Brain Picking

8/11/2019 Brain Picking

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Why War: Einstein and Freuds Little-Known Correspondence on Violence, Peace,

and Human ature

!y "aria Popo#a

Every man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full of

promise.

Despite his enormous contributions to science, Albert Einstein was no reclusive genius,

his ever-eager conversations and correspondence engaging such diverse partners as theIndian philosopher agore and a young !outh African girl who wanted to be a scientist.

In "#$", the Institute for Intellectual %ooperation invited the renowned physicist to a

cross-disciplinary e&change of ideas about politics and peace with a thin'er of his

choosing. (e selected !igmund )reud, born on *ay +, "+, whom he had met briefly in"#/ and whose wor', despite being s'eptical of psychoanalysis, the legendary physicist

had come to admire. A series of letters followed, discussing the abstract generalities of

human nature and the potential concrete steps for reducing violence in the world. In a

twist of irony, the correspondence was only published in "#$$ 0 after (itler, who wouldeventually banish both Einstein and )reud into e&ile, rose to power 0 in a slim limited-

edition pamphlet titled 1hy 1ar2. 3nly ,444 copies of the English translation wereprinted, most of which were lost during the war. 5ut the gist of the correspondence,

which remains surprisingly little-'nown, is preserved in the "#+4 volume Einstein on

6eace 7public library8, featuring a foreword by none other than 5ertrand 9ussell.

In a letter dated April #, "#$", Einstein laments to )reud:

I greatly admire your passion to ascertain the truth;a passion that has come todominate all else in your thin'ing.


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factions ma'es it impossible for its members to co-operate in the solution of todayCs

problems.

(e goes on to argue that the only positive way forward is through the establishment of a

free association of men whose previous wor' and achievements offer a guarantee of their

ability and integrity, envisioning the power of such a networ' decades before socialmedia empowered a similar groundswell:

!uch a group of international scope, whose members would have to 'eep contact witheach other through constant interchange of opinions, might gain a significant and

wholesome moral influence on the solution of political problems if its own attitudes,

bac'ed by the signatures of its concurring members, were made public through the press.

!uch an association would, of course, suffer from all the defects that have so often led todegeneration in learned societiesB the danger that such a degeneration may develop is,

unfortunately, ever present in view of the imperfections of human nature. (owever, and

despite those dangers, should we not ma'e at least an attempt to form such an association

in spite of all dangers2 It seems to me nothing less than an imperative duty

FG

I offer these suggestions to you, rather than to anyone else in the world, because your

sense of reality is less clouded by wishful thin'ing than is the case with other people andsince you combine the ualities of critical Hudgment, earnestness and responsibility.

he following summer, Einstein officially invites )reud to participate in the Institute for

Intellectual %ooperation e&change, presenting the brief:

his is the problem: Is there any way of delivering man'ind from the menace of war2

It is common 'nowledge that, with the advance of modern science, this issue has come tomean a matter of life and death for %ivili@ation as we 'now itB nevertheless, for all the

@eal displayed, every attempt at its solution has ended in a lamentable brea'down.

(e e&plains why he has sought out )reud:

Ghose whose duty it is to tac'le the problem professionally and practically are

growing only too aware of their impotence to deal with it, and have now a very livelydesire to learn the views of men who, absorbed in the pursuit of science, can see world

problems in the perspective distance lends. As for me, the normal obHective of my thought

affords no insight into the dar' places of human will and feeling. hus, in the inuirynow proposed, I can do little more than to see' to clarify the uestion at issue and,

clearing the ground of the more obvious solutions, enable you to bring the light of your

far-reaching 'nowledge of manCs instinctive life to bear upon the problem. here arecertain psychological obstacles whose e&istence a layman in the mental sciences may

dimly surmise, but whose interrelations and vagaries he is incompetent to fathomB you, I

am convinced, will be able to suggest educative methods, lying more or less outside the

scope of politics, which will eliminate these obstacles.


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Einstein, who describes himself as one immune from nationalist bias, puts forth his

own ideas for what a solution might entail 0 an international legislative and Hudicialbody, which would settle all conflicts by mutual consent 0 but is wary of the challenges

to this concept:

his is a fact with which we have to rec'onB law and might inevitably go hand in hand,

and Huridical decisions approach more nearly the ideal Hustice demanded by the

community 7in whose name and interests these verdicts are pronounced8 insofar as thecommunity has effective power to compel respect of its Huridical ideal. 5ut at present we

are far from possessing any supranational organi@ation competent to render verdicts of

incontestable authority and enforce absolute submission to the e&ecution of its verdicts.

hus I am led to my first a&iom: he uest of international security involves theunconditional surrender by every nation, in a certain measure, of its liberty of action 0

its sovereignty that is to say ; -and it is clear beyond all doubt that no other road can lead

to such security.

ong before todayCs heated debates on gun control, Einstein points to pro-gun groups as a

chief culprit in hindering this legislative utopia:

he craving for power which characteri@es the governing class in every nation is

hostile to any limitation of the national sovereignty. his political power hunger is oftensupported by the activities of another group, whose aspirations are on purely mercenary,

economic lines. I have especially in mind that small but determined group, active in every

nation, composed of individuals who, indifferent to social considerations and restraints,

regard warfare, the manufacture and sale of arms, simply as an occasion to advance theirpersonal interests and enlarge their personal authority. F Another uestion follows hard

upon it: (ow is it possible for this small cliue to bend the will of the maHority, who stand

to lose and suffer by a state of war, to the service of their ambitions. F An obviousanswer to this uestion would seem to be that the minority, the ruling class at present, has

the schools and press, usually the %hurch as well, under its thumb. his enables it to

organi@e and sway the emotions of the masses, and ma'es its tool of them.

