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

Subjects:

• Psychology » Social Psychology
• History » Holocaust Studies
• Multicultural Studies » Jewish Studies
• Sociology » Sociology (General)

Reviews:

• This scholarly book will interest graduate students and researchers investigating either side of the Bettelheim argument.
  —Choice
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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

• Endorsement From William B. Helmreich, Professor of Sociology and Judaic Studies
  CUNY Graduate Center and City College of New York: 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.
• Endorsement From C. Fred Alford
  Professor of Government, University of Maryland: 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.
• Endorsement From Anna Ornstein, M.D.
  Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati
  Training and Supervising Analyst, Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute: 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.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• The Concordance of Opposites and the Mass Society
• Bettelheim's Analysis of the Mass Society
• Concentration Camp Inmate's Behavior Dialectically Conceptualized
• Autonomous Behavior in the Concentration Camps
• "Survival at Any Price" in the Concentration Camps
• The Critics
• Resistance to the Negative Aspects of the Mass Society
• Index