Final Solutions: Human Nature, Capitalism and Genocide

Sabby Sagall

ISBN 10: 0745326536 / ISBN 13: 9780745326535

Published by Pluto Press, 2013

About this Item

What causes genocide? Through an examination of four modern genocides - the Native Americans, the Armenians, the Jews and the Rwandan Tutsis - Sabby Sagal formulates a theoretical framework for understanding some of the darkest hours of humanity. Drawing on the scholarship of a range of Marxist psychoanalysts, from the Frankfurt School to Wilhelm Reich, shows how genocides are enacted by social classes or communities that have experienced isolation and denial of human needs, prostration and humiliation at the hands of major historical defeats, or powerlessness. These denials or degradations produce severe reactions: hatred, destructiveness and an impotent rage, which is often projected onto a perceived 'other'. Through close analysis and theorising of the commonalities and differences between recent genocides, Sagal hopes to produce greater understanding of the socio-psychological rationale behind atrocities, in order to prevent recurrences.

Seller Inventory # 0061149

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Final Solutions: Human Nature, Capitalism and Genocide
• Publisher: Pluto Press
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745326536
• ISBN 13: 9780745326535
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Final Solutions offers a ground-breaking and genuinely unique analysis of modern genocide. Sabby Sagall draws on the insights of the Frankfurt school and Wilhelm Reich to create an innovative combination of Marxism and psychoanalysis. He argues that genocide is a product of an ‘irrational’ destructiveness by social classes or communities that have suffered major historical defeats or similar forms of extreme stress.

Sagall shows how the denial of human needs and the ensuing feelings of isolation and powerlessness propel groups to project their impotent rage, hatred and destructiveness engendered by these defeats on to the 'outsider' and the 'other'.

The book applies this theoretical framework to four modern genocides – that of the Native Americans, the Armenians, the Jews and the Rwandan Tutsis. This is a truly pioneering contribution which adds to our understanding of some of the darkest hours of humanity – and how we can stop them from happening again.

About the Author

Sabby Sagall is a former senior lecturer in Sociology at the University of East London. He writes regularly for Socialist Review.