This paper explores the psychoanalytic contribution to the understanding of war. It takes as its frame of reference the conditions of possibility in the human subject that form the basis for the detonation of such extremes of destruction. Starting with key papers of Freud that address this malaise of our “civilization” it goes on to consider the contributions from the Kleinian school (particularly Money-Kyrle and Segal). The argument is situated within a frame of reference which views the psychoanalytic contribution as part of what the author terms an interdisciplinary conversation. The paper concludes with some more general considerations regarding the horrors of our contemporary world.