Emotions and Mass Atrocity
Philosophical and Theoretical Explorations

A nuanced range of interdisciplinary perspectives on the role of emotions in moral and political reactions to mass violence.

Thomas Brudholm (Edited by), Johannes Lang (Edited by)

9781107127739, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 March 2018

316 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'This is a powerful collection, and ought to be an intellectual call to arms as the politics of the global system raises the spectre of the return of hatreds, xenophobic nationalism and othering, white supremacy and cruel fundamentalisms.' Thomas Reifer, Journal of World-Systems Research

The study of genocide and mass atrocity abounds with references to emotions: fear, anger, horror, shame and hatred. Yet we don't understand enough about how 'ordinary' emotions behave in such extreme contexts. Emotions are not merely subjective and interpersonal phenomena; they are also powerful social and political forces, deeply involved in the history of mass violence. Drawing on recent insights from philosophy, psychology, history, and the social sciences, this volume examines the emotions of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders. Editors Thomas Brudholm and Johannes Lang have brought together an interdisciplinary group of prominent scholars to provide an in-depth analysis of the nature, value, and role of emotions as they relate to the causes and dynamics of mass atrocities. The result is a new perspective on the social, political, and moral dimensions of emotions in the history of collective violence and its aftermath.

1. Introduction – emotions and mass atrocity Thomas Brudholm and Johannes Lang
Part I. Causes and Dynamics: 2. Mass exterminations and the history of emotions – the view from classical antiquity David Konstan
3. Fear, hope, and the formation of specific intention in genocide Neta C. Crawford
4. The proud executioner – pride and the psychology of genocide Johannes Lang
5. Pondering hatred Thomas Brudholm and Birgitte S. Johansen
6. Social science and the study of perpetrators Arne Johan Vetlesen
Part II. Emotional Responses: 7. 'Destroy your sight with a new gorgon' – mass atrocity and the phenomenology of horror Adriana Cavarero
8. Perpetrator disgust: a morally destructive emotion Ditte Marie Munch-Jurisic
9. Unravelling the meaning of survivor shame Alba Montes Sánchez and Dan Zahavi
10. Beyond empathy and compassion: genocide and the emotional complexities of humanitarian politics Andrew A. G. Ross
Part III. Repair and Commemoration: 11. Hope(s) after genocide Margaret Urban Walker
12. Traumatic emotions Jeffrey Blustein
13. Embarrassment and political repair Nir Eisikovits.

Subject Areas: War crimes [JWXK], Human rights [JPVH], Psychology: emotions [JMQ], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], The Holocaust [HBTZ1], Genocide & ethnic cleansing [HBTZ], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3]