Killers' Laughter: The Corporeal and Social Mechanisms of Violence

This article offers a profound analysis of the nature of evil, transcending the boundaries of legal codes and moral treatises. The author focuses on Klaus Theweleit's psychosomatic theory of violence, exploring concepts such as the fragmented body, homeostasis, and protodiacrisis. The text juxtaposes these concepts with classic philosophical and psychological approaches, including those of Hannah Arendt and Stanley Milgram, examining the phenomenon of the banality of evil. A crucial element of this discussion is the role of media in staging cruelty and the processes of desensitization and adiaphorization that lead to the dehumanization of victims. The overall analysis presents violence not as an aberration but as a complex mechanism rooted in corporeality, technology, and the social vacuum, often operating under the guise of normalcy. This analysis allows for a better understanding of how the systemic conditions of aggression and the self-healing rituals of perpetrators influence contemporary perceptions of evil.