128 Pages
    by Routledge

    128 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Preface To civilise war , Foreword , Why war? An exchange of letters between Freud and Einstein , Investigation of Freud by Italian Fascist embassy officials , Wir und der Tod: a previously untranslated version of a paper by Sigmund Freud on the attitude towards death , Freud's dedication on Warum Krieg? , War: a core issue for Freud , Freud's death drive: the paradox of destructiveness , Drift , Works by Freud on the subject of death , Timeline

    Biography

    Marlene Belilos