War Is Not Inevitable

In 1932, Freud told Einstein that war is inevitable because humans have an instinct to destroy. However, studies 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 discusses and documents the core psychodynamics that lead groups to war. Detailing some of the psychodynamics that led from World War I to World War II and their respective aftermath, Parens addresses how major factors that gave rise to these wars must, can, and have been counteracted. In doing so, War Is Not Inevitable considers strategies by which civilization has and is constructively preventing wars, as well as the need for further innovative efforts to achieve that end.