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The author, a Netherlands psychiatrist, whose Total War and the Human Mind1 was recently reviewed in this QUARTERLY, was for a time a German prisoner, later escaping to England. As one who took an active part in the resistance movement and who was under sentence of death, he has seen at close range the ugly face of Nazism and knows well whereof he speaks. The volume consists of ten 'psychological essays', under the general headings, The Influence of Total War, The Impact of War on Social Life and Psychological Peacefare. All of them deserve reading, for they give firsthand knowledge of topics which have much to do with the future peace of the world. Only a few of the essays can be summarized here.
The first discusses Treason and Traitors. The collaborationists in Holland, as elsewhere, were drawn from the ranks of the frustrated and neurotic—a fact, Meerloo says, which was recognized by the man in the street at the time. The Nazis, masters of group psychology, sought out these people and by bribes, cajolery and threats won them over. The feelings of guilt, the self-exculpation,