Culture may be conceived as ideas, narratives, and discourses "downloaded" from the outer world. But with the advent of the Internet, we now recognize that each and ever element of culture must have been "uploaded" by some human being at a given point in time.  Beethoven uploaded his symphonies, Shakespeare his plays, Einstein his theory of relativity, the Wright Brothers their flying machine. Can we apply this logic to genocide—acknowledging that this social institution--a form of culture--also has been uploaded or created by human beings?  Richard Koenigsberg will speak in this exciting Seminar about the psychological desires and fantasies that give rise to and sustain genocide.

SPECIAL FORUM WITH RICHARD KOENIGSBERG: "GENOCIDE AS IMMUNOLOGY." (Online via Zoom, Friday, April 23, 2021, 12pm-2pm EST--start time in other time zones directly below).
Sponsored by the Neuropsychoanalysis Association (NPSA): "Dialogues on Aggression" Series
 

Dear Colleague,

In this special seminar sponsored by the Neuropsychoanalysis Association (NPSA), Richard Koenigsberg contends that our work as psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts "has only just begin.  It is time to move into analyzing and performing interventions in the public sphere—making conscious the unconscious in social reality.

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND INFORMATION ON HOW TO REGISTER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS SPECIAL EVENT. Students may click here.

Culture has been conceived as a domain of reality separate from the human psyche, descending upon us "from above." But the Internet allows us to begin to recognize that  every idea, creation, or invention was "uploaded" by some human being at some point in time or another--before it could become an element of culture and subsequently be "downloaded" by other human beings.

Beethoven uploaded his symphonies, Shakespeare his plays, Einstein his theory of relativity, the Wright their flying machine. Can we apply this same logic to genocide—acknowledging that this social institution too--a form of culture--has been uploaded or created by human beings?

Richard Koenigsberg will speak in this exciting Seminar about the psychological desires and fantasies that give rise to and sustain genocide--working  toward awakening from the nightmare of history.

Best regards,

Mary Helen

Online via Zoom | 12 Noon (EDT) | Friday, Apr 23, 2021 (see directly below for start time in selected time zones). A one-hour lecture, with one additional hour for discussion and dialogue. 

Scroll down for Abstract of Richard's Presentation and Bio.


Dialogues on Aggression
This online series, hosted by the Neuropsychoanalysis Association, convenes experts from a number of disciplines – evolutionary biology, neuroscience, psychodynamic psychiatry, developmental psychology, sociology and criminology, for a fascinating exploration of this timely topic.  CPD credits: 2. (Please click here for further information regarding CPD credits.) Want to join the Society? Or not sure you are a member? Click here.

Richard Koenigsberg, Ph.D.

Genocide as Immunology 

Start time in selected time zones

ABSTRACT: Koenigsberg presents a method for studying the language of political leaders to reveal the unconscious fantasies that generate destructive forms of societal behavior like war and genocide. He focuses on Hitler, who conceived Germany as a body politic consisting of the German people as cells of this body. Jews were pathogenic organisms—source of a “disease within the body of the people.” Hitler claimed that Germany possessed an immune system that automatically destroyed alien or not-self cells. The Final Solution was as a struggle to destroy Jewish pathogens, thus to save the life of the German nation.

Koenigsberg examines the case of Donald Trump, who similarly asserted that the presence of a certain class of people within the body politic would lead to national destruction. Trump identified “Mexican rapists” as the primal danger, requiring construction of a “wall” to prevent these alien cells from entering the body politic. 

One would imagine that psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts would enter the arena to explore the causes and meanings of collective forms of violence and mass-destruction. There is profound resistance toward exploring pathological behavior that is “normative.” In his presentation, Koenigsberg will show us how to overcome this resistance in order toand to "make conscious the unconscious in social reality."

Bio
Richard Koenigsberg, Ph.D., is a psychologist and historian, leading authority on Hitler, Nazism and the First World War. Hitler’s Ideology: A Study in Psychoanalytic Society was hailed as an “instant classic” and the “best critical analysis in English of Hitler’s thought”. His psychoanalytic study, Symbiosis and Separation, was praised by Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel, Francis Tustin and Thomas Ogden. His influential, Nations have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust and War reveals a sacrificial dynamic at the heart of warfare. Widely reviewed, commentary and reflections appear here. He is Founder and Director of LIBRARY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE, a scholarly publishing and marketing firm. The renowned Ideologies of War, Genocide and Terror Website features publications by the most prominent scholars on these topics.

His papers have appeared in The American Imago, The Psychoanalytic Review, and Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society. His online publications are here. He has lectured widely throughout the United States and Canada, often Keynote Speaker at conferences. He presented a Workshop at the Church Center of the United Nations at the invitation of Ambassador Anthony DeLuca. Presently, his ideas reach the world through The Library of Social Science Newsletter. A long-time reader—head of a Scholarly Press—wrote to Koenigsberg saying he is “one of the most important thinkers in the world today” and invited him to publish in book form. For now, Koenigsberg is focusing on digital publication, reaching more readers in a single day—than the typical journal article or scholarly book reaches in its lifetime.