Postscript to Monday Night's Discussion

Sigmund Freud in 1926

Thanks to the 22 people who came out on a rainy night for Monday's discussion of "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death," by Sigmund Freud.  Here are a few of the reactions of group members:

Freud's final position is that we can't get our minds around death, so how can we possibly reconcile ourselves to the brutality of war?

Some thought Freud was pushing the agenda of psychoanalysis at the expense of an incisive analysis of the causes of war.

In the context of Freud's lament over the schism that took place within the European nations during the First World War, one discussant commented that it was to be expected as it was caused by imperialism.

The old saw that "One musn't speak ill of the dead," mentioned by Freud as telling about our attitude toward death, was mentioned by one of us as a good example of how we keep death at an arm's length.

Freud as a physician and healer, sensed a sense of disillusionment around him concerning the war and the prevalence of death. His Rx: to probe our primitive, darker sides and accept them as part of our selves.  That is how we can get through life's tough patches.