Why War? Parallel with Freud’s Reply to Einstein’s Query

Abstract

‘War’ is stereotypically a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations. Politically, war may be considered as a tool of the government, and a sensible apparatus of national policy, based on the expenses and advantages of warfare. According to some scholars, war and peace are the ways to achieve a regulatory compromise between manifestations of human mentality, and the influence of the external environment through natural selection. On the other hand, for the past hundred years, medicine and society have shown a growing interest in combat reactions, and the focus has shifted from an organic one towards a psychological and psychiatric perspective. Like many other pacifist scholars, war was the concern of Einstein, who asked Freud regarding any cognitive strategy for protecting manhood from the threat of war, especially when some psychological obstacles and impulses seem to be involved, which may not be easily measurable or manageable by politicians. In the present article, war has been descriptively reevaluated to explore its perceived cultural – historical aspects, disregard to usual political doctrines or rationalizations.