A Personality Trait That Resists Violent and Cruel Impulses

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In my last post, I explored the complexity of cruelty and the social conditions that can lead to violence on a grand scale. Using the Nazi regime as an exemplar, I identified the dire economic and social conditions in Germany after World War I that made many of the populace vulnerable to Nazi ideology. A plurality of Germans were indoctrinated into a belief system that claimed German “Nordic Aryans” were a people superior to others, such as Jews, Slavs, and gypsies. In a further effort to “otherize” minorities, the Nazis blamed these minorities for causing Germany’s Great War loss and the social and economic ills that followed. I gave examples of how, before and during the war, a plurality of ordinary Germans were willing to indulge in extraordinary acts of cruelty and mass murder, as they had come to believe these “non-Aryans” were parasitic infra-humans beings, not worthy of life.

But not all Germans succumbed to an ideology of hate. Some members of the German high command rebelled against Hitler’s hateful policies and warmongering, such as General Ludwig Beck, the army’s chief of staff. When he was ordered to prepare the military for war against the Polish people, he attempted to develop opposition from within the military structure. Unable to summon adequate resistance, he resigned his post in 1938. He then became a conspirator in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler, for which he was executed.

Most religious readers maintained a passive, bystander approach to Nazism, thus avoiding scrutiny. But not all. Consider, for instance, Pastor Dietrick Bonhoeffer, a renowned theologian who used his professional contacts to undermine Germany’s war efforts and policies that were anathema to Christian values. As a result of his efforts, he was eventually hanged. Fritz Kolbe, an elite German diplomat, resisted Nazism throughout the war years and was one of America’s most significant Third Reich spies. And there were individual German citizens who maintained their sense of morality and respect for human life by helping Jews and others in a variety of ways, like hiding them from the Gestapo (secret state police). During those dark years of Nazi rule, such bold activity was considered treasonous and punishable by death or incarceration in a concentration camp. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel, recognizes over 28,000 non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust.

What makes some among us able to withstand the press of evil when it’s thundering all around us? Mentalization is a psychological capacity that stems from a developmental history with caretakers who are emotionally present and responsive. During infancy, emotions are essentially biological reactions, only to become a psychological experience with the help of adults who interpret the infant’s reactions and respond to his or her needs. A fairly consistent and empathic responsiveness to the infant-toddler’s emotions leads to the development of a secure attachment to caregivers. Crucially, it also fosters the development, in the child, of a capacity to psychologically experience and identify—i.e., mentalize—his or her own emotional needs. What is occurring in this process is no less than the early construction of the infant’s emotional selfhood. Such a capacity for self-recognition leads to an ability to stand back and observe one’s own thoughts, feelings, wishes, and emotions without unreflective and impulsive reactivity. Since mentalization is the result of having been emotionally recognized during early development by responsive caretakers, the growing infant/toddler, and later adult, develops a capacity to naturally understand that others also have an inner life that is unique, with their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and with particularized intentions.

In other words, mentalization stamps one with a unique identity and compels one to view others as distinctive human beings. With a mentalizing process at the ready, the seemingly simple abilities to empathize and respect others for their individuality are natural by-products of early psychological experience.

An extensive body of research confirms that the impairments in the mentalization function impair interpersonal relations and the capacity to understand other people’s behavior. Deficits in such a fundamental psychological process are directly implicated in aggressive and violent behavior. For instance, one study found that 80% percent of prison inmates had various forms of insecure attachments and low levels of mentalization.

It’s important to note that the capacity to mentalize is not tantamount to subjective self-awareness. It is a level of development that entails a deeply structured psychological process that provides an inner space for reflection before action, even when complex emotions hold sway. Most vitally, mentalization embeds an awareness of one’s accumulated morals and ideals that have been built into the self over the course of one’s personal history. When such a psychological achievement has been developed, one is more likely to act with personal integrity.

When reviewing interviews of those who resisted Nazi tyranny, it’s clear that these individuals were gifted with a psychological capacity akin to reflective mentalization. Almost uniformly, they rejected the label of “hero” and claimed that they just did what they felt was “the right thing to do,” even when their actions placed them in mortal danger. Clearly, they had the capacity to view every living soul as possessing a unique individual existence and inner life. These Nazi resisters viewed each person, regardless of background and station, as an end in itself and not a means to an end. Such a sense of personal integrity reflects how their long-held personal ideals trumped the influence of the reigning social or political ideologies.

The mentalization process begins with a ubiquitous human experience: the bonding between infant and caretaker. It’s a seemingly natural process, yet its legacy is profound, for good or ill.