Cold War Freud

"On Aggression, after all, as the original German title indicated, was a vigorous defense of aggression as by no means always a forcefor evil. The short take- home message –amidst all the witty, cheerfully chatty accounts of animal conduct –was welcome indeed. It had twomain components: aggression was ubiquitous in animals and in people (i.e., it was not just a German specialty). And more importantly: aggression was a force for good. All cultural progress and effective activity,as well as, and however counterintuitively, the treasured bonds of deep friendship and marital love, had roots in the aggressive instinct." Pp.126"In 1967, Alexander Mitsch erlich, with his wife Margarete , also an analyst, published what is still the most infl uential and internationally known product of West German psychoanalysis: Die Unfähigkeit zu trauern (translated in 1975 as The Inability to Mourn). In the coauthored title essay, the Mitscherlichsargued that what Germans had proven themselves unable to mourn was not the multiple millionsof murdered Jews of Europe that had been killed in their name and in all too many cases with their assistance, but rather their own ers twhile passionate love for Adolf Hitler" Pp.127""In sum, what Krieger as well as younger New Left- affi liated authors hated was the idea that aggression was inborn and inevitable. Theywere determined to emphasize that it was society that encouraged violence, and that human beings could be changed if only society waschanged. In the process, some –convinced that Freudstood for the idea of innate aggression –rejected psychoanalysis entirely."