Understanding war to promote peace

the common enemy, power and violence as means and ends today and always

Authors

  • Ana Cristina Sampaio 71981752283

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31683/stylus.v1i46.1048

Keywords:

War, Power, Death drive, Sigmund Freud

Abstract

What is war? Who battles? What for? If, despite all the efforts of those who desire peace, humanity continues to choose enemies that it targets and spends fortunes to annihilate, is war actually an indispensable advent? This article aims to reflect on the topic of war, which is so current, in light of the exchange of letters between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud in the 1930s, which later became the text “Why war?” (1932-1933). We propose a debate about the intricacies of the power and violence of wars as a response by some to the death drive that lives in all of us. According to the reflection that Freud makes in his exchange of letters with Einstein, violence is not something that can be eliminated from subjects, since it is intrinsic to human subjectivity - aggressiveness is ingrained in our drive dimension. Running away from it, therefore, does not make it cease to exist; perhaps it will even make the force more brutal.

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References

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Published

2024-09-18

How to Cite

Sampaio, A. C. (2024). Understanding war to promote peace: the common enemy, power and violence as means and ends today and always. Revista De Psicanálise Stylus, 1(46), pp. 107–115. https://doi.org/10.31683/stylus.v1i46.1048

Issue

Section

CRITICAL PAPER WITH THE CONCEPTS