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Paranoia

Is War Inevitable?

Jeffrey Gordon rereads a correspondence on war between Einstein and Freud.

In 1932 the greatest genius of the Twentieth Century wrote an urgent letter to the century’s most influential psychologist. In that letter, Albert Einstein asked Sigmund Freud, “Is there any way of delivering mankind from the menace of war?” It was the same year that the German electorate made the Nazis the strongest political party in Germany, only one year before Adolf Hitler’s remarkable rise to power.

Freud’s long and elaborate reply was greeted by Einstein with unrestrained enthusiasm. He called Freud’s letter “truly classic… something altogether magnificent.” Since the current American President has declared a War on Terror with no foreseeable end, Einstein’s question forces itself upon us with urgency also.

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