--- John Thornton <jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Scientists are still human, they experience all the
> human emotions and
> reluctance to admit to wrongdoing, admitting errors,
> and giving up power
> are very human reactions.
I imagine there's also a pretty hefty psychological defense mechanism against admitting that one is a torturer.
I think this is common. A friend of mine interviewed the elderly Lazar Kaganovich (one of the architects of the Great Terror) a couple of times in the 1980s. (I'm not meaning at all to put an equals sign between animal experimentors and Lazar Kaganovich, so nobody even go there.) According to his account, Lazar was a very likeable, kind old man, but seemed to have had a very effective psychological defense mechanism in place against acknowledging to himself that he was a mass murderer.* As if there were a part of his own mind that had been sealed off and he couldn't get into.
*As in, "We already said in 1956 that there had been mistakes! Why do people keep going after me and Stalin!? There were enemies everywhere we had to get to protect the country and if mistakes were made I regret them! There was a German-Japanese-Trotskyist conspiracy against us and we did not have time to act with cool heads! I support General Secretary Gorbachev's policies because the Party is always right! My greatest wish is to be rehabilitated and returned to my beloved Leninist Party before I die!"
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