The Case of Egon Schulz and the Origins of Alexander Mitscherlich's Empathy Concept

In October of 1946 Alexander Mitscherlich encountered Egon Schulz, a common criminal turned psychopathic murderer. Mitscherlich's notes on the case provide the earliest evidence of conceptual linkages that would later mark his social psychology. Via an analysis of Schulz's psychic configuration and life story and in yet unsystematic form, Mitscherlich makes connections between fatherlessness, emotional vacuity, remorselessness, reality distortions, and the inability to empathize and feel regret. Mitscherlich discovers in this case a disconcerting lack of empathy, which both Margarete and he will later identify as a psychological and emotional necessity for a functioning democratic society.