"The dream of belonging to a master race": "The inability to mourn" as a contribution to research on the Nazi era

Alexander and Margarete Mitscherlich's book "The inability to mourn" (1967) anticipates recent research insights into the extent and motivation of the identification with National Socialism. Recognition of the immense attachment potential of Nazism was hindered for decades by guilt defense mechanisms, effective not only in public responses but also in the scholarly sector, as a review of research on Nazism reveals. Early insight into the emotional appeal of the Nazi project was vouchsafed to the Mitscherlichs by reason of their self-critical reflection on their own defense wishes. But while they concede active participation in, and more responsibility for, the crimes of the Nazis, they still operate repeatedly in the vicinity of the "alien domination" ideology excusing the behavior of the "ordinary" comrades as passive connivance they were powerless to resist. With great perspicacity they describe the success of the Nazi regime's encouragement to indulge in the "pleasure of acting out infantile fantasies of omnipotence" as part of the racist conception of Germany as a "master race" entitling its members to uninhibited manic violence.