SigmundFreud (1856-1939), the founder of Psychoanalysis, developed important reflections on human beings' violent instincts and drives. Based on these reflections, Freud sought to discuss the Great War, that is, the FirstWarWorld, and what it represented to the generation of intellectuals of which he himself was a part.
It is known that the First World War, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, was one of the most impactful events in human history, especially for inaugurating a mode of war more deadly and bloody than any other that has it preceded. In addition, the arms industry and the world of industrial work as a whole moved with the objective of “feeding” the dynamics of war, to grease its gears. The use of chemical weapons, such as toxic gases, which, when used, killed thousands of soldiers instantly, also contributed to signal the catastrophic climate of the early twentieth century.
Well, at the end of the 19th century, Freud and his circle of psychiatrists, in which names such as CarlJung
and Ottorank, sought not only to develop clinical methods for the treatment of psychic pathologies, but also elaborate theses that explained the forms of civilized organization and the functioning of the society. This knowledge enabled Freud to make a series of criticisms of the great “flags” of modernity, such as rationalism, nationalism and progress. The application of reason and scientific knowledge in the construction of deadly technology, in preparation for the annihilation of millions of people, revealed, for Freud, how disguised was modern civilization and even more so was the National State that had been formed in the century. XIX.From the year 1915, when the war was already at its height, Freud wrote the essay “Current Considerations on War and Death”, in which he presented his analysis of the event. Freud had in mind the IIreich German, a bureaucratic and militarized state that devoted much of its technological modernization to the military industry. His criticism intended to dissect the intricacies of what he called the “hypocrisy” of the Civilized State. The Civilized State would be hypocritical for “taming” citizens, infusing them with rules of conduct and repressing their violent impulses, and at the same time monopolize the use of violence, becoming a Combatant State, which mobilized millions of individuals not for War, but for Death. The war that began in 1914 brought to Freud a scenario of calamity:
“The war, which we didn't want to believe, broke out and brought with it disappointment. Not only is it bloodier and more deadly than all past wars, because of improvement of attack and defense weapons, but at least as cruel, exasperated and brutal as any from them. It violates all the restrictions that peoples were bound to in times of peace – the so-called International Law –, it does not even recognize the privileges of the wounded and the doctor, nor the difference between the combatant and the peaceful nucleus of the population, and violates the right of property. With blind rage, it overturns everything that comes its way, as if after it there would be no future and no peace between men. It undoes all the ties of solidarity between the combatant peoples and threatens to leave behind an exasperation that, for a long time, will make it impossible to renew such ties.”. [1]
After the end of the war, in 1918, Freud still worked exhaustively on this topic and continued to dialogue with other intellectuals, with a view to understanding the phenomenon of the First World War. In a letter addressed to physicist Alberto Einstein, Freud said:
“From our mythological doctrine of the drives, we easily find a formula that contains the indirect means of fighting war. If the disposition for war is a product of the drive to destruction, the easiest thing will be to appeal to the antagonist of this drive, to Eros. Everything that establishes emotional bonds between men must act against war. These ties can be of two types. First, the bonds analogous to those that bind us to the object of love, albeit without sexual goals. Psychoanalysis need not be ashamed when it speaks of love here, for religion says the same: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' This is easy to demand but difficult to accomplish. The other type of affective bond is the one carried out by identification. Everything that establishes important common elements among men awakens such feelings of community, identifications. On them is based, to a large extent, the structure of human society.”[2]
It can be seen that, as early as 1932, the dawn of the continuation of the 1914 war was on the horizon – which would culminate in World War II – and Freud's concern was limited to the issue of drive destructive of human beings, which grew fiercely with totalitarian regimes, whose counterpoint could only be erected, according to him, by its opposite: Eros, or the drive of “love constructive". Freud died in 1939, the year the second world conflict began.
GRADES:
[1]: Freud, Sigmund. Writings on War and Death. LusoSofia: Covilhã, 2009. P. 8.
[2]: Idem, p. 46.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/as-reflexoes-freud-sobre-guerra.htm
