Why War?

A correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud

New: We now have a discussion board where you can talk about the issues here, or about Freud or Einstein.

In 1932 Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud corresponded on the subject of war. This is a summary of Einstein's letter to Freud.

Why not publish the original correspondence?
International copyright holds until 70 years after the death of the author. A translation, until 70 years after the death of the translator. Hence, this is a summary of the original German texts.

Latest News, March 2002. The full correspondence in English is now available here.

Before we start, something about preconceptions. We all have an idea of who Einstein and Freud were. Maybe you have an opinion, good or bad, on what one of them said. Maybe you think their work in general is way above your head? Einstein's letter is written in such simple terms it could be printed in any local newspaper. So give it a try. I think you'd be surprised how straight forward Einsteins's letter is.

Whenever there's a war, people start asking why it must be. People discuss what's happening, but the discussion rarely gets anywhere. I discovered this correspondence between Einstein and Freud several years ago, and wondered ever since, why none of the deeper discussions amongst politicians, journalists and even academics circled around tactics only and rarely looked into the human reasons for war. Of course, each situation has to be dealt with on it's own terms, and no preconceived theory can help find a general solution.

In short, why is the theoretical not used together with the pragmatic in order to look forward and work on prevention?

The aim of theses pages is to provide a starting point for your own thoughts and feelings on the subject of war. If people are interested a web-based discussion board could be set up.

The correspondence was initiated by the "Comité permanent des Lettres et des Arts de la Société des Nations", (The Permanent Society of Art and Letters within the League of Nations). The League of Nations was a precursor to the United Nations. The importance of these organisations in world peace are addressed within the correspondence, and the conclusions are still true today as we now know from experience. The Society of Art and Letters wanted to encourage thinkers from different fields to correspond with each other on topics in the hope the League of Nations may benefit from it. Einstein was one of the first to come forward and was given free choice of topic and partner. He chose Freud, who agreed to participate.
The correspondence took place in 1932 and was first published in 1933 in Paris simultaneously in French, German and English (the original correspondence was in German).

Einstein had done some thinking on the nature of war and why it persisted throughout human history, despite it's devastating effects. He wrote to Freud stating his own thoughts and asking for Freud's opinion as a psychologist. Freud replied, agreeing with most of Einstein's conclusions and adding his own thoughts on each of the issues by addressing each separately, and posing a question of his own.

Einstein expresses how happy he is through the initiative of the League of Nations to correspond with a person of his choice, and that the opportunity offers a unique chance to discuss what he considers the most important question currently facing civilisation with Freud.
He then goes straight to the question: "Is there a way to free people from the spectre of war?".

He says, it has become apparent that through the advances of technology it is now possible to wipe out humankind. Despite this fact all attempts at a solution have failed frighteningly.

He has come to the conclusion that people who are involved in avoiding war in practise, through their professions (e.g. diplomats, politicians, peace organizations) have reached a point, partly out of a feeling of helplessness, where they would welcome the input of people who have gained a certain amount of distance to all life questions due to their scientific work.

Einstein says his thinking gives him little insight into the depths of human feelings and desires. Therefore, all he can do is to pose the questions and give answers he hopes Freud can expand on, due to his "deep insight into human urges and desires". Further, Einstein hopes Freud will be able to point to unpolitical ways of education that could remove psychological barriers that a normal person does not see.

The only possible solution - A supreme court of all nations

The only possible solution Einstein sees, is for the nations of the world to create a legislative and legal body that will be called upon in all matters of conflict that may arise between them. A sort of Supreme Court of all nations.

All nations would agree to call upon this court when conflict arises and to follow the decisions and directives of this court.

He is quick to point out that the first problem with any court is, that it is an institution created by people. Such a court will be all the more prone to influences from outside the court if its own power is insufficient to enforce its decisions in practice.

It is a fact of life that power and the law are intertwined. The decisions of a court will be closest to the ideas of justice within the society for which it acts, the more power this society can invest in enforcing respect for those ideas.

We are far from creating an organisation with sufficient power to enforce the laws it decrees, Einstein says. His first conclusion is, that it will be necessary for nations to give up a certain amount of their sovereignty. It is without doubt the only way to security.