Einstein then arrives at his main uestion for )reud:

Is it possible to control manCs mental evolution so as to ma'e him proof against thepsychosis of hate and destructiveness2 (ere I am thin'ing by no means only of the so-

called uncultured masses. E&perience proves that it is rather the so-called intelligentsia

that is most apt to yield to these disastrous collective suggestions, since the intellectualhas no direct contact with life in the raw but encounters it in its easiest, synthetic form 0

upon the printed page. F 5ut F here we have the best occasion of discovering ways and

means to render all armed conflicts impossible.

I 'now that in your writings we may find answers, e&plicit or implied, to all the issues

of this urgent and absorbing problem. 5ut it would be of the greatest service to us all

were you to present the problem of world peace in the light of your most recent


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the factor which, in small communities, decided points of ownership and the uestion

which manCs will was to prevail. Kery soon physical force was implemented, then

replaced, by the use of various adHunctsB he proved the victor whose weapon was thebetter, or handled the more s'illfully. Jow, for the first time, with the coming of

weapons, superior brains began to oust brute force, but the obHect of the conflict remained

the same: one party was to be constrained, by the inHury done him or impairment of hisstrength, to retract a claim or a refusal. his end is most effectively gained when the

opponent is definitely put out of action 0 in other words, is 'illed. his procedure has

two advantages: the enemy cannot renew hostilities, and, secondly, his fate deters othersfrom following his e&ample. *oreover, the slaughter of a foe gratifies an instinctive

craving. F (owever, another consideration may be set off against this will to 'ill: the

possibility of using an enemy for servile tas's if his spirit be bro'en and his life spared.

(ere violence finds an outlet not in slaughter but in subHugation. (ence springs thepractice of giving uarterB but the victor, having from now on to rec'on with the craving

for revenge that ran'les in his victim, forfeits to some e&tent his personal security.

In tracing how civili@ation evolved from brute violence, or violence bac'ed by arms tolaw, )reud argues that shared identification and a sense of community are a better bastion

of order than force:

5rute force is overcome by unionB the allied might of scattered units ma'es good its

right against the isolated giant. hus we may define right 7i.e., law8 as the might of acommunity.


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e&tend their rights and see each gain embodied in the code, replacing legal disabilities by

eual laws for all.

)rom this, )reud observes, results the parado& of peace:

Jo single all-embracing Hudgment can be passed on these wars of aggrandi@ement.!ome, li'e the war between the *ongols and the ur's, have led to unmitigated miseryB

others, however, have furthered the transition from violence to law, since they brought

larger units into being, within whose limits a recourse to violence was banned and a newregime determined all disputes. hus the 9oman conuest brought that boon, the pa&

9omana, to the *editerranean lands. he )rench 'ingsC lust for aggrandi@ement created a

new )rance, flourishing in peace and unity. 6arado&ical as its sounds, we must admit that

warfare well might serve to pave the way to that unbro'en peace we so desire, for it iswar that brings vast empires into being, within whose frontiers all warfare is proscribed

by a strong central power.

)reud brings his theory bac' to the present predicament, proposing that there is only onecertain way of ending war 0 establishing, by consensus, a centrali@ed body of control

that resolves all such conflicts of interest. 5ut that necessitates certain conditions, whichat the time remained 0 as they do today 0 unmet:

)or this, two things are needed: first, the creation of such a supreme court ofHudicatureB secondly, its investment with adeuate e&ecutive force. Lnless this second

reuirement be fulfilled, the first is unavailing. 3bviously the eague of Jations, acting

as a !upreme %ourt, fulfills the first conditionB it does not fulfill the second. It has no

force at its disposal and can only get it if the members of the new body, its constituentnations, furnish it. And, as things are, this is a forlorn hope. !till we should be ta'ing a

very shortsighted view of the eague of Jations were we to ignore the fact that here is an

e&periment the li'e of which has rarely 0 never before, perhaps, on such a scale 0 beenattempted in the course of history. It is an attempt to acuire the authority 7in other words,

coercive influence8, which hitherto reposed e&clusively in the possession of power, by

calling into play certain idealistic attitudes of mind. F Ghere are two factors ofcohesion in a community: violent compulsion and ties of sentiment 7identifications, in

technical parlance8 between the members of the group. If one of these factors becomes

inoperative, the other may still suffice to hold the group together.

FG

And, in our times, we loo' in vain for some such unifying notion whose authoritywould be unuestioned. It is all too clear that the nationalistic ideas, paramount today in

every country, operate in uite a contrary direction. !ome there are who hold that the

5olshevist conceptions may ma'e an end of war, but, as things are, that goal lies very faraway and, perhaps, could only be attained after a spell of brutal internecine warfare. hus

it would seem that any effort to replace brute force by the might of an ideal is, under

present conditions, doomed to fail. 3ur logic is at fault if we ignore the fact that right is

founded on brute force and even today needs violence to maintain it.


