Abstract

German universities in the Nazi era experienced profound upheaval. Under turmoil and stress induced by Nazi leadership these universities succumbed to pathologies related to large group processes. These group pathologies fell into predicable patterns based on dependency, fight or flight, or sexual pairing and are related to both narcissistic and paranoid group leadership. Such patterns of pathology led to organizational characteristics related to unbounded rationality and groupthink. These characteristics are reminiscent of problems found in modern universities. Psychological solutions will be proposed to offset these organizational symptoms of group pathology.