We live in an era marked by chronic uncertainty. Pandemics, school shootings, political polarization, economic instability, rapid technological change, and ongoing armed conflicts have created an atmosphere of collective anxiety unlike anything many people have experienced before. Watching the news often feels like witnessing an endless stream of violence, division, and human suffering. Given all the chaos and war taking place at this time, it raises the question discussed through the famous correspondence between Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein in the early 1900’s: “Why War?”

         In the letter exchange between Freud and Einstein, Einstein agreed with Freud that human beings do in fact have an instinct to not only love and create, or what Freud called, “Eros”, but to destroy, which Freud called “Thanatos”. Freud’s observation of human behavior led him to recognize an innate tendency, or instinct, to be aggressive and to destroy. At one moment a child may be loving, sweet, and charming, but the next moment throws a tantrum, bites, kicks, or breaks (destroys) something. For adults, being destructive can take on more complex forms. Whether destroying a relationship out of jealousy or envy, self-sabotage in destroying one’s own life or success, or complete self- or other-destruction in the form of suicide and homicide, Freud argued that alongside our capacity to love, create, and connect exists an equally powerful tendency toward aggression and destruction. Given the destructiveness in the world at this time, I feel we as a society and system need to collectively and inwardly address this destructivity and begin working on it. 

         The words from Dr. Martin Luther King have stood the test of time and are applicable to our day and age: specifically, his statement, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that”. In these times, full of fear, angst, conflict, and disconnection, fighting fire with fire, or fighting hate with hate only perpetuates the very hate it seeks to eliminate. Being forceful, using intimidation, and applying punishment, absent of any regard, compassion or love for the other—whether on a microscale between individuals or on a macroscale between countries—only creates a stronger sense of resentment in the other, further perpetuating destructive fantasies, longings, and actions.

         With this in mind, if love and cooperation can temper and diminish destructivity, what makes it so difficult for individuals and countries to choose love, cooperation, and understanding? Why choose war instead? In a time like this, it isn’t realistic to change feelings, worldviews, and beliefs overnight, so simply choosing love is not that simple. When I think of what the world needs—peace, harmony, love, and cooperation—I am reminded that our capacity to offer these qualities to others depends on our ability to cultivate them within ourselves. Projecting and acting on our hate and destructivity can only be tempered when we work through these destructive dimensions of the self to then have more access to the loving dimensions of the self. When we work through our own darkness and cultivate the light within ourselves we become more capable of thinking and operating in ways that are guided by love, patience, and understanding, not hate and a desire for war and destruction. Although wars arise from complex political, economic, and historical forces, they are ultimately carried out by human beings whose minds are capable of both extraordinary compassion and extraordinary destruction. Psychoanalysis reminds us that lasting peace requires not only political solutions, but psychological ones as well. When we can collectively cultivate loving-kindness, patience, understanding, and compassion for one another, choosing war would no longer be an option considered to resolve conflict. And so, I think the question should be, not, “Why War”, but “Why the Resistance to Choosing Love?”. Perhaps love and peace are not simply the absence of war, but the presence of psychological maturity. Until individuals become more capable of understanding and transforming their own aggression, humanity is likely to continue to recreate externally the very conflicts it cannot resolve internally. Freud asked us to confront the darker aspects of human nature—not to surrender to them, but to understand them. Perhaps that remains one of our greatest challenges today.