Bodies of members of the People's Temple who died as a result of suicidal instructions given by cult leader Jim Jones.
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Bodies of German soldiers (March 1945) who died as a result of Hitler’s suicidal battle strategies.
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Abstract: The discourse of history is created precisely to provide a space of reality where nothing may be conceived as abnormal. Within this domain, we are permitted to imagine that shooting and bombing, murdering and mutilating human beings—are not abnormal.
Why have human beings created such a space—where bizarre and massively destructive forms of behavior are deemed normal and normative?
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On November 18, 1978 in Guyana, South America, 900 men, women and children perished after drinking grape Kool-Aid mixed with poison. Papers written analyzing the last days of Jim Jones and Jonestown discuss the “psychotic fantasy of masochistic group death,” “revolutionary suicide,” and “mass madness.”
When it comes to a "cult," terms like these slip off the tongue.
In 1945 (the last year of the Second World War), 900 Germans died every two hours, every day, for four consecutive months. Yet I’ve never heard terms like “psychotic fantasy,” “masochistic group death,” “revolutionary suicide,” or “mass madness” applied to the Nazi case.
Apparently, when an entire society engages in bizarre, massively destructive forms of behavior, we shy away from describing these behaviors as manifestations of psychotic fantasy, a masochistic death wish, mass-madness, etc.--even though these terms clearly are applicable.
Why does the discourse of “history” refuse to use these terms? Why do we shy away from conceptualizing (normative) historical events as massive forms of psychopathology?
A preliminary hypothesis: The discourse of history is created precisely to provide a space of reality where nothing may be conceived as abnormal. Within this domain, we are permitted to imagine that shooting and bombing, murdering and mutilating human beings—are not abnormal.
Why have human beings created such a space—where bizarre and massively destructive forms of behavior are deemed normal and normative?
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