ABSTRACT
Let us admit it up front. Organized psychoanalysis holds a deplorable record in the face of moral emergencies. Our lack of civil courage has been stunning. In addition to the examples of Freud in the 1930s and of the self-absorbed British Society, we may consider the extensive collaboration of German psychoanalysts with the Nazi regime (Cocks, 1997) and the silence of organized psychoanalysis in the face of the U.S. resort to torture in the aftermath of the 9-11 attacks. Psychoanalyst Stephen Reisner, a true hero, has led the efforts to find out just how extensively involved were psychologists, with the blessing of the American Psychological Association (to which thousands of us psychoanalysts belong, and from which a few resigned in protest) in the Bush torture programs. 2 A very few other psychoanalysts have been seriously concerned since before 2008 (Boulanger, 2008; Grand, 2008; Soldz, 2008; Summers, 2008). We now know that leaders of the APA collaborated with the CIA and the Department of Defense to plan and justify torture of our fellow
human beings for many years, while members actually helped to do it. The ethical corruption ran deeper, and more extensively, than almost anyone imagined. Most of us remained indifferent, or what is morally equivalent, silent. 3
Once again, however, we face a crisis arguably equivalent in scale to that generated by Hitler. The National Socialists threatened, not only genocide-an intention becoming gradually fully evidentbut also world domination. They menaced the very possibility of civilized, democratic, human dignity-oriented common life. Within two years they had already dominated eastern and western Europe. Next they formed an alliance with Japan to attack the United States, to disable any effective opposition. They wanted to possess Russia for its seemingly endless Lebensraum , a greater Germany. 4
Although the genocides and other crimes against humanity did not rouse resistance or even much attention, the threat of Hitler ruling London and North America changed everything. We mobilized, converting everything to the war effort. In other words, we in the so-called civilized world have faced total existential threat before, and responded totally. Britons stopped driving cars. North Americans and Britons resorted to rationing, and transformed all their industries to meet the threat. 5 We know the drill, even though the psychoanalysts kept hiding and arguing in their cellars.
