[.ca] The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing And The Psychology Of ... (ISBN 0465049052)

Not deep enough:
This book is based on direct interviews with a number of Nazi Doctors, but rarely quotes from them. It covers a wide range of issues, but delves deeply into few of them. It purports to be a pyschological insight into why the Nazi doctors did what they did, and how the psychological mechanisms worked that allowed them to operate. Though Lifton is a Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, I didn't find his explanations particularly insightful. He repeats a few key ideas often, without going into how these mechanisms work. Instead, he fills the book with detail of what they did. On balance, it added little to my understanding of the subject. The detail of what the Nazi Doctors did is readily available elsewhere. I was hoping to find first hand accounts, of which very little was included, and psychological insights. Perhaps it would have been more useful if he had covered fewer people and situations in more depth, with more analysis. He actually spoke to these people, but the book mostly reads as drily as any history book. Disappointing.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED UNDER DEMOCRACY..:
Under Democracy, have benefited and exploited from the evil science of Hitler & Yamamoto - we used their research archives. We in the US have experimented on people in the name of science: 1) sterilized people of color ( american indians / blacks ); experiments with STD infected peoples of color, 2) exposed people to nuclear radiation & biological agents ( military service men ). 3) We continue to do so - if you consider a fetus a living being ( T/Stem-cell research ) We murder fetuses in the most gruesome way - partial birth abortion, We practice / promote population control - or genetic cleansing - if you consider the fact the majority of abortions are by poor people of color. We make by-products from fetal tissue - similar to the old adage of the "baby-skin lamp shade" that the Holocaust historians love to crow about. It was the great Democracy that made the first Atom bomb & dropped ( two of them ) on Japan - invented by Jewish scientists ( at least that is what they are claiming now ..- that Hiesenberg was not close to producing the bomb ). The ICBMs we have today are direct decendants from Hitlers V2 rocketry - brought to the US by Jewish scientists. The only difference between now and then - is that the victims are new, and the former victims are now participating in what this book raises as wickedly unethical behavior.

Must read for those concerned with bioethics!:
When I read The Origins of Nazi Genocide, which came out in 1995, the author referred to this original book concerning the physicians and scientists who had exploited the 'situation' in Germany to their own ends. I had also come across references to this book in many, many professional papers...yet, made the stupid decision that I didn't need to read it. I finally decided I had to read this when my advisor in science education recommended it because he was using it in teaching bioethics to science teachers. Though Friedlander's book is excellent, and was my introduction to The Medical Holocaust (especially as concerned the disabled) Lifton's book goes much further and deals with the physician/scientists within the concentration camps as well as in the psychiatric institutions which became involved in the killing machinery of the Nazis. Lifton's book explores the rationalizations made by these men to take advantage of a situation to experiment on those who could not give informed consent. Though Lifton tends to make a few speculations concerning motives from his interviews with physicians who were not prosecuted or were absolved of their involvement in these camps...his speculations are on target (mostly) and he backs up his statements with the words of these doctors from letters and interviews with those people who had the most to do with them: the prisoner physicians forced to work in these environments not only to save their own lives, but the lives of so many others. Of course, more information is in this book concerning the atrocities. Sometimes, I had to put the book down and leave it for a while because the information is so horrendous. It is so beyond belief that so many physicians could rationalize the experimentation, using a statement I've grown to recognize in legal documents and even in newspapers in the U.S. ('for the good of society'). I just cringe now when I see this or sentences like this. Science should never replace the rights of the individuals. And scientists are never objective...they have the same prejudices and biases that society has and it permeates their work...to the point of biasing the information they find. My only complaint about Lifton's book is occasional repetition or dwelling on certain topics/agendas. Sometimes, it seemed as if I had just reread the same pages, but Lifton was trying to make a point in most of these cases, or make a case for what he was saying... The need to teach ethics in all fields of endeavors, including medicine and research science is all the more important today. If we don't, the work of Lifton and FRiedlander to remind the world of the horrors of The MEdical Holocaust will have been in vain. The slippery slope is growing with advanced technology, genomics, cloning, and stem cell use, without the accompanying legal protections. The Nuremberg Code, etched into the history of mankind in 1947, seems to have been forgotten. To remind your students of the need for morals and ethics within all fields, this book is a necessary addition for required reading. I will certainly make it required for those I work with.... Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

Good but no objective:
This was a all around informative book. I enjoyed reading it and it changed my perspective of the Nazis. It just proves my theory that this is what happens when you take yourself to seriously. It just amazes me that these were doctor and yet they still never used common sense. As the narrative goes, it is well written and thought out. He interviewed numerous doctor and survivors and amassed a large enough fact to construct a clear recount of the concentration camps. At most though this is a history book and most defitinely not a psychology book. Yes the author makes evaluations and tries to explain but it is very poor. He'll state an event and then throw in his two sense about what was going on. Everything is objective till he expresses his opinion and then it becomes boring. He is jewish but that doesn't mean that he couldn't of written an objective account. He simple doesn't try. He acts like he is compeled to speak his mind, almost ruining the entire chapter you had just read. I give him a five as a historian but a two in his opinions.

Fascinating insight into the darkness of war.:
Fascinating looks at the psychological make up of some of the most infamous people who, in absolute hatred of Jews and other so called undesirables, committed unforgivable crimes against humanity during the Second World War. The author gives a good case study of each of these doctors, and attempts to give an explanation as to why they believed their experiments were in the name of medical research. Chilling but real.