Judith M. Hughes explores the psychological motivations behind the Holocaust, analyzing works by notable historians. She highlights how their insights into meaning and intention offer a deeper understanding of this tragic event, while maintaining its disturbing nature.
Tracing the line of succession from Sigmund Freud, through Melanie Klein to Fairbairn and Winnicott, Judith Hughes demonstrates the internal development of the British school of psychoanalysis and the coherence of its legacy. Both lay reader and professional will find the book illuminating.
The science of mind has long grappled with philosophical puzzles, particularly regarding memory distortions and the mind-body relationship. Sigmund Freud's clinical practice compelled him to confront these issues, leading to the emergence of psychoanalysis. This work explores the evolution of Freud's ideas through his clinical experiences, highlighting the successes and failures of significant case histories and establishing a distinct discipline. Freud's interactions with hysterical patients forced him to reconsider the mind-body problem, which he approached through the lens of psychosexuality, as illustrated by the cases of Anna O., Emmy von N., Elisabeth von R., Dora, and Little Hans. In his exploration of memory value with patients like Dora and Little Hans, as well as the Rat Man and the Wolf Man, Freud reintroduced psychosexuality and developed the Oedipus complex. The narrative also follows the evolution of Freud's understanding of the analytic situation and the importance of transference, including his own role as a patient. By weaving these cases into a coherent narrative, the author presents a textured intellectual history that offers a fresh perspective on the origins and development of psychoanalysis.
Exploring the evolution of psychoanalytic thought, this work delves into Melanie Klein's contributions and those of her successors in understanding guilt as a natural aspect of human morality. It examines how their interpretations build upon Freud's foundational ideas, offering insights into the complexities of moral sense and its psychological implications. The book presents a thorough analysis of the interplay between guilt and human behavior, highlighting the significance of these theories in contemporary psychoanalysis.
Focusing on the evolution of psychoanalysis, this book delves into the ideas and clinical challenges faced by prominent psychoanalysts over the past century. It highlights their innovative practices and how their struggles have shaped the field, providing a vivid portrayal of the discipline's development.
"Witnessing the Holocaust presents the autobiographical writings, including diaries and autobiographical fiction, of six Holocaust survivors who lived through and chronicled the Nazi genocide. Drawing extensively on the works of Victor Klemperer, Ruth Kluger, Michal Glowinski, Primo Levi, Imre Kertesz and Bela Zsolt, this books conveys, with vivid detail, the persecution of the Jews from the beginning of the Third Reich until its very end. It gives us a sense both of what the Holocaust meant to the wider community swept up in the horrors and what it was like for the individual to weather one of the most shocking events in history. Survivors and witnesses disappear, and history, not memory, becomes the instrument for recalling the past. Judith M. Hughes secures a place for narratives by those who experienced the Holocaust in person. This compelling text is a vital read for all students of the Holocaust and Holocaust memory."--Bloomsbury Publishing