Foundation for the Study of Political Pathology

The Psychology of War, Genocide, and Terrorism

Towards Conversation

For years, we’ve shared Newsletters to explore the psychology of war, genocide, and the Holocaust—ideas many of you read and reflected on.

Now, we’re entering a new phase: from one-way communication to conversation.

In the coming months, We’ll be inviting readers to join in video conversations approximately twenty minutes in length—informal, thoughtful conversation to engage directly with these ideas.

You are one of nearly seven thousand people who has been receiving and opening these newsletters for many years. You have opened (and hopefully read) these newsletters from the time we began distributing them.

—Richard A. Koenigsberg, PhD

—Andrew Hammer

PS: Thank you for being part of this work. Take time to enjoy the video interview below with one of the important scholars with whom Richard has discussed the themes of warfare and genocide.

Richard Koenigsberg with Robert Samuels: Psychoanalysis, Hitler, and Politics

(To watch the video click the arrow above.)

In this wide-ranging and reflective interview, Richard Koenigsberg, director of the Library of Social Science, discusses his psychoanalytic approach to understanding Hitler, National Socialism, and political ideology. He argues that the Holocaust was a function of warfare, with Hitler justifying genocide through a logic of sacrifice, connecting the deaths of German soldiers to the destruction of the Jews. Koenigsberg delves into the psychological roots of ideology, particularly the fantasy of an omnipotent object—like the nation—internalized by individuals and leaders such as Hitler.

About

Robert Samuels, PhD

Robert Samuels is a psychoanalyst, author, and lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches advanced writing and rhetoric. Holding doctorates in both English and Psychoanalysis, Dr. Samuels bridges the worlds of theory, politics, and everyday life through a distinctly psychoanalytic lens.

His work explores how unconscious processes shape ideology, culture, and media—from the psychology of political polarization to the hidden desires driving our digital age. He is the author of more than ten books, including The Psychopathology of Political Ideologies, Freud for the Twenty-First Century, and Psychoanalyzing the Left and Right after Donald Trump.

For a list of books Dr. Samuels has published, click here to see his Amazon page.