and germ warfare devices became a heady basis for paranoid ideation; and there is absolutely no reason to think that denials that masses of human beings were taken in freight cars to gas chambers and then incinerated in ovens would not be a delicious invitation for mayhem in the mind of a paranoid in our times.
But even if there is a possible relationship between mental illness and denials of genocide, there are enormous problems in working with the mental health aspects of denials. For one thing, on a clinical level it is characteristic that much of the argumentation, including even persecutory contents, of a well-organized paranoiac is well reasoned and presented in coherent and logical forms; and insofar as this would be true of a denier who is also mad, we as a community are still required to address the coherent aspects of presentations of denials and not simply dismiss them as the ravings of a lunatic, so that there can be no suggestion of our having walked away from confronting the issues raised.
Moreover, as we have learned, so many denials are inherently political strategies in the service of bigotry and hatred, e.g., antisemitism, and celebrations of and calls to collective violence; and so many other denials are also political statements espousing policies such as realpolitik, even a decently motivated search for reconciliation and cessation of conflict, and these and other not-crazy assertions of deniers cannot be dismissed as the doings of mad people, but have to be confronted for their intrinsic immorality, nastiness and self-serving political agendas at the expense of the integrity of historical memory and the heartbreak and protests of decent people against mass murder.
Finally, what is possibly the really deeply challenging truth in respect of the relationship between mental illness and denials of the Holocaust, the , or other genocides is that looking in depth at the thinking of deniers brings us in touch not simply with the madness of a given individual, but with a close-to-madness aspect of the normal human mind which we have all been issued from the original factory, as well as at a 'larger than life' grand madness of our human readiness to destroy so much of life. By the former or close-to-madness aspect of the normal human mind, I refer to so many evidences that the human mind inherently is given to stereotyped thinking, magical thinking, totalistic thinking, massive projections of one's weaknesses onto others, deep difficulties in discerning the difference between legitimate self-defense and unduly suspicious paranoid attributions of dangers to others, undue needs for power, and other attributes which in effect are found in the minds of all people, and which good mental health requires us to work at overcoming (see Greenwald, 1980 on characteristics of the mind as initially and naturally "totalitarian" - his word).
By the latter or larger than life grand madness of destructiveness, I refer to the readiness of perfectly sane human beings, as far as the psychiatric establishment is concerned, to round up masses of others, torture them cruelly, and destroy them unconscionably. Albert Camus (1980, initially 1946) said following World War II that he discerned that all human beings have to choose whether they are available to be executioners, for in the psychological language I am presently using this is at least a default option waiting in the natural machinery we have, and Camus said of himself that he had chosen neither to be a victim nor an executioner:
...The years...have killed something in us. And that something is simply the old confidence man had in himself which led him to believe that he could always elicit human reactions from another man if he spoke to him in the language of a common humanity. We have seen men lie, degrade, kill, deport, torture - and each time it was not possible to persuade them not to do these things because they were sure of themselves.
Before anything can be done, two questions must be put: "Do you or do you not, directly or indirectly, want to kill or assault?"...
...For my part, I am fairly sure that I have made the choice. And, having chosen, I think that I must speak out, that I must state that I will never again be one of those, whoever they be, who compromise with murder... (Camus, 1946, p.5)
So whether or not a denier is also mad-and for the fun of it I may want to publicly tell him to his face that he is meshugah, I prefer to fight the denier by discrediting his ideas and argumentation as dangerous to human life, rather than taking him out on the grounds that he specifically is psychiatrically incompetent. On the individual level, there may very well be in a given denier a bona fide psychiatric paranoid personality disorder or even a worse psychotic paranoid condition, but first there is a diagnostic problem that the mad person is riding the tail (or broomstick) of an as if accepted madness of our human society in first committing mass murder and then in denying the facts, and diagnosis can be difficult. The really disturbed organism is man the species, and our human society, and it would set us back to focus on the individual and not do battle with denials as an aspect and reflection of the madness of our human readiness to commit genocide let alone then to deny it.
Nonetheless, it is interesting to consider the possibility that some deniers are also mental cases.
- By Professor Israel W. Charny Ph.D, Editor-in-Chief Encyclopedia of Genocide, Past President,International Association of Genocide Scholars, Executive Director, Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide
THE QUESTION OF A POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MENTAL DISTURBANCE AND DENIALS OF KNOWN GENOCIDES SUCH AS THE HOLOCAUST AND ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Professor Israel W. Charny Ph.D, Editor-in-Chief Encyclopedia of Genocide, Past President,International Association of Genocide Scholars, Executive Director, Institute on the Holocaust and GenocideIsrael Charny is the author of Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind which has been hailed as one of the outstanding works of the decade. The Book was published by the University of Nebraska Press in ...WHO WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF OUR COUNTRY ACCORDING TO BRITISH SOCIOLOGISTS?
