The Psychology of War: Comprehending Its Mystique and Its Madness"Why war?" Albert Einstein once asked Sigmund Freud, a question that Freud was not alone in being unable to answer. War has bedeviled humankind at least since the beginning of recorded history. But whatever instincts, beliefs, or economic imperatives drove people to armed conflict in the past, they have been far outstripped by war's ever greater destructiveness - now, more than ever, in our post-nuclear era. Even though the fate of the world may be at stake, why does war continue to exist? And what, if anything, can be done to stop it? In this book Lawrence LeShan furnishes a masterful overview of how different cultures, historians, and thinkers have regarded war over the centuries, and acknowledges humankind's undeniable attraction to war. His analysis of the "psychology of war" illustrates how war fulfills crucial human needs. Despite its horrible costs, humans pursue war because it allows them to become part of a larger cause, while at the same time intensifying their sense of individuality. By better understanding this process, LeShan believes we can discover what we have to do to eradicate war. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
The Human Attraction to War | 21 |
War and the Perception of Reality | 33 |
Copyright | |
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The Psychology of War: Comprehending Its Mystique and Its Madness Lawrence Leshan No preview available - 2002 |
The Psychology of War: Comprehending Its Mystique and Its Madness Lawrence Leshan No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
A. E. Housman accepted action activity aggression allies American army Arthur Koestler atomic basic become believe bomb Cassirer cause changed Civil civilian Codevilla combat concept conflict construction of reality Crimean War culture danger death defense Deikman drive economic enemy Erik Erikson Ernst Cassirer evil example experience fact feel fight forces Freud German Gordon Allport Herodotus heroes heroic hostility human idea individual instinct Iraqi Karl Menninger kill Koestler LeShan live look major meaning meaningful military mythic mode mythic reality nation never one's organizing reality ourselves peace perception Persian Gulf Persian Gulf War person present Press problem promises psychological question quoted reality evaluation reason Saddam Hussein self-destructive behavior sense sensory reality shift social society soldiers solve specific structure tension theories things Thucydides tion understand universe Vietnam Vietnam War viewpoint war's wartime weapons widely World War II wrote