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‘Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?’ Albert Einstein asked Sigmund Freud in 1932. He hoped of course that Freud would be able to supply the missing psychological dimension that would help furnish a solution to this ‘most insistent of all the problems mankind has to face’. But if we add terrorism into the equation, then that problem remains exactly the same today. And in the aftermath of 9. 11, the search for a solution is, if anything, even more urgent. The appearance of Terrorism and War: Unconscious Dynamics of Political Violence then could hardly be more timely or its subject matter more important.
The original Einstein/Freud discussion is aired once again in this book. And it is interesting to note that both great men identified the unwillingness of disparate groups to abide by the collective will of the international community as the major stumbling block to peace - a sad case of déjà vu ensues. But what of the other contributions to the book - do they have anything significant to add to our understanding of war and terrorism? And what of the book as a whole?
If its aim is to help politicians or the general public understand the unconscious dynamics of terrorism and war better, then it only partially succeeds. Too many of the papers are written in the kind of technical language that only analytic therapists would be likely to understand or relate to. But if it is aimed at those professionals, then it should succeed in stimulating some serious clinical and theoretical reflection. The book consists of a series of thoughtful and thought-provoking papers on subjects related to political violence from a variety of therapeutic settings around the world. There are several significant contributions, including one from Jung. And although most of these papers have been published before elsewhere - some, including the introduction by Lord Alderdice, are original and appear to be born of bitter personal experience both therapeutic and political. T