Science, Psychology and the Holocaust

Catalog description

This course examines the Holocaust historically, as well as scientifically in the sense of selected research and theories of genocide which attempt to explain or understand its occurrence and process. We are particularly interested in psychological research, theories and concepts of genocide. The course also examines notions of science, and the challenge the Holocaust poses to any science and psychology of knowing, whether it is one of explanation or one of understanding. We will also spend some time examining selected texts of Freud and Frankl?s, as well as pertinent aspects of their lives, given the acute intersections of their lives and work with the Holocaust. As a Breakaway course, there is a mandatory travel component attached to this course. We will travel to Vienna, Austria to visit Freud and Frankl's homes, and explore the city that was the psychological center of the world at the turn of the 19th century. From Vienna, we travel to Krakow, Poland, where we will visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, arguably the most notorious of the Nazi death camps.