Bettelheim postulates that social forces are informally eroding the self-realization of the individual

In this book Bettelheim explores the choice between individualism and the security of mass society. He postulates that social forces are informally eroding the self-realization of the individual. This work reflects much of what Bettelheim wrote in his essay “Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations.” It discusses the daily activities and life in concentration camps, the negative effect of the camps on the inmates, and what behaviors on the part of the inmates contributed to their own suffering. He mentions his own strategies of adjustment. He says that in 1939 the Final Solution was not yet in effect, that later inmates faced more difficult situations. In addition to criticizing the inmates’ passivity, Bettelheim indicts European Jewry for docility and compliance, and he attacks Otto Frank, Anne’s father, for not joining the Resistance, accusing Frank of having a death wish, passively awaiting his doom. Bettelheim goes on to analyze how National Socialist Germany was organized, how the state was reflected in the concentration camp, and how his own society showed certain tendencies toward acceptance. His appeal is that humans must not be like ants.

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