REFLECTIONS
ON WAR AND DEATH
REFLECTIONS
ON WAR AND DEATH
By
PROFESSOR DR. SIGMUND FREUD, LL.D.
Authorized English Translation By
DR. A. A. BRILL and
ALFRED B. KUTTNER
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY
NEW YORK
1918
Copyright, 1918, by
MOFFAT, YARD, AND COMPANY
This book is offered to the American public at the present time in thehope that it may contribute something to the cause of internationalunderstanding and good will which has become the hope of the world.
THE TRANSLATORS.
REFLECTIONS
ON WAR AND DEATH
| I, II |
I
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS OF WAR
CAUGHT in the whirlwind of these war times, without any real informationor any perspective upon the great changes that have already occurred orare about to be enacted, lacking all premonition of the future, it issmall wonder that we ourselves become confused as to the meaning ofimpressions which crowd in upon us or of the value of the judgments weare forming. It would seem as though no event had ever destroyed so muchof the precious heritage of mankind, confused so many of the clearestintellects or so thoroughly debased what is highest.
Even science has lost her dispassionate impartiality. Her deeplyembittered votaries are intent upon seizing her weapons to do theirshare in the battle against the enemy. The anthropologist has to declarehis opponent inferior and degenerate, the psychiatrist must diagnose himas mentally deranged. Yet it is probable that we are affected out of allproportion by the evils of these times and have no right to compare themwith the evils of other times through which we have not lived.
The individual who is not himself a combatant and therefore has notbecome a cog in the gigantic war machinery, feels confused in hisbearings and hampered in his activities. I think any little suggestionthat will make it easier for him to see his way more clearly will bewelcome. Among the factors which cause the stay-at-home so muchspiritual misery and are so hard to endure there are two in particularwhich I should like to emphasize and discuss. I mean the disappointmentthat this war has called forth and the altered attitude towards death towhich it, in common with other wars, forces us.
When I speak of disappointment everybody knows at once what I mean. Oneneed not be a sentimentalist, one may realize the biological andphysiological necessity of suffering in the economy of human life, andyet one may condemn the methods and the aims of war and long for itstermination. To be sure, we used to say that wars cannot cease as longas nations live under such varied conditions, as long as they placesuch different values upon the individual life, and as long as theanimosities which divide them represent such powerful psychic forces. Wewere therefore quite ready to believe that for some time to come therewould be wars between primitive and civilized nations and between thosedivided by color, as we