Freud and War

by Marlene Belilos

Overview

During the rise of fascism and anti-Semitism in Germany, Albert Einstein wrote to Sigmund Freud asking the fundamental question: What can be done to liberate humanity from the menace of war? The psychoanalyst replied at length and their exchange of letters (reproduced here) was published in March 1933 under the title Why War?. The book would be included in the book burnings in Berlin on 10th of May that year. Why War? is important in Freud's work because in it he develops a fundamental idea that leads him to conclude that the life and death drives are linked - a thought that he had already entertained in works such as Death and Us (1915), which is also included here. In a terrible irony, Freud dedicated a copy of Why War? to Mussolini, who nonetheless instituted a police investigation of its author. The contributors to this volume explore the reasons underlying the dedication, as well as giving their own reflections on the genesis of war.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782203117
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/17/2016
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Marlene Belilos is a psychoanalyst who has also worked for many years as a journalist for Swiss television and French radio (France Culture). She has published various articles in l'Anti-Livre noir de la psychanalyse, La règle du jeu, and the Revue de l'École de la Cause freudienne. She is a member of the École de la Cause freudienne and the Association Mondiale de Psychanalyse.

Table of Contents

About The Editor and Contributors vii

Preface: To civilise war Jean Ziegler xi

Foreword Marlène Belilos xv

Chapter 1 Why war? An exchange of letters between Freud and Einstein Albert Einstein Sigmund Freud 1

Chapter 2 Investigation of Freud by Italian Fascist embassy officials 17

Chapter 3 "Wir und der Tod": a previously untranslated version of a paper by Sigmund Freud on the attitude towards death Mark Solms 21

Chapter 4 Freud's dedication on Warum Kreig? Laura Sokolowsky 55

Chapter 5 War: a core issue for Freud Interview Eugénie Lemoine-Luccioni Marlène Belilos 63

Chapter 6 Freud's death drive: the paradox of destructiveness François Ansermet 71

Chapter 7 Drift Philippe de Georges 79

Appendix I Works by Freud on the subject of death 87

Appendix II Timeline 89

References 91

Index 95