War Is Not Inevitable

Henri Parens

doi:10.5771/9780739195291

Summary

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.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2014
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7391-9528-4
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7391-9529-1
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 290
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. 1. References No access
3. Preface No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
1. Notes No access
1. 1. Reflecting on the 1932 Einstein-Freud Correspondence No access
  2. Notes No access
2. 1. How I Came to Doubt the Death-Instinct Basis of Aggression No access
  2. The Challenge to the then-Current Theory of Aggression No access
  3. Developing an Alternative Psychoanalytic Theory of Aggression No access
  4. The Outcome (for this Investigator) of Continuing Longitudinal Observation No access
  5. Brief Review of Selected Psychoanalysis-Relevant Models of Aggression No access
  6. Is the Death-Instinct-Based Aggression Theory Wrong? No access
  7. What Is the Comparative Heuristic Value of Each Theory? No access
  8. Where to From Here? No access
  9. Notes No access
1. 1. Comments Following on Freud’s Thoughts about Narcissism No access
  2. Primary Narcissism No access
  3. The Altriciality of the Human Infant No access
  4. From Primary Narcissism to Secondary Narcissism No access
  5. The Investment of Emotional Value (Libido) in Others No access
  6. Secondary Narcissism No access
  7. Injury to Narcissism No access
  8. Narcissism Is a Living Dynamic of a “Group” as It Is of an “Individual” No access
  9. Notes No access
2. 1. The Cyclicity of Hyper-Narcissism and Narcissistic Injury in Human Conflict No access
  2. Narcissism Generates and Narcissism Destroys No access
  3. The Necessary and Precarious Condition of Narcissism in Humans No access
  4. Notes No access
3. 1. Homo sapiens Begins Life in Utter Helplessness and Dependence No access
  2. The Need for Power No access
  3. Greed No access
  4. Libidinal Insufficiency Syndrome No access
  5. Envy No access
  6. The Need to Blame Others No access
  7. The Need for Enemies No access
  8. Revenge No access
  9. Notes No access
1. 1. A Model of Prejudice No access
  2. From Correlations of Child Rearing and Aggression Profiles to the Study of Prejudice No access
  3. Normal Developmental Factors that Make Us All Prejudiced No access
  4. The Large Dilemma Created in the Child by His Ambivalence toward His Parents No access
  5. The Hostilification of Benign Prejudice No access
  6. Knowing Key Factors that Lead to Malignant Prejudice Can Inform Strategies toward Its Prevention No access
  7. There are Ways to Lessen the Generation of Hostile Destructiveness in Humans No access
  8. Society Can Helpfully Intervene No access
  9. Large Group Traumas Often become Key Generators of Malignant Prejudice No access
  10. Some Group Processes that Foster Hostile and Malignant Prejudice No access
  11. Key Obstacles that Stand in Our Way No access
  12. Notes No access
2. 1. Critical Dynamics of Post-Conflict Reactivities No access
  2. World War I No access
  3. World War II No access
  4. Notes No access
3. 1. Chris Hedges’s “War . . . Gives Us Meaning” No access
  2. Franco Fornari’s The Psychoanalysis of War No access
  3. Notes No access
1. 1. Are We Better Off than We Were? No access
  2. We Create the Conflicts; We are the Only Ones Who Can Solve Them Constructively No access
  3. Our Psychological Life Is Full of Challenges; We Need Psychological Defenses to Cope with Them No access
  4. Toward Taming Human Destructiveness and Reducing Human Conflict No access
  5. Among Strategies Old and New No access
  6. Genocide No access
  7. A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power No access
  8. David A. Hamburg’s Preventing Genocide No access
  9. Notes No access
2. 1. Among Promising Methods We Need to Try No access
  2. What Are “Ordinary/Average” People? No access
  3. Is a Person Who Commits Crimes Ordinary? No access
  4. The Antisocialization of Large Groups No access
  5. Extremist Ideology Antisocialized the Unquestioningly Obedient Germans No access
  6. We Need Formal Parenting Education No access
  7. Parents and Their Children Benefit from Formal Parenting Education No access
  8. Where Do We Go from Here? No access
  9. Education for Psychosocial Growth-Promoting Parenting No access
  10. Notes No access
1. A Guide for Those Perplexed in Reading Beyond the Pleasure Principle No access
2. Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) No access
3. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 263 - 274
Index No access Pages 275 - 288
About the Author No access Pages 289 - 290