War crimes and genocide: a psychosocial account of violence, recognition, and repair

Abstract

This dissertation offers a psychosocial analysis of war-crime perpetration through an interdisciplinary framework that integrates psychoanalytic theory, psychosocial studies, and international humanitarian law. It challenges individualised and purely juridical models of responsibility by examining how violence emerges at the intersection of subjectivity, institutional dynamics, and socio-economic conditions. Drawing on Kleinian and post-Kleinian concepts, alongside theories of institutional defences and structural violence, the study explores how moral injury operates both as a consequence of violence and as a mechanism in its production and disavowal.The research critically engages legal and humanitarian discourses to show how bureaucratic mediation, authorising environments, and organisational practices enable ethical disengagement while maintaining defensive institutional narratives. It argues for a psychosocial account of responsibility that holds together psychic, relational, and structural dimensions without reduction. By foregrounding moral injury, institutional containment, and the possibility of reparative subjectivity, the dissertation contributes a nuanced framework for understanding accountability and prevention in contexts of mass violence.