Rassenschande, genocide and the reproductive Jewish body: examining the use of rape and sexualized violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust

Rape and sexual violence against Jewish women is a relatively unexplored area of investigation. This article adds to the scant literature on this topic. It asks: how and why did women's reproductive bodies (gender), combined with their status as Jews (race), make them particularly vulnerable during the Holocaust? The law against Rassenschande (racial defilement) prohibited sexual relations between Aryans and non-Aryans. Yet, Jewish women were raped by German men. Providing a more nuanced account than is provided by the dehumanization thesis, this article argues that women were targeted precisely because of their Jewishness and their reproductive capabilities. In addition, this piece proposes that the genocidal attack on women's bodies in the form of rape (subsequently leading to the murder of impregnated women) and sexualized violence (forced abortions and forced sterilizations) must be interpreted as an attack on an essentialized group: woman-as-Jew

The concepts of the Fall and the hero in Hegel's thought

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityPLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you.The purpose of the thesis is to consider the concepts of the Fall and Hero in Hegel's thought. Hegel's concept of the Fall is important because the Fall represents the condition of man's rise to self-consciousness. Hegel's concept of the Hero is important because the Hero represents man as self-conscious in history. Consequently, a consideration of the relationship between the Fall and the Hero should throw light on the meaning and function of self-consciousness as the central theme of human history for Hegel. An analysis of the Fall and the Hero may therefore illuminate the dialectical basis and systematic structure of Hegel's thought. In so doing, the analysis may lead to a clearer understanding of Hegel's view of the meaning and function of philosophy. Chapter I discusses Hegel's interpretation of the Fall. He describes the Fall as the "eternal Mythus of Man-in fact the very transition by which he becomes man."1 The condition of man which is dramatized in the Fall is dialectical--the process of a self becoming self-conscious. Initially, Adam is seen as an object for God. Through the movements of the Fall, he becomes an object for himself. In pure consciousness, or immediacy, man's otherness is in being an object-in-itself. In the development of self-consciousness man is an object-for-an-other--i.e. for man. This is the discovery Adam made for himself in the Fall. [TRUNCATED]2031-01-0

Historical reconstruction and psychoanalysis

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the application of psychoanalysis to historical reconstructions; to explore the similarities between psychoanalysis and history; to illustrate how these similarities make plausible the claim the psychoanalytic theory could a valuable tool for historians; and to present and analyze certain methodological problems which arise in the use of psychoanalysis in history and to suggest ways in which these problems may be resolved. History and psychoanalysis are analogous in some important and interesting respects. Both disciplines attempt to understand and explain human affairs by an investigation into the reasons and underlying motivations of human conduct. Both depend upon the reconstruction the human past as part of their method and theory. Thus, the history-taking of the psychoanalyst is relevant to the history-taking of the biographer; that is to say, the historian-as-biographer is to his subject as the psychoanalyst-as-history-taler is to his patient. It is therefore plausible to claim that since psychoanalytic theory is concerned with the emotional life of the individual, it could be a valuable tool for historical biography. Beyond reconstruction, both historian and psychoanalyst, in various degrees, attempt to cure men of the domination of the past. The psychoanalyst tries to cure his patient of the present domination of unconscious memories. The historian, at least in one of his functions, tries to cure his reader of similar kinds of tyranny the past seems to hod over human societies. In this respect, the therapeutic aims of psychoanalysis are related to what may be characterized as social therapist is to his reader as psychoanalyst-as-individual - therapist is to his patient. Since psychoanalysis is characterized as biographical in nature, biography can serve as the paradigm case for the use psychoanalysis in history. Biography, however, is not the strongest case for psychoanalytic history. Most historian do not write biographies, and the argument for psychoanalytic biography becomes a weak argument for psychoanalytic history. Nevertheless, historian often is biographical even if they do not write biographies. Psychoanalysis is thus applicable to history which is at the intersection between biography and the reconstruction of historical events; namely, events in which individuals, about whom we do not need or want a biography, play roles; but individuals about whose motivations we do need of want an explanation. The use of psychoanalysis in history does present certain methodological problems: (1) To what extent is the data needed to make psychoanalytic interpretations available in history?; (2) How can a theory and technique meant to be used in live confrontation be used to help reconstruct and understand the past of an historical person?; (3) How is validation of psychoanalytic hypotheses possible if the immediateness of the clinical encounter is missing?; (4) To what extent is the proffered psychoanalytic explanation more useful than ordinary historical explanation? The historian can derive hypotheses of a psychoanalytic sort from the kind and amount of data which is available: diaries, memoirs of his own and others, recordings, photographs, movies, etc. He may learn to develop ways of reading his data so that he can indicate and interpret psychoanalytically relevant statements and validate these interpretations in terms of the recurrence of similar patterns of behavior, as the therapist does in his observation of transference patterns. There is good reason to suspect that just as the therapist ‘reads ’between the lines of his patient’s utterances and behavior to construct his diagnoses and interpretations, the historian with psychoanalytic knowledge can also ‘read’ between the lines of his evidence to construct an appraisal about his subject. The concepts used in the appraisal of live patients are applicable in the appraisal of historical figures as indices of sets of tendencies which should be looked for in the historical evidence. The historian must be careful about claims made concerning the internal experiences of a subject because he is unable to ask questions of the subject directly. He must make guesses. However, these guesses are suggested by the evidence. The plausibility of conclusions or explanatory hypotheses arrived at must be weighed in terms of the configuration of evidence which can be amassed their favor. To validate interpretations suggested by the evidence in one context, the historian can appeal to new historical materials from another context. Just as the therapist gets independent check as the analysis proceeds, the historian gets independent checks as the analysis proceeds, the historian gets independent checks as his historical research broadens and intensifies. A study of Sir Henry Clinton by Frederick Wyatt and William Willcox serves to show how these methodological problems can be handled and how psychoanalytic theory can be helpful. They indicate that the psychoanalytic assumption of the existence of unconscious processes provides a more illuminating explanation of Clinton’s behavior than the usual assumption of historians which says that people behave on the basis their intentions with self-consciousness. As Charles Pierce said, “it is the beliefs men betray and not what they parade which has to be studied.