By Armen Manvelian, translated by L.H.On February 6, British "Populus" sociological organization presented the results of the survey conducted in Armenia. According to the organization's Founder and Strategic Director Andrew Cooper they ...20TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARTSAKH MOVEMENT
Yesterday the three traditional Armenian parties - Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), Democratic Liberal Party (Ramkavar Azatakan) and Social Democrat Hnchak Party on the occasion of ...INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE CONFERENCE
By H. Chaqrian, translated by A.M.Yesterday at the Armenia-Marriott Hotel was opened an international science conference, entitled "Caucasian and Middle Eastern States. Possible Partners in Development of Security System". In the conference, ...KHOJALU VICTIMS MEMORIAL IN HAGUE
By H. Chaqrian, translated by A.M."Eni Safak" newspaper, Turkey, on February 4 announced that a memorial dedicated to the "Khojalu Massacre" is to be erected in Hague. The monument is being new designed and it is to be placed in the Muslim ...MANUKIAN'S PARTISANS COME TOGETHER
Translated by L.H.Vazgen Manukian's partisan parties decided to create national democratic movement, announced Chief of Vazgen Manukian campaign office Samvel Shahinian. According to him, National Democratic Union and ...
SARKIS YEDELIAN RE-ELECTED DEPUTY MAYOR OF THE CITY OF RYDE
RAGIP ZARAKOLU : "TO BE MORE CREDIBLE, THE EU SHOULD BE MORE DEMANDING OF TURKEY."
ANC ACTIVISTS AND CONGRESSMAN ADAM SCHIFF DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
DYNAMICS OF AZERI-ARMENIAN-TURKISH RELATIONS: A THREE-LEGGED CHAIR
By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California CourierMCCAIN AVOIDS SPEAKING ABOUT GENOCIDE
Translated by A.M.
ERDOGAN'S INSULTING WORDS ABOUT OBAMA MAY HAUNT TURKEY AFTER THE ELECTIONS
By Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California CourierRETURN OF PETROSIAN, AN OPPORTUNITY?
Mehmet Yilmaz, Zaman
SENATOR CLINTON CALLS FOR PASSAGE OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RESOLUTION
TURKEY TO ADDRESS THE HAGUE INTERNATIONAL COURT TO PROVE THE INCONSISTENCE OF THE "ARMENIAN GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS"
By H. Chaqrian, translated by A.M.WHO WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF OUR COUNTRY ACCORDING TO BRITISH SOCIOLOGISTS?
By Armen Manvelian, translated by L.H."ZAMAN" WONDERS IF TER-PETROSIAN'S RETURN MAY BECOME A NEW OPPORTUNITY
By H. Chaqrian, translated by A.M.SPENDING PLAN CALLS FOR $24 MILLION IN ECONOMIC AID TO ARMENIA, PROVIDES ASYMMETRICAL MILITARY ASSISTANCE
PEOPLE OF NAGORNO KARABAKH ELECT NKR AND NOT RA PRESIDENT
By Aghavni Harutyunian, translated by L.H.ANCA ENDORSES OBAMA IN DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY
CANDIDATE FOR RA PRESIDENT VAHAN HOVHANNESIAN: WE ARE MORE DECISIVE THAN THOSE WHOSE CURSING WORDS YOU CAN FREQUENTLY HEAR FROM TV
Interview by Armen Manvelian, translated by K.A.
- 1806 General Tshitshianov is murdered in Baku.
- 1895 Constantinople's Armenian Patriarch, Matevos Izmirlian, in a letter to Turkey's Minister of Justice, informs him, in detail, of the illegal actions of Turks in the Armenian Provinces, including the murders and deportations of the Armenians.
- 1914 The Great Powers and Turkey sign an Armenian Improvements Project. The Dutch official, Westenenk and the Norwegian envoy, Hoff arrive in Constantinople as observers. Because of the start of the First World War, the agreement remains a dead letter.
- 1915 The Young Turks' "Union and Progress" Committee creates a special Sub-Committee for organizing deportations and genocide of the Armenians in Turkey.
- 1918 Death of Dr. Vaheh Minassian the translator Hayneh.
ARMENIAN NEWS
INTERACTIVE NEWS
INFORMATION
MY ARMTOWN
How to quit smoking?
How to write in Armenian on Windows XP?
All materials published on this website are taken from open sources and are copyrighted by their respective owners. You cannot reproduce or copy any materials published on armtown.com without written consent of original copyright holder. If you want to remove any material, please send us an email with proof of ownership/copyright and your material will be removed immediately. All materials published for information purposes only.