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    `In pursuit of the Nazi mind?' the deployment of psychoanalysis in the allied struggle against Germany

    Pick, Daniel (2009) `In pursuit of the Nazi mind?' the deployment of psychoanalysis in the allied struggle against Germany. Psychoanalysis and History 11 (2), pp. 137-157. ISSN 1460-8235.

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    Abstract

    This paper discusses how psychoanalytic ideas were brought to bear in the Allied struggle against the Third Reich and explores some of the claims that were made about this endeavour. It shows how a variety of studies of Fascist psychopathology, centred on the concept of superego, were mobilized in military intelligence, post-war planning and policy recommendations for ‘denazification’. Freud's ideas were sometimes championed by particular army doctors and government planners; at other times they were combined with, or displaced by, competing, psychiatric and psychological forms of treatment and diverse studies of the Fascist ‘personality’. This is illustrated through a discussion of the treatment and interpretation of the deputy leader of the Nazi Party, Rudolf Hess, after his arrival in Britain in 1941.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Fascism, Rudolf Hess, superego
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2010 11:20
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 16:53
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/2789

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