Un traumatisme majeur : le mal absolu que l’être humain fait à l’être humain

Abstract

The aim of the studyThe focus is not on experimental data, but on thinking about the destructiveness that human beings may show towards their fellow men and women whom they do not consider to be human beings and about the possible link between this and the pathological disappearance of empathy. The inhumanity of human beingsHuman beings are tossed like straws upon a sea of troubles of natural disasters, with illness, old age and death forever lurking in the background, yet the inexorable nature of the human condition is worsened by the evil that some human beings needlessly inflict upon others: war and its massacres, torture, slavery, racism, concentration camps, genocide. We feel bad because we belong to the same species as the torturers -- yet can we be sure that, were we to be placed in situations similar to those in which they find themselves, we ourselves would be able to resist? The loss of empathy in torturers and criminalsIn both group massacres and individual crimes, there is a loss of empathy. Is this a form of pathology not acknowledged as such in psychiatry because it cannot be treated by the therapeutic resources available and because it implies that the perpetrators are fully responsible for their actions? The loss of empathy in autismIn the case of autism, loss of empathy is perhaps linked to some damage to the neuronal circuits that make empathy possible, but it does not lead to criminal behaviour. A clinical example throws some light on the many facets of the problem under discussion.