The Instrumental Passion: The Fetish-group in the Service of Evil

Abstract

This text consists of a critical review of Contardo Calligaris’ book O grupo e o mal: Estudo sobre a perversão social [The group and the evil: A study on social perversion], recently translated and edited to Portuguese, unpublished in Brazil until last year. We present here the main arguments and concepts addressed by the author, as well the general structure of the book, organized in four parts. Starting from the testimonies of three important nazi perpetrators – Höß, Stangl and Eichmann –, Calligaris emphasizes the secondary role of antisemitic hate in their accounts and, on the other hand, the constant reference of a “job well done”. After carrying out an archeology of the concepts of “ideal ego” and “fetish” in both Freud and Lacan, the author advances his major thesis: the impertinence of using the concept of “sexual perversion” and the preferential use of the notion of “social perversion”.