From Hiroshima and Chernobyl to Fukushima: What does the “militant” use of nuclear power mean for our mental state, and how about its “peaceful” use?

Abstract

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represent a historical break that can be understood from a social psychological position as a collective trauma of the “generic identity”. The “peaceful use of nuclear power” served as an “integration ideology of the 1950s” and corroborated the worldwide denial of nuclear danger. Not until the ecology and peace movement of the 1970s and 80s did a fundamental criticism of both the peaceful and the military use of nuclear power take shape. These initiatives, which were critical for growth, had a particularly strong, influential, and lasting effect in West Germany as the movements that were critical for expansion received here additional impetus from the confrontation with National Socialism and with the Holocaust's “breach of civilization.” The author described these psychohistorical processes as early as 1986 in an article in an issue of psychosozial on the topic of “Nach Tschernobyl – regiert wieder das Vergessen?” (“After Chernobyl – does oblivion rule again?”). The considerations outlined back then are taken up again under the shadow of Fukushima, and pursued from the social psychological perspective.

Key words:

• nuclear power
• atomic bomb
• National Socialism
• Holocaust
• World War II
• collective trauma
• generic identity
• postwar society

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hans-Jürgen Wirth

Author

Hans-Jürgen Wirth is a psychoanalyst and analytic family therapist, practicing in his own private practice. He is a member of the German Psychoanalytical Association (DPV) and the International Psychoanalytic Association, as well as professor of psychoanalytic social psychology in the department of social sciences at the University of Frankfurt-am-Main. As well as being the founder, publisher, and owner of the publishing company Psychosozial-Verlag, he is editor of the German book series “Bibliothek der Psychoanalyse“ (Psychosozial-Verlag), which includes about 200 books written by the most important psychoanalytical authors, from classical writers such as Abraham, Fenichel, and Ferenczi to well-known contemporary authors like Mitchell, Ferro, Bolognini, Kernberg, and Ogden. Professor Wirth is the editor-in-chief of the journal psychosozial and author of numerous articles and various books on the application of psychoanalysis, two of which have been translated into English: 9/11 as a collective trauma and other essays on psychoanalysis and society (Analytic Press, 2004), and Narcissism and power. Psychoanalysis of mental disorders in politics (Psychosozial-Verlag, 2009).