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Purely Commentary
Visions of Peace — Einstein and Freud
on World's "Common Consent"
More than ever before, mankind is concerned about
the spreading danger of war. Isaiah's vision (Chapter XI)
of the wolf dwelling with the lamb, of the calf and the
young lion being together, of the cow and bear feeding
alike, and a little child leading them, is more remote in
this nuclear age.
When the atomic bomb was still unknown, before
Hitler gained power, the world's greatest minds were wor-
ried about the developing menace of war. Albert Einstein
posed the question, "Is there .a'ny way of delivering man-
kind from the menace of war?", as early as 1932. He
pleaded for an answer and he addressed his consternation
to none other than Sigmund Freud. The world's leading
physicist posed his question to the world's outstanding
interpreter of the human mind.
That which troubled these two geniuses 34 years ago
remains the leading challenge in our day.
Professor Einstein was not concerned with nations
alone. He was worried about the "intelligentsia," more
about the intellectual than about the uncultured masses.
He asked Prof. Freud: "Is it pos§ible to control man's
mental evolution so as to make him proof :against the
psychoses of hate and destructiveness?"
The letter from Prof. Einstein was dated July 30,
1932, and was sent from Caputh near Potsdam. The reply
from Prof. Freud necessitated a delay of several weeks.
Dated September 1932, Prof. Freud's answer, written
from Vienna, indicated that the eminent analyst was
taken "by surprise" by the query over the relations be-
tween Might and Right, and the eminent psychiatrist
made it clear that: "I was dumbfounded by the thought
of my (of our, I almost *rote) incompetence." But Freud
was quick to note: "Then I realized. that you did not raise
the question in your capacity of scientist of physics, but
as a lover of his fellow man." And Freud reminded him-
self that "I was not being called on to formulate prac-
tical proposals, but, rather, to explain how. this question
of preventing wars strikes a psychologist . . . "
While posing a question, Albert Einstein offered a
solution: "the setting up, by international consent, of a
legislative and judicial body to settle every conflict aris-
ing between nations . . . "
As if intuition told him that even a United Nations,
Albert Einstein in the Oranienburg Berlin Synagogue
before the great scientist left Germany in the early 30's.
An old goyishism. — if an un-Jewish
theme can be so defined — finds its coun-
terpart in a Jewish salutation for every
New Year.
The goyishism — popular and impres-
sively expressive — is the famous selection
from Lord Alfred Tennyson's "In Me-
moriam":
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going; let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
In Jewish tradition there is the famous
passage expressing joy at the departure of
the evil and the hope for an entrance of
the blessed, in the words:
"Tikhla shana u-kloloteha, v'tikhla
shana u-birhateha."
It is an entreaty to destiny that a year
of curses should end, a year of blessings
should begin. The reason for the tikhla in
Tiff DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
2—Friday, Sept. 13, 1974
4
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Peace for Mankind us the Two Great Giants,
Einstein . and Freud Envisioned the Needs
Which was organized 13 years after he had formulated
his questions to Sigmund Freud, might fall—and the
resignation of U Thant as the UN's secretary general
points to a despair over the international body's inability
to handle the current serious problems, including the
Vietnamese—Einstein added to his query to Freud: "I
come up against a difficulty; a tribunal is a human in-
stitution which, in proportion as the power at its disposal
is inadequate to enforce its verdicts, is all the more
prone to suffer these to be deflected by extrajudicial
pressure."
That is why Einstein, in posing his questions, com-
mented: "Man has - within him a lust for hatred and de-
struction. In normal times his passion exists in a latent
state, it emerges only in unusual circumstances; but it is
a comparatively easy task to call it into play and raise
it to power of a collective psychosis . . . "/That is why
he declared: "I am thinking by no means only of the so-
called uncultured masses. Experience proves that it is
rather the so-called 'intelligentsia' that is most apt to
yield to these disastrous suggestions."
Sigmund Freud's reply—justifying the several weeks'
delay in answering Einstein's urgent questions—was more
Historic photo of Albert Einstein with Dr. Stephen
S. Wise and- Thomas Mann.
than -three times the length of Einstein's letter. It was
riot an optimistic conclusion. It asserted that "there is
no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity's
aggressive tendencies." He was unable to accept the con-
tention that "in some happy corners of the earth, where
nature brings forth abundantly whatever man desires,
there flourish• races whose lives go gently by, unknowing
of aggression or constraint." He expressed a desire for
more details "about these happy folk" and added: "The
Bolsheviks, too, aspire to do away with human aggressive-
ness by ensuring the satisfaction of material needs and
enforcing equality between man and man. To me this
hope seems vain. Meanwhile, they perfect their arma-
ments, and their hatred of outsiders is not the least of
the factors of cohesion amongst themselves . . " And
this was written in 1932!
