SOURCE: Fleck, Christian, and Albert Müller. “Bruno Bettelheim and the Concentration Camps.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 33, no. 1 (winter 1997): 1-37.

In the following essay, Fleck and Müller explore the central tenets of Bettelheim's analysis of the Nazi concentration camps and contrasts his theory with the interpretations of other authors who have written on the same subject.

Just imagine, Wiesenthal, that you were arriving in New York, and the people asked you, “How was it in those German concentration camps? What did they do to you?” […] You would tell the truth to the people in America. That's right. And you know what would happen, Wiesenthal? […] They wouldn't believe you. They'd say you were crazy. Might even put you into a madhouse.

—SS-Rottenführer Merz speaking to Simon Wiesenthal, September, 1944¹

1. Introduction

Given Bettelheim's international reputation and the early date of his first publication on concentration...