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)reud then sets forth the most compelling portion of his theory, which deals with the dual

capacity for good and evil in human nature, and argues that these two seeminglyopposing forces operate in necessary unison:

1e assume that human instincts are of two 'inds: those that conserve and unify, whichwe call erotic 7in the meaning 6lato gives to Eros in his !ymposium8, or else se&ual

7e&plicitly e&tending the popular connotation of se&8B and, secondly, the instincts to

destroy and 'ill, which we assimilate as the aggressive or destructive instincts. hese are,as you perceive, the well 'nown opposites, ove and (ate, transformed into theoretical

entitiesB they are, perhaps, another aspect of those eternal polarities, attraction and

repulsion, which fall within your province. 5ut we must be chary of passing overhastily

to the notions of good and evil. Each of these instincts is every whit as indispensable asits opposite, and all the phenomena of life derive from their activity, whether they wor'

in concert or in opposition. It seems that an instinct of either category can operate but

rarely in isolationB it is always blended 7alloyed, as we say8 with a certain dosage of its

opposite, which modifies its aim or even, in certain circumstances, is a prime condition ofits attainment. hus the instinct of self-preservation is certainly of an erotic nature, but to

gain its end this very instinct necessitates aggressive action. In the same way the loveinstinct, when directed to a specific obHect, calls for an admi&ture of the acuisitive

instinct if it is to enter into effective possession of that obHect. It is the difficulty of

isolating the two 'inds of instinct in their manifestations that has so long prevented usfrom recogni@ing them. F 3nly e&ceptionally does an action follow on the stimulus of a

single instinct, which is per se a blend of Eros and destructiveness. As a rule several

motives of similar composition concur to bring about the act.

(e relates this to the international dynamics of war:

1Ghen a nation is summoned to engage in war, a whole gamut of human motives mayrespond to this appeal;high and low motives, some openly avowed, others slurred over.

he lust for aggression and destruction is certainly includedB the innumerable cruelties of

history and manCs daily life confirm its prevalence and strength. he stimulation of thesedestructive impulses by appeals to idealism and the erotic instinct naturally facilitate their

release. *using on the atrocities recorded on historyCs page, we feel that the ideal motive

has often served as a camouflage for the dust of destructionB sometimes, as with the

cruelties of the Inuisition, it seems that, while the ideal motives occupied the foregroundof consciousness, they drew their strength from the destructive instincts submerged in the

unconscious. 5oth interpretations are feasible.

In a meta-deliberation aside, )reud ma'es a poignant and prescient point about the

similitude between science and philosophy:

All this may give you the impression that our theories amount to species of mythology

and a gloomy one at that 5ut does not every natural science lead ultimately to this 0 a

sort of mythology2 Is it otherwise today with your physical sciences2


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In fact, a similar relationship e&ists between psychology and religious doctrine, and in

their underlying common denominator )reud finds the proposed answer to EinsteinCs

original uestion, one that embodies %haplinCs iconic speech from he >reat Dictator,proclaiming that we want to live by each otherCs happiness, not by each otherCs misery.:

)rom our mythology of the instincts we may easily deduce a formula for an indirectmethod of eliminating war. If the propensity for war be due to the destructive instinct, we

have always its counter-agent, Eros, to our hand. All that produces ties of sentiment

between man and man must serve us as warCs antidote. hese ties are of two 'inds. )irst,such relations as those toward a beloved obHect, void though they be of se&ual intent. he

psychoanalyst need feel no compunction in mentioning love in this connectionB religion

uses the same language: ove thy neighbor as thyself. A pious inHunction, easy to

enounce, but hard to carry out he other bond of sentiment is by way of identification.All that brings out the significant resemblances between men calls into play this feeling

of community, identification, whereon is founded, in large measure, the whole edifice of

human society.

FG

hat men are divided into the leaders and the led is but another manifestation of their

inborn and irremediable ineuality. he second class constitutes the vast maHorityB they

need a high command to ma'e decisions for them, to which decisions they usually bowwithout demur. In this conte&t we would point out that men should be at greater pains

than heretofore to form a superior class of independent thin'ers, unamenable to

intimidation and fervent in the uest of truth, whose function it would be to guide the

masses dependent on their lead. here is no need to point out how little the rule ofpoliticians and the %hurchCs ban on liberty of thought encourage such a new creation. he

ideal conditions would obviously be found in a community where every man

subordinated his instinctive life to the dictates of reason. Jothing less than this couldbring about so thorough and so durable a union between men, even if this involved the

severance of mutual ties of sentiment. 5ut surely such a hope is utterly utopian, as things

are. he other indirect methods of preventing war are certainly more feasible, but entailno uic' results. hey conHure up an ugly picture of mills that grind so slowly that, before

the flour is ready, men are dead of hunger.

Despite his generally dystopian disposition, )reud ta'es care to point out why EinsteinCsuest is a worthwhile one nonetheless:

EGvery man has a right over his own life and war destroys lives that were full ofpromiseB it forces the individual into situations that shame his manhood, obliging him to

murder fellow men, against his willB it ravages material amenities, the fruits of human

toil, and much besides. *oreover, wars, as now conducted, afford no scope for acts ofheroism according to the old ideals and, given the high perfection of modern arms, war

today would mean the sheer e&termination of one of the combatants, if not of both. his

is so true, so obvious, that we can but wonder why the conduct of war is not banned by

general consent.


