Based on the article by Maksimov M., On the verge — and beyond. Human behavior in extreme conditions, the journal «Knowledge is Power», 1988, N 3, p. 73-79., source vikent.ru
“Awareness of their own actions could not change them, but their assessment gave some kind of inner freedom and helped the prisoner to remain human … Those who survived understood what they had not realized before: they have the last, but perhaps the most important human freedom — in any circumstances, choose your own attitude to what is happening »
“The most general rule is to create around yourself Area of Autonomous Behavior. An area within which you can independently perform actions and be responsible for them. You also choose this area yourself, based on your character warehouse. This may be a very small area.
I will retell once again an episode from the camp life […] Bettelheim, still quite a novice, sitting in the dining room, disgustedly pushed the bowl of gruel away from him. His neighbor, the “old man,” as long-term prisoners are called in the camp, gave him advice: “If you want to die quickly, then you can not eat. But if you decide to survive, then remember: firstly, eat whenever they give you to eat, secondly, sleep or read when you have a free minute, and thirdly, brush your teeth in the morning. The “old man” listed to him almost everything that they are not forced to do in the camp. Therefore, brushing your teeth in the morning can be an act. Most importantly, actions are not only what we do. This is what makes us. This shaping tool […]
And one more thing — any Area of Autonomous Behavior is good, but some are especially. Bettelheim talks about two philatelists with whom he sat together. They, of course, found each other very quickly and, seizing a moment, passionately discussed their collections. At first, this passion gave them the opportunity to resist the camp. But gradually the effect of this remedy began to weaken — after all, the collections remained at home. And everything that is outside the camp does not exist. The fate of these two philatelists is tragic. They could no longer draw strength from this source, their friendship was upset, and soon they died.
But Bettelheim’s scientific work in the camp is an example of a completely different activity. Activities directly aimed at the life that surrounded him. I must add that this was a deadly study — after all, the work of a psychologist is connected with a survey of «patients». How no one betrayed him in the camp, swarming with informers, can only be explained by the atmosphere that Bettelheim’s personality created around.
The suppression of a man in a concentration camp (the case of Bruno Bettelheim)
“After about three months in the camp, Bettelheim began to realize that he was going crazy. He drew attention to the fact that he was involved in some strange activity, which all the prisoners indulged in as soon as a free minute fell out. Instead of using these rare moments for rest — to sleep, to read — the prisoners frantically discussed the following topics: possible changes and rearrangements in the camp administration and their consequences for the prisoners, guesses about what will be delivered to the camp store tomorrow, international situation (for example, will Turkey side with Germany in case of war). The abnormality of this activity, which Bettelheim at first could not even come up with a name, was immediately evident: after all, the prisoners were deprived of any information about what they discussed with such fervor, since nothing is ever known about anything in the camp. In addition, the general mood, the atmosphere of these conversations — whatever happens, everything is for the worse. As a result, the prisoners found themselves in an even more oppressed state than they were before.
And then Bettelheim made a decision that made him Bettelheim. In order not to go crazy, he, as a professional psychologist, will study this, undoubtedly painful, behavior of a person in a concentration camp. Thus, the book «The Enlightened Heart» was born. But that is not all. In the camp it was forbidden to keep a pencil and paper, to make notes. Bettelheim had to write this book «in his mind» — for long, endless hours working with a shovel or dragging stones, memorizing line after line.
Looking ahead, I’ll say that as we move towards the state of the “ideal prisoner”, a person develops amnesia — a partial loss of memory. The disintegration of personality is the disintegration of the whole picture of the world. For the prisoner, only what happens inside the camp becomes real. The whole world beyond the barbed wire is not real, it does not exist. All painful, painful memories of the family, loved ones, of the past normal life are suppressed. A person begins to forget what cannot be forgotten — the names of his parents, the name of his native city. He sees that something terrible is happening to him, and this horror accelerates the destructive process going on in his soul. The book that Bettelheim «wrote» in the camp saved his life — protected him from the camp, allowed him to remain a man.