So far, all attempts in this direction during the last decades have failed. Obviously strong psychological mechanisms with the human psyche are working against these attempts. Some of these mechanisms can be identified. The minority in power, within any given society, will resist any infringements upon its power. This striving for power is driven by materialistic and economic wishes.
Einstein refers to the minority within any society which will stop at nothing to gain advantages for itself and will not stop at war or weapons deals in order to increase its own power and influence.

The next question arising from this is, why does the majority allow itself to be used by the minority in power?
The minority stands to gain and the majority stands to suffer and to lose. (Einstein includes also soldiers in the majority, since they have joined the military in the hope to defend their country).
His answer is that the minority in power rules over the schools and the press, and also has influence over the religious organisations. The minority in power uses these institutions to manipulate and channel the feelings of the masses in order to use people for their own gain.

This however, he claims, cannot be the only reason that the majority lets itself be used in these ways, and will indeed let itself be driven to the extent of frenzy and self-sacrifice. Einstein concludes that there must be a force within humans, a wish to hate and destroy. A force which during normal times is dormant, only showing itself in the abnormal. It can however, easily be awakened, and increased to the extent of mass-psychosis.

This seems to be the most tragic issue involved in the emergence of war. At this point Einstein refers to Freud's knowledge of human desires and urges, hoping Freud may shed more light on the subject.

Then Einstein poses one last question, asking Freud whether it would be possible to influence the development of humans in a way which could make them more resistant to what Einstein calls the psychoses of hate and destruction. (Note: Freud, in his reply, points out that aggression is the opposite pole to love, and thus, is a necessary emotional force which is required for survival. He does not refer to aggression as a psychotic emotion).

Einstein then notes that he does not have the so-called "uneducated" people in mind. In his experience it is more the so-called "intelligentsia" which is open to ideologies, being the kinds of people who learnt about life from paper, rather than from experiencing real life situations.

Finally, Einstein comments on the fact that he has only talked about war and there are other types of human conflict. He says the reason for concentrating on war, is that it is the most extreme and destructive, and is therefore the best way to demonstrate how to prevent conflicts.

In closing, Einstein refers to the fact that Freud has written about most of the issues involved with the problem of war either directly or indirectly, however, Einstein would like to know Freud's opinion on bringing peace to the world, based on his latest insights, since these could be useful.

Einstein's letter is available under the title: Albert Einstein, Why War?.
You can find it at amazon.com. It wasn't clear whether it's still available. If not, the best thing is to check your local library.
Unfortunately there is currently no English language edition containing both letters.

Freud's letter is available in The Complete Works of Sigmund Freud.

The summary above is based on the correspondence of the original German texts, currently reprinted as:
Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Warum Krieg?. Diogenes Verlag AG, Zürich, Switzerland. 1972, 1996. ISBN 3-257-70044-X

Background information from:
Sigmund Freud, Kulturtheoretische Schriften, S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1986.

I personally have gleaned one thing from this discussion and that is that any solution to minimising the possibilities of war lie in the nations of the world tying closer links, and communicating and co-operating very closely with one another. I intentionally say minimising because conflict is part of human existence, and there will always be people who are incapable of finding non-violent solutions to their personal conflicts and who push their inner conflicts onto the people around them.
The co-operation between countries and regions means giving up some sovereignty in exchange for greater peace, in the same way small towns join to provinces and federal states form unions to become one entity with a set of common beliefs. We are still far from this happening. In the age of globalisation it has become clear that international law is currently too weak to serve us sufficiently. The United Nations does not have sufficient power to act. It is as true today as in 1932 that we will not prevent, or at least minimise, armed conflicts unless an international court is empowered by its member states to act as mediator. The election of the judges and how that system would work is of course another issue.
However, why do people have a problem with this in countries where they have exactly the same structure in their own country, exactly the same development has taken place. Maybe it is just a matter of time. What seems so difficult, impossible and unacceptable today, may appear completely normal in a few years. Maybe it is simply human nature that finds change difficult, even when we know that the change is for our own good?

The full correspondence in English is now available here.
Einstein links: http://www.westegg.com/einstein/	Visit my films project: http://films.wordit.com

This page was first published in March 1999, and last updated on May 10th 2002.