Meetings of the New York Psychoanalytic Society

May 9, 1967. THE CONFRONTATION WITH DEATH. E. de Wind, M.D.

The author presents a theory of the psychology of the concentration camp inmate and the problems of readaptation to the outside world for the few

who managed to survive. The newcomer to the camp was confronted with the certainty that this was to be his end. Unlike most other life experiences, however terrible, that of the concentration camp did not correspond to any inner expectation, not even the worst. According to Dr. de Wind a state of panic ensued in which reality was denied both cognitively and affectively by means of a regression to more primitive ego function and archaic defense methods as the knowledge of being wholly without a future was unacceptable. After this first stage, adaptation to a level at which the individual could continue to live was effected by means of an extreme restriction to the 'here and now' and an attempted avoidance of all association between what is actually happening at the moment and the future. The world was fragmented and primary process functioning played an important role. The relationship between actual happenings and the world outside the camp became vague. In this way, however, the gas chamber could be a reality and yet be experienced as having no relationship to the 'here and now'. Sometimes the process of regression went too far and there remained only a rudimentary psychomotor ego. Many necessary reactions were lost and death soon followed if this state prevailed: for instance, a Dutch doctor was accidently kicked in the heel, developed a slight inflammation, put himself to bed, and died after four days without showing any signs of illness. In the camp, death became a consolation such as mother's womb, father's glory, ideas of martyrdom, and of the even greater suffering the Germans would ultimately undergo. Various forms of religious and delusional fantasies about death were substituted for death as absolute nothingness.

After the war the survivors