In 1932 Einstein asked Freud, 'Is there any way of delivering mankind
from the menace of war?' Freud answered that war is inevitable because
humans have an instinct to self-destroy, a death instinct which we must
externalize to survive. But nearly four decades of study of aggression
reveal that rather than being an inborn drive, destructiveness is
generated in us by experiences of excessive psychic pain. In War is Not
Inevitable: On the Psychology of War and Aggression, Henri Parens argues
that the death-instinct based model of aggression can neither be proved
nor disproved as Freud's answer is untestable. By contrast, the
'multi-trends theory of aggression' is provable and has greater
heuristic value than does a death-instinct based model of aggression.
When we look for causes for war we turn to history as well as national,
ethnic, territorial, and or political issues, among many others, but we
also tend to ignore the psychological factors that play a large role.
Parens discusses such psychological factors that seem to lead large
groups into conflict. Central among these are the psychodynamics of
large-group narcissism. Interactional conditions stand out:
hyper-narcissistic large-groups have, in history, caused much
narcissistic injury to those they believe they are superior to. But this
is commonly followed by the narcissistically injured group's
experiencing high level hostile destructiveness toward their
injury-perpetrator which, in time, will compel them to revenge. Among
groups that have been engaged in serial conflicts, wars have followed
from this psychodynamic narcissism-based cyclicity. Parens details some
of the psychodynamics that led from World War I to World War II and
their respective aftermath, and he addresses how major factors that gave
rise to these wars must, can, and have been counteracted. In doing so,
Parens considers strategies by which civilization has and is
constructively preventing wars, as well as the need for further
innovative efforts to achieve that end.