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>iven the famed adage about intuition over rationality freuently attributed, li'ely

misattributed, to Einstein 0 he intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is afaithful servant. 1e have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the

gift. 0 itCs interesting that )reud points to the intellectCs suppression of instinct as the

hallmar' of human progress:

he cultural development of man'ind 7some, I 'now, prefer to call it civili@ation8 has

been in progress since immemorial antiuity. o this processus we owe all that is best inour composition, but also much that ma'es for human suffering. Its origins and causes are

obscure, its issue is uncertain, but some of its characteristics are easy to perceive. It well

may lead to the e&tinction of man'ind, for it impairs the se&ual function in more than one

respect, and even today the uncivili@ed races and the bac'ward classes of all nations aremultiplying more rapidly than the cultured elements. F he psychic changes which

accompany this process of cultural change are stri'ing, and not to be gainsaid. hey

consist in the progressive reHection of instinctive ends and a scaling down of instinctive

reactions. F 3n the psychological side two of the most important phenomena of cultureare, firstly, a strengthening of the intellect, which tends to master our instinctive life, and,

secondly, an introversion of the aggressive impulse, with all its conseuent benefits andperils. Jow war runs most emphatically counter to the psychic disposition imposed on us

by the growth of cultureB we are therefore bound to resent war, to find it utterly

intolerable.

In light of todayCs conflict-torn world, )reudCs conclusion echoes with aching discomfort:

(ow long have we to wait before the rest of men turn pacifist2 Impossible to say, andyet perhaps our hope that these two factors 0 manCs cultural disposition and a well-

founded dread of the form that future wars will ta'e 0 may serve to put an end to war in

the near future, is not chimerical. 5ut by what ways or byways this will come about, wecannot guess. *eanwhile we may rest on the assurance that whatever ma'es for cultural

development is wor'ing also against war.

3n December $, "#$, Einstein responds in a warm letter:


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achieves the moral strength to overcome this evil, it is bound to share the fate of former

civili@ations: decline and decay.

Einstein on 6eace is timelessly fantastic in its entirety. %omplement it with (enry *iller

on war and the future of man'ind.

Why Freud $till "atters, When He Was Wron% &!out &lmost E#erythin%

'eor%e (#ors)y

Filed to: (aily E*plainer

1hy )reud !till *atters, 1hen (e 1as 1rong About Almost EverythingE&pand"$M

(eCs been dead for nearly /4 years, but !igmund )reudCs provocative theories are still ahuge part of psychology, neuroscience, and culture 0 this despite the fact that many of

his ideas were mindboggingly, catastrophically wrong. (ereCs why )reud Hust wonCt go

away.

ove him or hate him, thereCs no denying that !igmund )reud was a giant in his field.

1hen it comes to his influence on psychology, psychoanalysis, and our theories of mind,heCs often credited for 'indling a revolutionB with )reud, itCs 'ind of a before-and-after

thing.

)reudCs %entury

Indeed, the 4th century has often been called )reudCs century. (is boo's landed with the

subtlety of hand grenades, featuring such seminal titles as he Interpretation of Dreams

7"#448, he 6sychopathology of Everyday ife 7"#4"8, and his Introductory ectures on6sycho-Analysis 7"#"-"#"+8.

1hy )reud !till *atters, 1hen (e 1as 1rong About Almost EverythingE&pand

)reudCs legacy has transcended science, with his ideas permeating deep into 1estern

culture. 9arely does a day go by where we donCt find ourselves uttering a term drawnfrom his wor': *ommy and daddy issues. Arrested development. Death wishes. )reudian

slips. 6hallic symbols. Anal retentiveness. Defense mechanisms. %athartic release. And

on and on and on.

As psychologist and )reud critic =ohn ?ihlstrom himself admits, *ore than Einstein or

1atson and %ric', more than (itler or enin, 9oosevelt or ?ennedy, more than 6icasso,

Eliot, or !travins'y, more than the 5eatles or 5ob Dylan, )reudNs influence on modernculture has been profound and long-lasting.

An 3utdated 6aradigm

5ut his legacy is a sha'y one. )reud has, for the most part, fallen completely out of favor

in academia. Kirtually no institution in any discipline would dare use him as a credible

source. In "##+, 6sychological !cience reached the conclusion that Ghere is literally


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nothing to be said, scientifically or therapeutically, to the advantage of the entire )reudian

system or any of its component dogmas.O As a research paradigm, itCs pretty much dead.

*any of )reudCs methodologies, techniues, and conclusions have been put into uestion.

*oreover, his theories have even proved damaging 0 and even dangerous 0 to certain

segments of the population. (is perspectives on female se&uality and homose&uality arereviled, causing many feminists to refer to him by a different 'ind of P)C word. !ome

even argue that his name should be spelled )raud and not )reud.

)reud is truly in a class of his own, writes odd Dufresne, an outspo'en critic.

Arguably no other notable figure in history was so fantastically wrong about nearly

every important thing he had to say. 5ut, luc'ily for him, academics have been 0 and

still are 0 infinitely creative in their efforts to whitewash his errors, even as lay readersgrow increasingly dumbfounded by the entire mess.

1ithout a doubt, many of these criticisms and valid and totally Hustified. 5ut a renewed

loo' at his legacy shows that )reudCs contribution is far from over 0 both in terms of hisinfluence on culture and science.


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Indeed, as feminist ili (sieh points out, he had some very strange ideas about gender

and se&uality:

*uch of the critiue of psychoanalysis as phallocentric or heterose&ist is tied to the

unfortunate conflation of femininity and se&ualityB therefore, it is important to review theslippage in )reudNs theory between femininity as the repertoire of se&ed life and that as

the logical complementarity to the universal se&uality. )reudNs view of femininity leans

predominantly toward the latter, as he decides in his early theori@ation that there is onlyone 'ind of libido, i.e., the masculine one. 5y masculinity of the libido, )reud means

mainly activity, hence he euates femininity with passivity.

