ABSTRACT
Hannah Arendt by Pam Katz and Margarethe von Trotta dramatizes the fierce debate ignited over half a century ago surrounding Arendt’s coverage of the 1962 trial of Adolf Eichmann, the former Nazi administrator of Jewish affairs. In her account, Arendt argued that Eichmann’s biggest flaw was that he demonstrated an “inability to think,” and she also criticized Jewish leadership for collaborating with the Nazis. Both points aroused public suspicion and outrage, insofar as they were interpreted to minimize Eichmann’s guilt and unnecessarily further victimize the Jewish people. In order to come to terms more deeply with Arendt’s claims, it is necessary to investigate more closely what Arendt means by “thinking,” and how this view evolved over the course of her coverage of Eichmann’s trial. We also will take up the issue of how this view of thinking, anticipates the concept of mentalization in contemporary psychoanalysis. We explore how the multiplicity of Arendt’s identity, including her sometimes seemingly contradictory selves—past and present, German and Jewish, public and private—reflects the powerful and often conflictual historical currents of the twentieth century, including the Holocaust and the formation of Israel. We discuss how these multiple selves provided Arendt with the capacity to identify and tolerate, within limits, the complexities of victim/victimizer dynamics—and perhaps to reveal to us the new face of evil for our time.
