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In a talk given to the Chicago Psychoanalytic Society on February 21, 1969, I proffered conclusions about the present-day
student unrest very similar to those which Dr. Liebert expresses so beautifully at the end of his paper (Wangh, 1972).
The essential question we have to ask in relation to both the fact and the style of this unrest is: why is it occurring now? Why not ten years ago, or fifteen? The psychogenetic answer seems to be that the members of the present generation experienced something in their early childhood which impressed them so deeply, made them so anxious, that on the threshold of their manhood, when faced with the normal generational challenge, their reactions are in some measure pre-patterned by their reaction to the specific anxiety that that childhood experience aroused in them.
In an earlier paper (1968) I called attention to the fact that for at least the past 150 years there has been a periodicity—amounting to roughly 25 years—to the recurrence of major warfare in the Western nations (see also Eissler, 1968; Walsh, 1966). Accordingly, one would expect that the present generation would show itself as willing to follow a call to the colors as were the previous generations. And, in fact, not all of today's 20-year-olds are pacifists; some of them are still eager to follow the paternal example and seek glory and release through participation in military life and warfare. But, as Dr. Liebert shows, this “normal” manifestation of generational compulsion to repeat has suffered a distinct interference. The reason for this is to be found, I, too, believe, in the altered image of war.
When the young people of the present generation were children, they came to know, via television, magazines, and radio, of the unthinkable Nazi brutality perpetrated against men, women, and children indiscriminately. From the same media and at the same time, they learned of the all-devastating power of the nuclear bomb. Thus, knowledge of the reality of unbridled sadism