Although boys are caught in the constant threat of castration, girls on the other handare in this sense already castrated, and thus are faced with an irreparable damage 0 Pthey

feel seriously wronged F and fall victim to envy for the penisC...)reud suggests that

for women there are two possible ways out of penis envy 0 besides the more strenuous

ways such as neurosis or Pmasculinity comple&C 0 one of them is a Pcapacity to carry onan intellectual professionC...the other is having a baby. 5oth are thus substitutes for the

penis.

hereCs also no evidence that )reudian psychotherapy 7including psychoanalysis and

free association8 is any better than others, including !'innerian behavioral therapy7which is diametrically opposed to )reudianism in terms of methodology8, systematic

desensiti@ation, or assertiveness training.

he Lnconscious *ind

3'ay, sure, )reudCs got some problems. 5ut he also nailed a few things.

)or e&ample, )reud was startlingly correct in his assertion that we are not masters of ourown mind. (e showed that human e&perience, thought, and deeds are determined not by

our conscious rationality, but by irrational forces outside our conscious awareness and

control 0 forces that could be understood and controlled by an e&tensive therapeuticprocess he called psychoanalysis.

)reud didnCt discover the unconscious mind, of course. hat distinction goes to )rench

psychiatrist 6ierre =anet. )reud was also influenced by his professor =ean *artin %harcot,a famed neurologist who dabbled in hypnosis. 5ut it was )reud who too' the concept to

the ne&t level by brea'ing it down even further 0 and by applying it to psychotherapy

and free associating, where patients would openly tal' about their feelings ande&periences regardless of how irrelevant, absurd, or upsetting it sounded.

oday, very few would argue against the idea of the unconscious mind. )reudCs claim forthe central role of the unconscious mind in human actions was recently e&plored by

e&perimental psychologists in a collection of essays called )rontiers of %onsciousness.


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)or sure, we now 'now that the unconscious brain doesnCt e&ist or function in the way

that )reud suggested 0 but we 'now it does in fact e&ist. he brain performs a myriad

number of tas's in the bac'ground, particularly in managing our autonomous bodilyprocesses, the way it affects our conscious, cognitive functioning, and how we interpret

our surroundings.

(ow the human brain sees a "44-mph fastball

>iven how slowly our brains react to incoming visual information, it should actually be

impossibleF9ead more

(e says human beings can 'eep no secrets, says *ichael 9oth, an e&pert on )reud.

hey reveal their innermost selves with their clothes, with their twitches, with their

unconscious mannerismsB that whatever we do, weNre e&pressing things about ourselves,for people who have eyes to see and ears to hear. And I thin' that this is really the

fundamental orientation of )reud.

he *ind %onsists of 6arts

Another astounding revelation offered by )reud is the idea that the brain can be

compartmentali@ed. 5rain function, both in terms of its biology and the emergent mind,can be bro'en down into individual parts. (is ta'e on this, of course, was incredibly

primitive. )reud spo'e of the ego, id, and superego 0 ideas we donCt really accept any

more. hings 1e !imply DonNt Lnderstand About the (uman 5rain

Despite all the recent advances in the cognitive and neurosciences, thereCs still much

about theF9ead more

5ut his larger idea has gone to influence such thin'ers as the cognitive scientist *arvin

*ins'y, who tal's about the society of mind, and philosopher of mind Daniel Dennett,who argues on behalf of the idea that there are multiple models of consciousness wor'ing

in parallel.

*emories, Defense *echanisms, and Dreams

)reudCs ta'e on memories continues to be interesting 0 particularly suppressed

memories. 1e now 'now that memories are selective, and that theyCre constantly being

rewritten each time theyCre recalled. 6eople retain memories of events not as theyhappened, but rather in the way they are active when memories are being reformed.

And )reudNs ta'e on defense mechanisms still holds relevance. )ew people, includingpsychologists, would deny that we all too regularly employ such defenses as denial,

repression, proHection, intellectuali@ation, and rationali@ation. he same can be said for

his ideas on transference and catharsis.

1hatCs more, as regards 3edipal and Electra issues, few would deny that thereCs at least

some modicum of truth to the idea that many of us carry so-called mommy and daddy


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issues. (uman psychology is a very comple& and fu@@y thing, and itCs not always easy for

science to definitively prove or compartmentali@e something that Hust feels right.

And though we no longer subscribe to )reudian dream interpretation, some of our dreams

are so blatantly driven by our conscious and subconscious desires and fears that itCs

obvious )reud was onto something. o deny this would be hallucinatory, ludicrous 0 andcompletely unfair to his legacy.

"4 theories that e&plain why we dream

he study of dreaming is called oneirology, and itNs a field of inuiry that spansF9ead

more

%onte&t *atters

ItCs also important to 'eep some of his ideas in conte&t.

a'e his views on homose&uality, for e&ample. hough many critics are loathe to admit

it, he was actually very progressive for his time. Lnli'e most of his peers, )reud believedthat homose&uality resulted from arrested development 0 but he refused to characteri@e

it as an illness, and did not believe that it should be criminali@ed."4 !cientific and ech Kisionaries 1ho E&perimented 1ith Drugs

Is intelligence related to an increased li'elihood of recreational drug use2 ItNs anF9eadmore

In a letter written to an American mother who as'ed him for advice about her sonCs

homose&uality, )reud wrote:

(omose&uality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice,

no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illnessB we consider it to be a variation of these&ual function produced by a certain arrest of se&ual development. *any highly

respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homose&uals, several of

the greatest among them 76lato, *ichelangelo, eonardo da Kinci, etc.8. It is a greatinHustice to persecute homose&uality as a crime, and cruelty too.

ell *e About


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ItCs also important to remember that we live in the age of 6ro@acB itCs much easier to send

a patient home with a bottle of pills than to tal' things out.

