Robert Jay Lifton

A leading psychohistorian, his renown came from his studies of the doctors who aided Nazi war crimes and from his work with Hiroshima survivors. He was an outspoken critic of the American Psychological Association’s aiding of government-sanctioned torture, as he was a vocal opponent of nuclear weapons. His research encompassed the psychological causes and effects of war and political violence and the theory of thought reform. His books included, most recently, Surviving our Catastrophes: Resilience and Renewal from Hiroshima to the COVID-19 Pandemic (2023), Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir (2011), and Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima (1967, which won a National Book Award). He died at his home in Truro, Massachusetts, on September 4, 2025.