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Psychoanalysis has contributed to international relations since Freud, and most of the contributions have been metapsychological in nature. That is to say, they involve claims, for example, that a state or a nation represents a mother image or a father image, or claims that wars are inevitable because human beings have aggressive drives. These statements are true, of course. But psychoanalysis has had very little or no impact on practical issues involving large groups and international relations. A number of voices have asked psychoanalysts to work with other disciplines in order to help solve such problems. One of them came from Germany in the mid 1970s: A psychoanalyst, Alexander Mitscherlich, who had studied the German inability to mourn (since mourning would entail identification with Hitler). Mitscherlich asked psychoanalysts to move out of their offices and work with other disciplines.
Another voice was that of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who in 1977 went to Israel and gave a speech at the Knesset in which he said that seventy percent of the problems between Israel and the Arabs were psychological. He called it a wall, and he said, “This wall is made of suspicions and other psychological processes. Why don't we remove it?” Fortunately, the wall was not removed, because if you remove walls between enemy groups, you get identity confusion. The need is rather to make this wall more permeable and flexible.
But Sadat's advice was heeded, and because he was an important person, money was found to bring together a group of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts to study Sadat's recommendation. A group of psychiatrists, under the auspices of the American Psychiatric Association, went to Egypt and Israel and then brought a group of diplomats, psychiatrists and influential citizens from these countries to Austria and Switzerland for unofficial discussions. Our aim was to try to devise psychodynamic strategies in relation to practical issues and not just spout metapsychologi