1hy )reud !till *atters, 1hen (e 1as 1rong About Almost EverythingE&pand

Image: AmbrophotoQ!hutterstoc'.

ItCs also important to remember that psychoanalysis is not about ma'ing patients normal,

or even about curing them. 9ather itCs about revealing deeper insights into a personCspsyche. hen, armed with that information, they can ma'e desired changes. ItCs as the old

adage says, ?now thyself.

6sychologist Drew 1esten describes his e&perience with psychotherapy:

6eople do sometimes describe feelings or behaviors in therapy that conform

remar'ably to aspects of )reudNs psychose&ual theories 7such as a patient of mine with

erectile problems whose associations to a se&ual encounter led to an image of having se&with his mother, followed by some unpleasant anal imagery8. Jevertheless,

psychotherapists who rely on theories derived from )reud do not typically spend theirtime lying in wait for phallic symbols. hey pay attention to se&uality, because it is an

important part of human life and intimate relationships and one that is often filled with

conflict.

In summation, 1esten says there are five broad areas in which the wor' of !igmund

)reud remains relevant to psychology: the e&istence of unconscious mental processes, the

importance of conflict and ambivalence in behavior, the childhood origins of adultpersonality, mental representations as a mediator of social behavior, and stages of

psychological development.

!ources not cited: Is )reud !till Alive2 Jo, Jot 9eally,=ohn ?ihlstromB he

!cientific egacy of !igmund )reud, Drew 1estenB 6sychoanalysis Is Dead ... !o (ow

Does hat *a'e


16/24

August , 4"M

+n search o li!ertarians

5y =ocelyn ?iley/ comments

he uestionof whether libertarianismis gaining public

support has received increased attention, with tal' of a9and 6aul run for presidentand arecent ew or) .imesma%a/inestory as'ing if the ibertarian *omenthas finally

arrived. 5ut if it has, there are still many Americans who do not have a clear sense of
http://www.pewresearch.org/author/jkiley/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/#commentshttp://void%280%29/http://void%280%29/http://void%280%29/http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-iowa-tour-rand-paul-leans-into-a-presidential-run-and-attacks-clinton/2014/08/05/49f42ece-1cb8-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-iowa-tour-rand-paul-leans-into-a-presidential-run-and-attacks-clinton/2014/08/05/49f42ece-1cb8-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-iowa-tour-rand-paul-leans-into-a-presidential-run-and-attacks-clinton/2014/08/05/49f42ece-1cb8-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=3http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=3http://www.pewresearch.org/files/2014/08/FT_who-is-libertarian.pnghttp://www.pewresearch.org/author/jkiley/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/25/in-search-of-libertarians/#commentshttp://void%280%29/http://void%280%29/http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/on-iowa-tour-rand-paul-leans-into-a-presidential-run-and-attacks-clinton/2014/08/05/49f42ece-1cb8-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?hpw&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=3


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what libertarian means, and our surveys find that, on many issues, the views among

people who call themselves libertarian do not differ much from those of the overall

public.

About one-in-ten Americans 7""R8 describe themselves as libertarian and 'now what the

term means. 9espondents were as'ed whether the term libertarian describes them welland 0 in a separatemultiple-choice uestion 0 as'ed for the definition of someone

whose political views emphasi@e individual freedom by limiting the role of governmentB/R correctly answered the multiple-choice uestion, choosing libertarian from a list

that included progressive, authoritarian, Lnitarian and communist. 3n the self-

description uestion "MR said they were libertarian. )or the purpose of this analysis wefocus on the ""R who both say they are libertarian and 'now the definition of the term.

hese findings come from the 6ew 0esearch%enterCs political typology and polari@ation

survey conducted earlier this year, as well as a recent survey of a subset of those

respondents via the 6ew 9esearch %enterCs new American rends 6anel, conducted April

#-*ay / among $,M$ adults.

!elf-described libertarians tend to be modestly moresupportive of some libertarian

positions, but few of them hold consistent libertarian opinions on the role of government,

foreign policy and social issues.

*en were about twice as li'ely as women to say the term libertarian describes them well

and to 'now the meaning of the term 7"R vs. /R8. *ore collegegraduates 7"R8 than

those with no more than a hi%h schooleducation7/R8 identified as libertarians. herealso werepartisandifferencesB "MR of independents and "R of 9epublicans said they

are libertarian, compared with +R of Democrats.

!ome of these differences arise from confusion about the meaning of libertarian. =ust

MR of those with a high schooleducation or less answered the multiple-choice uestioncorrectly, compared with /+R of college graduates.
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In some cases, the political views of

self-described libertarians differ modestly from those of the general publicB in othersthere are no differences at all.

1hen it comes to attitudes about the si@e and scope of government, people who say the

term libertarian describes them well 7and who are able to correctly define the term8 are

somewhat more li'ely than the public overall to say government regulation of !usinessdoes more harm than good 7+R vs. M/R8. (owever, about four-in-ten libertarians say

that government regulation ofbusinessis necessary to protect the public interest 7M"R8.

he attitudes of libertarians similarly differ from the public on government aid to the

poorB they are more li'ely than the public to say government aid to the poor does moreharm than good by ma'ing people too dependent on government assistance 7/R vs.

