AbstractAtrocity allegations awaken archaic fantasies of degradation and loss that, if believed, provoke violent retaliation against the alleged perpetrators. Those archaic fantasies are that something terrible has occurred, a vicious attack on one's body or on one's mind or on one's beloved child. The worst thing imaginable, an image that arose briefly and then was hurriedly repressed, has actually happened. Atrocity allegations generate revulsion, rage, and then, unless corralled by legal or cultural restraints, bloodshed. Psychoanalysts are well suited to investigate atrocity allegations.