E-Book Overview
Chronicling horrific events that brought the 20th century to witness the largest number of systematic slaughters of human beings in any century across history, this work goes beyond historic details and examines contemporary psychological means that leaders use to convince individuals to commit horrific acts in the name of a politial or military cause. Massacres in Nanking, Rwanda, El Salvador, Vietnam, and other countries are reviewed in chilling detail. But the core issue is what psychological forces are behind large- scale killing; what psychology can be used to indoctrinate normal people with a Groupthink that moves individuals to mass murder brutally and without regret, even when the victims are innocent children. Dutton shows us how individuals are convinced to commit such sadistic acts, often preceded by torture, after being indoctrinated with beliefs that the target victims are unjust, inhuman or viral, like a virus that must be destroyed or it will destroy society.
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENOCIDE, MASSACRES, AND EXTREME VIOLENCE
Praeger Security International Advisory Board
Board Cochairs Loch K. Johnson, Regents Professor of Public and International Affairs, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia (U.S.A.) Paul Wilkinson, Professor of International Relations and Chairman of the Advisory Board, Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St. Andrews (U.K.) Members Eliot A. Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies and Director, Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University (U.S.A.) Anthony H. Cordesman, Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy, Center for Strategic and International Studies (U.S.A.) The´re`se Delpech, Director of Strategic Affairs, Atomic Energy Commission, and Senior Research Fellow, CERI (Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques), Paris (France) Sir Michael Howard, former Chichele Professor of the History of War and Regis Professor of Modern History, Oxford University, and Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History, Yale University (U.K.) Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy, USA (Ret.), former Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Department of the Army (U.S.A.) Paul M. Kennedy, J. Richardson Dilworth Professor of History and Director, International Security Studies, Yale University (U.S.A.) Robert J. O’Neill, former Chichele Professor of the History of War, All Souls College, Oxford University (Australia) Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development, Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland (U.S.A.) Jusuf Wanandi, co-founder and member, Board of Trustees, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (Indonesia) Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International (U.S.A.)
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GENOCIDE, MASSACRES, AND EXTREME VIOLENCE Why ‘‘Normal’’ People Come to Commit Atrocities
Donald G. Dutton
PRAEGER SECURITY INTERNATIONAL Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dutton, Donald G., 1943– The psychology of genocide, massacres, and extreme violence : why ‘‘normal’’ people come to commit atrocities / Donald G. Dutton. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978–0–275–99000–8 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0–275–99000–1 (alk. paper) 1. Violence. 2. Social psychology. 3. Genocide—Psychological aspects. I. Title. HM1116.D88 2007 304.6’63—dc22 2007005293 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2007 by DonaldG. Dutton All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007005293 ISBN-13: 978–0–275–99000–8 ISBN-10: 0–275–99000–1