Therapeutic Fascism

Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New Order

Ana Antic

Oxford Studies in Modern European History

The first history of World War Two violence approached through psychiatric patient files
The first history of mental health sciences in the Balkans, and of the political and social role played by psychiatrists and new ideas about the human mind
Spans the transition from Nazi to communist government in the mid-1940s
Provides new insights into the experience of mass violence and the nature of collaboration, occupation, fascism, and communism
One of the first studies of the enormous effects of World War Two on the intellectual history of psychiatry

Therapeutic Fascism

Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New Order

Ana Antic

Oxford Studies in Modern European History

Description

During World War Two, death and violence permeated all aspects of the everyday lives of ordinary people in Eastern Europe. Throughout the region, the realities of mass murder and incarceration meant that people learnt to live with daily public hangings of civilian hostages and stumbled on corpses of their neighbors. Entire populations were drawn into fierce and uncompromising political and ideological conflicts, and many ended up being more than mere victims or observers: they themselves became perpetrators or facilitators of violence, often to protect their own lives, but also to gain various benefits. Yugoslavia in particular saw a gradual culmination of a complex and brutal civil war, which ultimately killed more civilians than those killed by the foreign occupying armies.

Therapeutic Fascism tells a story of the tremendous impact of such pervasive and multi-layered political violence, and looks at ordinary citizens' attempts to negotiate these extraordinary wartime political pressures. It examines Yugoslav psychiatric documents as unique windows into this harrowing history, and provides an original perspective on the effects of wartime violence and occupation through the history of psychiatry, mental illness, and personal experience. Using previously unexplored resources, such as patients' case files, state and institutional archives, and the professional medical literature of the time, this volume explores the socio-cultural history of wartime through the eyes of (mainly lower-class) psychiatric patients. Ana Antic examines how the experiences of observing, suffering, and committing political violence affected the understanding of human psychology, pathology, and normality in wartime and post-war Balkans and Europe.

Therapeutic Fascism

Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New Order

Ana Antic

Oxford Studies in Modern European History

Therapeutic Fascism

Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New Order

Ana Antic

Oxford Studies in Modern European History

Author Information

Ana Antic is a post-doctoral fellow at Birkbeck at the project Reluctant Internationalists: A History of Public Health and International Organisations, Movements, and Experts in Twentieth Century Europe. She received her PhD in history from Columbia University. Her research focuses on the history of modern Europe and the Balkans, history of war and violence, and history of psychiatry. She has published in East European Politics and Societies, Social History of Medicine, History of Psychiatry, and a number of other journals.

Therapeutic Fascism

Experiencing the Violence of the Nazi New Order

Ana Antic

Oxford Studies in Modern European History

Reviews and Awards

Shortlisted for the 2017 Gladstone Prize of the Royal Historical Society

"...This is an important and useful book: a comprehensive political analysis that deals even-handedly with all aspects of Serbia's war; it will be the key reference for students of the region and specialists of the Second World War alike." -- John Paul Newman, Journal of Modern History

"Antić's central thesis is that war revolutionized Yugoslav psychiatry from both the right and the left ... Antic makes a convincing case for Yugoslav psychiatric exceptionalism." -- Dusan I. Bjelic, Slavic Review

"Antić's book tells of the violence and trauma of the occupation at the level of the individual psyche, through 949 psychiatric case histories across varied hospital archives. The files unveil not only the psychological impact of wartime occupation, but also people's internal conflicts about the political events surrounding them. They offer a unique insight into class, gender and political allegiances, making a striking, original contribution to the social history of Yugoslavia [...] This book...serves as a robust vindication of the importance of bringing these patient stories to light; restoring an aspect of experience to the historical record, from actors who would not otherwise be given a voice. Indeed, Antic eloquently shows us that it is imperative to do so, to fully document and acknowledge the effects of wartime violence upon the psyche." -- Sarah Marks, Social History of Medicine