Paranoia: The Madness That Makes History

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Endorsement......Page 3
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 6
The madness of Ajax......Page 12
Notes......Page 19
Definitions......Page 20
Grandmother’s coffee pot......Page 22
Hypotheses about causes......Page 23
The ubiquity of paranoia......Page 24
Characteristics......Page 25
Cultural and moral aspects......Page 28
Paranoid infection in society......Page 30
The origin of the paranoid impulse......Page 32
Paranoia may be mild but widespread......Page 34
Psychopathy......Page 35
Paranoia and mass communication......Page 36
Collective crimes......Page 39
Paranoid climates......Page 41
Rumours......Page 43
Modern premises for the spread of paranoia......Page 45
The lack of interest in collective paranoia......Page 46
Notes......Page 50
Cain’s envy......Page 53
The enemy in the Aeneid......Page 54
The development of the relationship between paranoia and politics......Page 56
Columbus’s delusion......Page 58
A voice crying in the wilderness: Brother Antonio Montesinos......Page 60
The cross and interest......Page 61
Paranoid law......Page 63
Notes......Page 66
Supervising and mistrusting......Page 68
The pride and suspicion of nations......Page 69
The fantasies underlying national law......Page 72
The imaginary race......Page 76
The Dreyfus Affair......Page 80
Notes......Page 82
The special nature of America......Page 84
The Black Legend......Page 85
The empty continent......Page 86
Moby Dick......Page 88
Founding principles and purity......Page 89
The separation of the continents and manifest destiny......Page 91
War of conquest......Page 92
Spain and Catholicism......Page 93
The ‘newspaper war’......Page 95
The United States lands in Asia......Page 96
The white man’s burden......Page 99
Notes......Page 100
Great is war......Page 102
Boredom and waiting......Page 103
Pandarus’ arrow and the first casualty......Page 104
Suspicion grows......Page 105
Pre-emptive mobilization......Page 109
Do railway timetables determine the slaughter?......Page 112
The politics of Creon......Page 113
Uncontrollable feelings......Page 115
More voices crying in the wilderness......Page 117
The role of the mass media......Page 118
Suspicions, exaggerations, rumours......Page 121
The sufferings of Belgium......Page 125
Italian paranoia......Page 126
The novelty of atrocities and of the intercontinental dimension......Page 127
The silence after the gunfire......Page 128
Notes......Page 130
An American messiah......Page 133
The fourteen-point dogma......Page 135
The peace negotiations......Page 136
Wilson’s self-deceptions......Page 137
The paranoid atmosphere of the negotiations......Page 138
The offence......Page 140
Arrogance......Page 141
The seeds of new paranoia......Page 142
Notes......Page 143
The illuminating explanation......Page 145
The legitimization of paranoid nationalist ‘law’......Page 146
The disappearance of multinational coexistence......Page 147
The stab in the back......Page 149
Waiting for more darkness......Page 152
Notes......Page 153
Hitler’s revelations......Page 155
The role of Vienna......Page 156
Mein Kampf......Page 157
The apparition of the Jew......Page 159
Other ‘logical’ steps in Mein Kampf......Page 161
From theoretician to head of state......Page 162
Impatience prevails......Page 163
The choices of death......Page 166
All obstacles are swept away......Page 167
‘Who talks about the massacre of the Armenians today?’......Page 170
War at last......Page 172
Definitive omnipotence......Page 176
Absurd calculations......Page 179
Self-burial......Page 180
The need for an enemy......Page 182
Delusion to the end......Page 184
‘Total war’......Page 185
The final revelation and the abyss......Page 186
The shadow of Nero......Page 188
Notes......Page 189
Stalin: a name with many meanings......Page 194
Character......Page 195
Radical mistrust......Page 197
Allusion and the creation of a self-contained reality......Page 199
Lenin’s heritage......Page 200
The gulag......Page 201
Yakov and Nadya......Page 202
The diagnosis of paranoia......Page 203
Similarities and differences with respect to Hitler......Page 204
‘Inversion of causes’: the leader’s mind as the origin of society......Page 208
The kulaks......Page 209
Famine in Ukraine and elsewhere......Page 212
The Terror and the show trials......Page 214
The twentieth-anniversary speech......Page 217
The ‘denationalizations’ and the ideology that lay behind them......Page 218
Unpreparedness for war......Page 219
Counter-attack and the conclusion of the conflict......Page 222
Suspicion hits the Jews......Page 224
Stalin’s death......Page 226
The paradoxes of paranoid totalitarianism......Page 227
Final questions......Page 230
Notes......Page 231
War crimes and Allied double standards......Page 238
Collective paranoia and forms of government......Page 239
Airborne warfare as total war......Page 240
Poetry and romantic enthusiasm in the air war......Page 241
The three phases of Allied bombing......Page 242
Douhet’s predictions are proved wrong......Page 244
The bombing of Germany......Page 245
The bombing of Italy......Page 246
Notes......Page 248
War against an inferior race......Page 250
War between different races, total war......Page 251
The erroneous calculation of pre-emptive attack......Page 253
Fear of encirclement......Page 254
A strategy founded on haste......Page 255
Suspicion and the missed opportunity......Page 256
Towards the atomic bomb......Page 257
Contagious fanaticism......Page 258
Hiroshima......Page 259
The diary of Michihiko Hachiya......Page 260
The withdrawal of projections and meeting the enemy......Page 262
Nagasaki......Page 263
Secrecy......Page 264
Later justifications......Page 266
The reawakening of Ajax......Page 270
Dr Hachiya’s farewell......Page 272
Notes......Page 273
Paranoia and the new century......Page 277
The Cold War......Page 278
The disappearance of the Soviet enemy......Page 279
The appearance of the Islamic enemy......Page 280
Paranoia takes the form of a government document......Page 281
The war caused by suspicion......Page 282
The responsibility of those who disseminate paranoid messages......Page 283
The contagiousness of paranoia......Page 285
The impact on civilian life......Page 287
Notes......Page 288
Understanding evil......Page 289
Paranoia and psychopathy again......Page 291
Individual, mass and leader......Page 293
Three generations of mass media......Page 294
‘The Giant’......Page 295
Dictators......Page 296
Giving back medals......Page 297
Eighty per cent?......Page 299
The abandonment of morality among intellectuals and among the populace......Page 303
Why modern life offers paranoia new spaces......Page 305
The relationship with the-isms......Page 307
Paranoid return......Page 310
Clandestine revolutionary groups......Page 311
The continuity between limited attacks and genocides......Page 313
Acceptance of responsibility and denial......Page 315
Who won?......Page 316
Disarmament and historiography......Page 318
Poems and anthems......Page 320
Monuments......Page 321
Open contradictions......Page 323
Some examples of everyday paranoia......Page 324
Indifference and Europe......Page 325
Notes......Page 326
Iago’s whisper......Page 329
Notes......Page 334
Bibliography......Page 336
Index......Page 351