Psychoanalysis Was Wrong

◆ Following is an excerpt from a book published in 1960, called “The Informed Heart: Autonomy in a Mass Age,” by Vienna-born psychoanalyst Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, who was imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Dachau Nazi concentration camps during 1938 and 1939 and who is now director of the Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago: “Similar behaviour characterised another group which, according to psychoanalytic theory, would have had to be viewed as extremely neurotic or plainly delusional, and therefore apt to fall apart, as persons, under stress. I refer to the J. W’s [Jehovah’s witnesses], who not only showed unusual heights of human dignity and moral behaviour, but seemed protected against the same camp experience that soon destroyed persons considered very well integrated by my psychoanalytic friends and myself.”

“As conscientious objectors, all Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to the Camps. They were even less affected by imprisonment, and kept their integrity, thanks to rigid religious beliefs. Since their only crime in the eyes of the Nazis was a refusal to bear arms, they were frequently offered freedom in return for military service. They steadfastly refused. Members of this group were . . . exemplary comrades, helpful, correct, and dependable. They were argumentative . . . only when someone questioned their religious beliefs. Because of their conscientious work habits they were often selected as foremen. But once a foreman, and having accepted an order from the S.S. they insisted that prisoners do the work well and in the time allotted. Even though they were the only group of prisoners who never abused or mistreated other prisoners, S.S. officers preferred them as orderlies because of their work habits, skills or unassuming attitudes. Quite in contrast to the continuous warfare among the other prisoners groups, the Jehovah’s Witnesses never misused their closeness to the S.S. officers to gain positions of privilege in the camp.”