Why war? An Introduction

At the root of “Why War?”, the Freud-Einstein Correspondence (Freud 1933), is the question of destructiveness and the essential nature of humankind. In his letter to Freud, Einstein asked: “Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?” (199).

He noted the all too present “craving for power”, social indifference, economic greed and self-interest of the ruling class (200) and wondered:

How is it possible for this small clique to bend the will of the majority, who stand to lose and suffer by a state of war, to the service of their ambitions? … An obvious answer to this question would seem to be that the majority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organise and sway the emotions of the masses and make its tool of them. Yet … How is it these devices succeed so well in rousing men to such wild enthusiasm, even to sacrifice their lives? (200-201)

Einstein’s conclusion was that:

Only one answer is possible. Because man has within him a lust for hatred and destruction … [and that] it is comparatively easy to call it into play and raise it to the power of a collective psychosis. (201)

Perhaps the most oft-quoted and remembered part of Freud’s reply was his reference to the innate destructiveness of the death instinct. However, his response was more complex and nuanced than simply this. After noting that the questions Einstein raised were the concern of statesmen and that he could only offer a psychological perspective rather than practical advice, Freud began by reminding Einstein that while

right and violence appear to us as antitheses. It can easily be shown … that the one has developed out of the other. (204)

That is, that rule of law was in its origins and at its root, violence deferred, displaced and reassigned to the community:

It is still violence, ready to be directed against any individual who resists it; it works by the same methods and follows the same purposes. The