Psychology of Denial

Dr. Israel W. Charny, psychologist and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, tells the story of how he became a “devoted student of the denial of the Armenian Genocide” and suggests several reasons why the Turkish government, over the last one hundred years, has gone to great lengths—politically and at great financial cost—to continue its policy of denial.

Produced by AGBU WebTalks in partnership with the Zoryan Institute.

Originally published January 2016.

About the speaker

Israel Charny

Dr. Israel W. Charny is an Israeli and American psychologist who is widely known as the co-founder and past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, founder and first president of the Israel Family Therapy Association, and a past president of the International Family Therapy Association. Three of his works have been awarded "Outstanding Academic Book of the Year" by the American Library Association including Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind. He has written and lectured extensively on the psychological motivations and impact of denial. He is also the author of Encyclopedia of Genocide, a two-volume reference work that examines the entire historiography of all genocides, including the phenomenology of the denial.

Israel Charny