MR8, yet about four-in-ten 7$R8 say it does more good than harm because people canCt

get out of poverty until their basic needs are met.
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ibertarianismis associated with limited

government involvement in the social sphere. In this regard, self-described libertariansare somewhat more supportive of legali@ing mariHuana than the public overall 7+R vs.

MR8.

5ut there are only slight differences between libertarians and the public in views of the

acceptability of homose&uality. And they are about as li'ely as others to favor allowingthe police to stopand search anyone who fits the general description of a crime suspect

7MR of libertarians, M"R of the public8.
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!imilarly, self-described libertarians donot differ a great deal from the public in opinions about foreign policy. ibertarianism is

generally associated with a less activist foreign policy, yet a greater share of self-

described libertarians 7M$R8 than the public 7$R8 thin'it is best for the future of our

country to be active in world affairs.

And in views of the tradeoff between defending against terrorism andprotectingcivil

liberties, large maHorities of both the public 7/MR8 and self-described libertarians 7R8

say Americans shouldnCt have to give up privacy and freedom in order to be safe from

terrorism.

An alternative way to identify libertarians is the process used to create the 6ew 9esearch

%enterCs political typolo%y, released in =une7for more on how the political typology was

created, read our e&plainer in )act an'8. hat study used a statistical techniue calledcluster analysis to sort people into homogeneous groups, based on their responses to $

uestions about a variety of social and political values.

Jone of the seven groups identified by the 4"M political typology closely resembled

libertarians, and, in fact, self-described libertarians can be found in all seven. heirlargest representation is among the group we call 5usiness %onservativesB /R of this

group says the term libertarian describes them well. 5usiness %onservatives generally

support limited government, have positive views of business and the L.!. economic

system, and are more moderate than other conservative groups on the issue of
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homose&uality. (owever, they are also supportive of an activist foreign policy and do not

have a libertarian profile on issues of civil liberties.

In creating the political typology, many variations of the cluster analysis were run 7e.g.,varying the uestions included and the number of clusters to be produced8. Each was

Hudged by how practical and substantively meaningful it was, with the final model Hudgedto be strongest from a statistical point of view, most persuasive from a substantive point

of view, and representative of the general patterns seen across the various clustersolutions 7see About the 6olitical ypology for more8.

In the process of running several different models in creating the typology, we came up

with one early version of the typology that had " groups, including a group thatresembled libertarians. 5ut the model was impractical, in part because it produced groups

that were too small to analy@e, and this set of groups did not persist across other models.

Lnder this one model, the group with a libertarian profile constituted about R of the

public. hey hold generally conservative views on the social safety net, regulation andbusinessB liberal attitudes on homose&uality and immigrationB and are less supportive of

the use of military force when compared with the more conservative-leaning typology

groups. hey also are younger, on average, than most of the other groups 7though a

maHority are $4 or older8. 5ut many members of this group diverge from libertarianthin'ing on 'ey issues, including about half who say affirmative action is a good thing

and that stricter environmental laws are worth the cost.
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.he $cience o $mell: How the "ost (irect o 1ur $enses Wor)s

!y "aria Popo#a

1hy the $,4M4 breaths we ta'e each day are the most powerful yet perple&ing route to

our emotional memory.

>et a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a bree@e over the

dunes, Anna Suindlen advised in her indispensable !hort >uide to a (appy ife. !usan

!ontag listed linen and the smell of newly mown grass among her favorite things. Aman may have lived all of his life in the gray, =ohn !teinbec' wrote in his beautiful

meditation on the meaning of life, and then 0 the glory 0 so that a cric'et song

sweetens his ears, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose. 1hy is it that smell

lends itself to such poetic metaphors, sings to us so sweetly, captures us so powerfully2

hatCs precisely what science historian Diane Ac'erman e&plores in A Jatural (istory of

the !enses 7public library8, her "##4 preuel to the eually fantastic A Jatural (istory of

ove. Ac'erman, who also happens to be a spectacular poet and the author of thegorgeous cosmic verses that %arl !agan mailed to imothy eary in prison, paints the

bac'drop of this perple&ing and uniue sensory e&perience:

3ur sense of smell can be e&traordinarily precise, yet itCs almost impossible to describe

how something smells to someone who hasnCt smelled itF 1e see only where there islight enough, taste only when we put things into our mouths, touch only when we ma'e

contact with someone or something, hear only sounds that are loud enough to hear. 5ut

we smell always and with every breath. %over your eyes and you will stop seeing, cover

your ears and you will stop hearing, but if you cover your nose and stop smelling, youwill die.

Illustration by 1endy *acJaughton from Nhe Essential !cratch and !niff >uide to5ecoming a 1ine E&pert.N %lic' image for more.

In fact, every breath we ta'e in order to live is saturated with an e&traordinary amount ofolfactory information 0 a fact largely a matter of scale:

Each day, we breathe about $,4M4 times and move around M$ cubic feet of air. It

ta'es us about five seconds to breathe 0 two seconds to inhale and three seconds toe&hale 0 and, in that time, molecules of odor flood through our systems. Inhaling and

e&haling, we smell odors. !mells coat us, swirl around us, enter our bodies, emanate from

us. 1e live in a constant wash of them. !till, when we try to describe a smell, words failus li'e the fabrications they areF

he charm of language is that, though it is human-made, it can on rare occasionscapture emotions and sensations that arenCt. 5ut the physiological lin's between the smell

and language centers of the brain are pitifully wea'. Jot so the lin's between the smell

and the memory centers, a route that carries us nimbly across time and distance.