Taking into account the date of this expressed thought
—September 1932—the realism of the eminent psychia-
trist becomes obvious. And his pessimism was embodied
in this additional comment in his letter to Einstein:
"The ideal conditions would obviously be found in a
community where every man subordinated his instinctive
\life to the dictates of reason. Nothing less than this could
bring about so thorough and so durable a union between
men, even if this involved the severance of mutual ties
of sentiment. But surely such a hope is utterly utopian,
as things are."
Freud concurred with Einstein: "There is but one
sure way of ending war and that is the establishment, by
common consent, of a central control which shall have
the last word in every conflict of interest . . . (But) ob-
I
.
•
By Philip
Slomovitz
viously such notions as these can only be significant when
they are the expression of a deeply rooted sense of unity,
shared by all."
Here we have a sense of pessimism. Freud wrote to
Einstein is a concluding comment, accompanied by the
assertion "should this expose prove a disappointment. to
you my sincere regrets:
"The cultural development of mankind (some, I
know, prefer to call it civilization) has been in progress
since immemorial antiquity. To this process we owe all
that is best in our composition, but also much that makes
for human suffering. Its origins and causes are obscure,
its issue is uncertain, but some of its characteristics are
easy to perceiv'e . . . On the psychological side two ot•Ni
the most important phenomena of culture are, firstly
a strengthening of the intellect, which tends to master '
our distinctive life, and, secondly, an introversion of ti
aggressive impulse, with all its consequent benefits ano
perils. Now war runs most emphatically cour!,_r to the
psychic disposition imposed on us by the g-
ture; we are therefore bound to resent ■ •
utterly intolerable. With pacifists like us i
an intellectual and affective repulsion, but
intolerance, an idiosyncrasy in its most
"How long have we to wait before tl‘
turn pacifist? Impossible to say, and yet
hope that these two factors—man's cultural diSposition ti
and a wall-founded dread of the form that future wars
will take—may serve to put an end to war in the nea
future, is not chimerical. But by what ways of by-m
this will come about, we cannot guess . . . "
Since this exchange of letters—which have histon,
merit—came the most intolerable of all wars. Hitle
came and with him the threat to everything that is e
cent in the world. And now there are new wars, add(
threats -to man's dignity. How would Einstein and Freu
have written and acted in 1932 had they known wha
was to happen to them—Einstein a refugee in the Unite
States and Freud a refugee in Great Britain? With wh•
added despair both. might have written only six year \ ■
after their exchange of the two now famous epistles'
But even now their questions, their pacifist cravings fc
an end to wars, continue to haunt the intellect of man 1
. pleading with him to make an end of - strife- so that thr'
Prophecy of Isaiah may indeed become reality.
(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
Sigmund Freud in his study, one of the rooms in his
Vienna home that has been transformed into a museum.
Anticipated 5735 Bleisings To Erase Anathema of 5734
both cases is the play on words that sound peace?
In 5734 the evidence of a re-emerging
alike but have different meanings: tikhla
with khaf meaning the end; tikhla with a anti-Semitism was substantiated in a vol-
ume, "The New Anti-Semitism," by the
heth designating the beginning.
This, in the "Rosh Hashanah Anthology" heads of the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation
edited by Rabbi-Philip Goodman (a volume League. Will their admonitions bring suc-
part of an important holiday series of the cor? • Will 5735 be marked by blessings for
Jewish Publication Society of America), common sense for all Americans?
The Black-Jewish issue came to a head
there is the "Peace and Plenty" selection
by Rabbi Jules Harlow which concluded and -there were prejudicial evidences in
with that traditional plea for better days: many areas. But the year also witnessed
blacks rising' to great glory in their de-
"May the curses of the old year end;
mands for a return to friendly dialogues.
May the blessings of the new year
However: the black prejudices had the
begin."
In these lines are incorporated the hopes Arab enmities as a source for hatred.
That's where the challenge is rooted
of every generation of Jews. There has
never been one `without the curses of agony, especially in 5735.
In a Michigan suburban school, a Jew-
the anathemas of oppressions, the miseries
of despair. And every year commences ish lad was beaten by an Arab gang: we'll
change your name for you, they said.
with hopes.
In another school in Michigan (Oak
The months of 5734 were filled with
Park) the influx of Arab children created
concern for Jewry and for Israel:
The Yom Kippur War was a major an incident: an Arab teen-ager called the
calamity: will the curse end in blessed Jewish teacher "kike." Where did he learn
N
a long-forgotten odious opprobrium?
It is because of the alighnment of Arab)
with anti-Semites.
A fact worth knowing: Michigan is per
haps the state with the largest number of
Arab residents. Factories are importink
them because they return on Mondays:
others usually utilize their pay for over
doses of drink and Monday is marked k
absenteeism.
Therefore, Michigan suffers most from
such Semitic anti-Semitism.
These may be isolated occurrences, by
they are repulsive in all their ugliness a 1 1
stigmas on humanism.
Another fact to know: Arab students arq
spreading their hatreds on university cam , '
puses.
Peace in the Middle East will surely en
both phenomena. Will 5735 bring th
solace? Let that year bring the blessinf l
then the curses of the year now comilJ
to a close will end.
(A Seven Arts Feature)