Thoughts for the Times on War and Death | Summary

Summary

The Disillusionment of the War

Sigmund Freud begins "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death" by lamenting Europe's degenerate state. Millions of soldiers are caught up in World War I (1914–18) while people at home feel disillusioned by the unwelcome changes that have befallen the continent. Only a few years before, Europeans had believed themselves too civilized for war. People traveled freely across national borders and did not feel like a "renegade towards his own nation" for enjoying other countries' splendor. Freud notes that the war's disillusionment should not have come as a surprise. Reality often shatters people's fantasies.

Freud argues that the war shows that the past dreams of a peaceful Europe are fiction. The war is just as brutal as the wars in centuries past. The conflict also highlights a divide between people and their nation. Nations tell people to be moral while at the same time permitting and encouraging violence against other nations' citizens. The people have some responsibility for the conflict because they failed to raise objections concerning the state's monopoly on violence.

Freud turns his attention to how people develop morality. People learn how to be good throughout their lives which implies that evil is at the heart of every person. The "deepest essence of human nature" contains this evil and other primitive impulses. Freud suggests that people replace these urges with what society expects of them. This action gives people the illusion that they are better than they actually are.

Freud argues that modern society expects too much of people. People cannot oppress their nature entirely. Many experience mental illness when their nature and what society expects of them come into conflict. Society must accept that "primitive" humanity is alive and well within every human being and that emotion will often override intellect. A healthier future means accepting and even sometimes embracing primal instincts.

Our Attitude Towards Death

Sigmund Freud argues that the relationship with death that modern society imposes upon people leads to an unhealthy attitude concerning the end of life. People do not possess the ability to imagine death. This deficiency leads to people unconsciously assuming that they are immortal. This way of thinking leads to strange practices such as giving the deceased greater consideration than people still living. People are now "compelled to believe in death" because of World War I (1914–18). People dying in massive numbers causes immense psychological strain on both surviving family members and society at large.

Freud looks at primitive people to help explain the modern crisis. Death was more central to the human experience in ancient times. However, even primitive people could not reconcile death. Freud argues that this inability caused a mental split that persists to the present day. People feel happy or satisfied when an enemy or foe dies. They feel sad when a loved one or friend dies. The ability to assign a single event two very emotional states leads to a type of mental illness. According to Freud religions such as Christianity and ancient Greek stories attempt to cure people by guaranteeing some spiritual life after physical death. Freud finds this view unsatisfactory. Religion deprives "death of its meaning as the termination of life."

Freud discusses the act of murder. He argues that people must possess an innate desire to kill others. He questions why there would need to be a biblical commandment against murder if this were not the case. Even in "civilized" society, people jokingly wish for other people's deaths. These statements suggest that people still possess the ability to kill without remorse.

Freud suggests that people should reconnect to their "primitive state" regarding death and face the contradictory feelings that occur when someone dies. People who live in violent times such as during World War I can no longer deny death's existence. Trying to deny death is "living psychologically beyond our means'' and leads to mental illness. Freud asserts that accepting death will lead to a better life for all.

Analysis

World War I Destroyed Dreams and Ideas

World War I (1914–18) destroyed much more than cities, countryside, and human bodies. It destroyed the dream of a peaceful, cooperative Europe. Sigmund Freud mourns the death of this dream in the section of "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death" titled "The Disillusionment of the War." He advocates this view because European countries can no longer claim themselves to be a moral authority that guides people's conduct. Countries "took serious steps if anyone ventured to tamper with" their moral and societal norms in the years leading up to the war. Europeans wrongly assumed that their home country held itself to the same high standard. They were wrong. Freud notes that nations could not shake off the antiquated belief that "foreigner" and "enemy" were the same. He implies that in retrospect, conflict was inevitable.

Destroyed dreams extended to people as well as nations. Freud writes that Europeans before the war had revered the greatest thinkers of other nations "along with the immortal ancients as well as with the familiar masters of his own tongue." Many people traveled across national borders and regarded a foreign country's culture and ideas as equally valid to those they learned growing up. This trend suggested that Europe would remain peaceful. However, the war's violence was a sign to millions of Europeans that they could no longer look at their neighbors the same way again.

