Title: Nazism, Terrorism and Serial Killers. Evil Unmasked. Author: Philippe Cotter Translator: Helen Mistry Pages: 112 Format: 14 X 20 cm 5.5118” x 7.874” (width x height) RRP: CHF 29.- (22.50 €) ISBN: 978-2-940371-02-0
What are the roots of extreme violence? After several years of research Philippe Cotter, PhD in International Relations, reveals the common threads that bind the many tragic outbreaks of violence in the twentieth century and in the new millennium.
Philippe COTTER, PhD in International Relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies, has spent several years researching the common roots of all forms of extreme violence.
"Initially, in the mid-1990s, while I was doing my PhD at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, my research was going to focus exclusively on collective violence and would remain within the parameters of traditional historical analysis. Subsequently however, intellectual curiosity incited me to look at other forms of extreme violence, in individuals this time, and more specifically in serial killers. To my great surprise, it emerged that there were a number of similarities between the psychology of the serial killer and that of political extremists, the Nazi leaders in particular. My subsequent publications are the result of this unexpected convergence between the functioning of individual and collective forms of extreme violence and the various branches of science that helped me along the way, history, political science, sociology, psychology, criminology and philosophy. My latest book, La vengeance des humiliés (English translation in progress), written with Gilbert Holleufer, former Communication Officer of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was supported by the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN Project). My first book, in French, is now available in English."
The Book
What are the roots of extreme violence? Philippe Cotter reveals his findings in this groundbreaking book. He guides us first through the serial killers' mind as he bares the mechanisms that lead them to commit horrific crimes without any feeling of remorse. The author then compares the catalysts of serial killing with fascism and terrorism, giving us an insight into the psychology of violent leaders and the masses that follow them.
In a further development, Philippe Cotter brings us to consider how we may find our place in today's world without resorting to dangerous artifices based on domination and constraint.
World Radio Switzerland, On Psychopaths and extreme violence, journalists Michele Mischler, Mark Butcher, with Philippe Cotter, Philip D. Jaffé, 22 May 2008 (June 30: Repeat).