Hello
   Having read the ongoing interesting correspondence regarding
Holocaust/Kohut's comment, I can not help joining the discussion by asking a
questions regarding psychology of 'denial' (which may not be directly
related to the topic).
    I have been wondering what kind of psychological effects possibly enable
some of murderers (e.g. serial killers) truely 'forget' the murders they
have committed long time ago (and once confessed themselves) and be able to
now claim that they are completely 'innocent'. Some of such acts do not seem
like intentional deceptive acts at all nor a denial of their past at least
not at a conscious level. They seem pretty much that they now truely believe
they did not committed any of the criminal cases. What about child abusers
(e.g. parent-child abusive relation)? How come it is common that the abusers
completely deny years of their abusive acts even though some of them can
clearly 'see' the distortion of their family dynamics whcih are causal and
resultant factors of such abusive acts. Is this complete denial related to
the lack of empathy, often mentioned as one of characteristics of these
people, or  it could be because that, not only the act of abuse or criminal
case itself, but also whatever underlying these acts in their past are so
painful that they can hardly face them?   To my knowledge, the chance that
abuse victims best survive is very high especially when their abusers admit
the facts.
Thank you.
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Yuki Hasebe
Educational Psychology
University of Illinois, Chicago
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