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Indeed, that route is a greater shortcut to our cognition and psychoemotional circuitry

than any of our other senses can offer. Ac'erman outlines the singular ualities of our

smell-sensation that set it apart from all other bodily functions:

!mell is the most direct of all our senses. 1hen I hold a violet to my nose and inhale,

odor molecules float bac' into the nasal cavity behind the bridge of the nose, where theyare absorbed by the mucosa containing receptor cells bearing microscopic hairs called

cilia. )ive million of these cells fire impulses to the brainCs olfactory bulb or smell center.

!uch cells are uniue to the nose. If you destroy a neuron in the brain, itCs finishedforeverB it wonCt regrow. If you damage neurons in your eyes or ears, both organs will be

irreparably damaged. 5ut the neurons in the nose are replaced about every thirty days

and, unli'e any other neurons in the body, they stic' right out and wave in the air current

li'e anemones on a coral reef.

Illustration by omi Lngerer from Nhe %at-(aterNs (andboo'.N %lic' image for more.

hatCs also what ma'es perfumes so powerful 0 if youCve ever wal'ed into a crowdedroom and instantly e&perienced a pang of emotion as you thought you smelled your e&, or

your mother, or your third-grade teacher, youCve had a first-hand testimony to the potencyof smell as a trigger of emotional memory. Ac'erman e&plains:

A smell can be overwhelmingly nostalgic because it triggers powerful images andemotions before we have time to edit themF 1hen we give perfume to someone, we

give them liuid memory. ?ipling was right: !mells are surer than sights and sounds to

ma'e your heart-strings crac'.

1hatCs perhaps most e&traordinary is that scent lodges itself largely in the long-term

memory system of the brain. And yet, we remain inept at mapping those lin's and

associative chains when it comes to describing smells and their emotional echoes. oshed light on how perfumery plays into this parado&, Ac'erman offers a ta&onomy of the

basic types of natural smells and how they became synthetically replicated, unleashing an

intimate dance of art, science, and commerce:

All smells fall into a few basic categories, almost li'e primary colors: minty

7peppermint8, floral 7roses8, ethereal 7pears8, mus'y 7mus'8, resinous 7camphor8, foul

7rotten eggs8, and acrid 7vinegar8. his is why perfume manufacturers have had suchsuccess in concocting floral bouuets or Hust the right threshold of mus'iness or

fruitiness. Jatural substances are no longer reuiredB perfumes can be made on the

molecular level in laboratories. 3ne of the first perfumes based on a completely syntheticsmell 7an aldehyde8 was %hanel Jo. , which was created in "# and has remained a

classic of sensual femininity. It has led to classic comments, too. 1hen *arilyn *onroe

was as'ed by a reporter what she wore to bed, she answered coyly, %hanel Jo. . Itstop note 0 the one you smell first 0 is the aldehyde, then your nose detects the middle

note of Hasmine, rose, lily of the valley, orris, and ylang-ylang, and finally the base note,

which carries the perfume and ma'es it linger: vetiver, sandalwood, cedar, vanilla, amber,


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civet, and mus'. 5ase notes are almost always of animal origin, ancient emissaries of

smell that transport us across woodlands and savannas.

And so we get to the actual science of smell 0 what actually ma'es us have an olfactory

e&perience, and why we often confuse those with taste:

1e need only eight molecules of a substance to trigger an impulse in a nerve ending,

but forty nerve endings must be aroused before we smell something. Jot everything has a

smell: only substances volatile enough to spray microscopic particles into the air. *anythings we encounter each day 0 including stone, glass, steel, and ivory 0 donCt

evaporate when they stand at room temperature, so we donCt smell them. If you heat

cabbage, it becomes more volatile 7some of its particles evaporate into the air8 and it

suddenly smells stronger. 1eightlessness ma'es astronauts lose taste and smell in space.In the absence of gravity, molecules cannot be volatile, so few of them get into our noses

deeply enough to register as odors. his is a problem for nutritionists designing space

food. *uch of the taste of food depends on its smellB some chemists have gone so far as

to claim that wine is simply a tasteless liuid that is deeply fragrant. Drin' wine with ahead cold, and youCll taste water, they say. 5efore something can be tasted, it has to be

dissolved in liuid 7for e&ample hard candy has to melt in saliva8B and before somethingcan be smelled, it has to be airborne. 1e taste only four flavors: sweet, sour, salt, and

bitter. hat means that everything else we call flavor is really odor. And many of the

foods we thin' we can smell we can only taste. !ugar isnCt volatile, so we donCt smell it,even though we taste it intensely. If we have a mouthful of something delicious, which

we want to savor and contemplate, we e&haleB this drives the air in our mouths across our

olfactory receptors, so we can smell it better.

Illustration by 1endy *acJaughton from Nhe Essential !cratch and !niff >uide to

5ecoming a 1ine E&pert.N %lic' image for more.

he rest of A Jatural (istory of the !enses is Hust as fascinating a read, diving deeper into

the mysteries and miracles of smell and our other sensory faculties. %omplement it with

Ac'ermanCs A Jatural (istory of ove and her impossibly wonderful love letter to the!olar !ystem, he 6lanets: A %osmic 6astoral.

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