190
PARTISAN REVIEW
with cases of individual cruelty , whether it is in the sense of manifest
sexual perversion , namely sadism , or in serious sex crimes , such as rape
accompanied by murder. Quite different from these single acts of
terrifying cruelty is the genesis of mass murder. Take My Lai as an
example, or Katyn , the mass murder of Polish army officers by the
Russian army in World WarII. Who conceives of such plans? Why and
how is he effective in realizing them? As we know from a speech of
Heinrich Himmler to 5.5. officers, the planning of mass murder is by
no means a spontaneous act. Premeditation of this type belongs
to
quite long-standing , paranoic systems; in Himmler 's case it was the
salvation of mankind from cunning "Untermenschen" (dehuman–
ized human beings) .
*
Closer scrutiny reveals that those fantasies
represent impulses of an archaic , " prehistoric ," destructive aggressiv–
ity . The ecstasy of destruction and murder is accompanied by feelings
of omnipotence and sometimes of a messianic mission .
If one accepts the theory that we meet in these frightful murders
the signs of instincrual motivation on a very primitive level , then we are
able
to
explain how it is that these cruelties recur again and again. But
in addition , we know that only a very strong ego could resist the spread
of such a state of delusion , of omnipotent murderous destruction .
What is
to
be desired, then, is an education that gives a better
understanding of self with regard
to
our basic instinctual aggressive
needs, and that helps the individual not only
to
suppress destructive
impulses , but
to
keep them in fantasy . These fantasies should not be
encapsulated as in the state of repression; the critical ego should main–
tain access
to
them and be aware of them . This would mean that a
psychological drama could replace factual tragedies .
All the suffering in concentration camps has taught us little about
the....origins of cruelty, and will not teach us much, so long as justice
deals only with the principle of retribution . Many years ago , Paul
Reiwald remarked that each society has the criminals it deserves . Yet
we do not understand why we deserve Con-son or Auschwitz , with
their perpetration of inconceivable brutality . And]apanese kamikazes
·Cf. Mitscherlich / Mielke, "Wissenschaft ohne Menschlichkeit. Dokumente des Nurn berger Arzteprozesses,
Heidelberg, 1949." " MoSt of you have learned what it means when 100 corpses lie together, or 500, or 1000.
To have endured this and-with the exception of cases of human weakness-tO have remained decent, this has
made us hard . This is a page of glory in our hiStory never before written , and never again
to
be written ."
Heinrich Himmlcr, at a meeting of group leaders
aI
Posen , OctOber 4, 1943.