Violence Is Natural

Sigmund Freud does not condone violence of any type in "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death." However, his theories concerning human psychology lead him to argue that a tendency towards violence is a primal instinct within every person. Freud writes, "There is no such thing as 'eradicating' evil tendencies." He refers to how nations before the war expected their citizens to act morally. Nations punished people who broke the law such as by committing murder. They maintained a "lust for power" that led them to draw up war plans against their enemies. The German Empire planned as early as 1905 to defeat France in a future conflict.

According to Freud people possess a tendency towards violence. They also possess the ability to prevent their nation from committing violence against other countries. Freud writes that if "the community no longer raises objections," a nation can use its influence to break people's common bonds and call upon its citizens to commit violent acts that "one would have thought them impossible." He suggests that people's social conditioning and intellectual development gave them the ability to reject violence. However, individual morality did not become collective morality. Nations tapped into their citizens' primal, violent instincts and led them to war.

Freud expands upon the theme of violence in the essay's second half titled "Our Attitude Towards Death." Freud writes of ancient people, "He liked to kill and did it as a matter of course." Civilizations over time began to recognize violence as part of human nature and reacted accordingly. In a South American civilization, warriors returning from conflict could not see their family "until he has expiated his war murders and often painful penances." That society forced soldiers to face their actions and come to terms with what they had done to other people. This practice suggests a healthier attitude towards violent tendencies that European nations held on the eve of World War I (1914–18).

People Must Grapple With and Come to Terms With Death

Death is a natural part of life. Sigmund Freud argues in the section titled "Our Attitude Towards Death" that the existence of death leads to a mental conflict. Freud argues that because "we cannot imagine our own death," everyone carries with them the unconscious belief that they are immortal. This incorrect viewpoint leads to ill mental health. An example involves how people are paralyzed with grief when a loved one dies. This "unbearable intensity" leads people to take fewer risks. Freud notes that ancient cultures that accepted death were more likely to explore and take risks. Freud quotes a culture's saying that "It is necessary to sail the seas, but not to live" to prove his point.

Freud aims to take his readers back to the ancient view of death that he regards as healthier. He does so by showing how modern civilization and religion have warped people's attitudes towards death. Religion proposes that people are a "body and soul" and that the soul does not perish when the physical body dies. This trend which is present in numerous religions deprives "death of its meaning as the termination of life."

Freud argues that World War I (1914–18) makes the task of returning to a more primal view of death more necessary than ever. He states, "War cannot be abolished" and suggests that even if the war ends, future conflicts will continue to force people to face death. Society must once again "give death the place to which it is entitled." Freud notes that doing so will improve mental health and prevent the disillusionment and internal conflict World War I caused so many people to experience.

Society Expects Too Much From People

Sigmund Freud argues in the sections titled "The Disillusionment of the War" and "Our Attitude Towards Death" that societal expectations are both demeaning and impossible for people to follow. Nations treat people "like children" by expecting unquestioning "obedience and sacrifice" during times of war. Nations possess this power over life and death while denying it to their citizens. In Freud's view this imbalance is a reason why nations' supposed moral authority is an illusion.

Freud admits that societal expectations sometimes play a positive role in expecting people to act good. "Internal and external" factors influence people's moral development. Society can play a positive role in this regard and lead people towards the "renunciation of instinctual satisfaction." Freud's issue is that society goes too far.

Freud expands on his argument regarding societal expectations in "Our Attitude Towards Death." Cultures promoted the idea that "other forms of existence" happened after death. This step was not necessarily negative and represents a process thousands of years in the making. However, this process led to a "denial of death" or a belief that people cannot reconcile with mass death such as what occurred during the early months of World War I (1914–18). Freud's statement that "we have lived psychologically beyond our means" implies that continuing to hold on to old societal expectations regarding death will lead to further mental illness and suffering.