An Unexplainable and Plausible Desire Towards War

The crisis in world politics escalates more than ever in human history. Constant rebellions and manifestations in almost every country in the world, shootings and terrorist acts during peaceful festivals, a threat of the Third World War, the economic crisis in a great number of countries, the fall of democracy, rapid accumulation of the nuclear weapons, environmental catastrophe, murders, and crimes are constantly in the news...The list of contemporary world problems is literally endless. However, the most urgent and talked about dilemmas of nowadays are war conflicts and the refugee crisis. If one takes a closer look, these two tremendous and extremely dangerous problems are very connected. The great politics starts the wars, and ordinary people have to suffer, die and leave their homes because of it. Hanna Segal, a British psychoanalytic, talks about the groups` and nations` behavior in the book 'Psychoanalysis, Literature, and War'. Today, I am going to immerse in these dilemmas and analyze the refugee problem, nuclear agglomeration threat, and the 'explainable' mankind`s desire to constantly live in a state of war from a psychoanalytic perspective.

Every day the refugee crisis becomes more and more pressing all over the globe. The war zones and conflicts make people run from their countries for good. The most notorious 'refugee zone' is still Syria. According to UNHCR, in 2018 only, 5,663,155 immigrants from Syria were officially (!) registered. The conflict there is extremely escalated, which leads to several deaths every single day. Some big countries, such as the USA and Russia, do not hesitate using bomb raids or tear gas attacks to divide and obtain the sphere of interest in this part of the world rich in fossils, gas and the oil.

However, due to the recent events, Syria is not the only place from where people want to run away. In addition to men in need from the Middle East, there appeared more than 5,500 refugees from mostly Honduras and Guatemala. These people formed the caravan with the aim to reach the US border, and then, subsequently, enter the territory of the USA. There, they hope to ask for the asylum. The refugees want to flee their countries in order to escape poverty, crime, and unemployment, as well as very low living standards. The thousands of people, including very small children, have been on the road for more than a month as they walk from Honduras and Guatemala on their feet. The media have already named the phenomenon 'The Caravan of Anger and Hope'. But why is this name so appropriate?

As the immigrants approached the border, the Americans did not welcome them with open hands. A big number of USA citizens are against the refugees, implying that they will bring diseases and will harm the stability of the US. The immigrants, in turn, claim that they just want to start a new life, find jobs and live peacefully. All of this led to several harsh clashes on the border, ending up with hundreds of policemen using the tear gas. Shortly after, the situation went out of control, hence, caused lots of worries in high circles of the USA. Donald Trump sent 7,000 troops on the border in order to prevent the further conflict. Several refugees, as well as some of the policemen, were seriously injured during the fights.

However, a rapidly increasing number of migrants made Donald Trump take even more serious measures. Under his executive order, people who do not cross the border at official custom posts will no longer be able to request shelter and asylum in the USA and will be immediately deported. At the same time, the media started booming with news of the migrants coming from the South, painting the picture of both sympathy and danger. Later on, Donald Trump and his administration asked the Democrats to allocate money from the state budget in order to build a wall between the US and Mexico. The Democrats, obviously, refused to do it. In the long run, the whole situation took a very unexpected turn. The government of the USA is in a shutdown! Moreover, in the longest shutdown of the country`s history! That means that now hundreds of US government workers do not get money for their work because of the hundreds of the 'evil' migrants on the border.

This situation proved how prone people are to different conflicts and how important it is for a nation to have them. Hanna Segal explains these puzzles in her book. 'Like a child in a family, the group itself can face rivalry with other groups, and this too can take a sane form—for instance, involving competition and emulation—or, on the other hand, become an insane, destructive force which threatens to destroy both parties,' she says in her work. The point is that when we cannot hide our aggressiveness 'for security reasons' anymore, we start projecting it on our enemies. Gradually, it turns into the fact that we present our enemies as the devil. There are several examples of it in a book. Among them, there is of Mrs. Thatcher who speaks of Russians as their constant enemy somehow forgetting about the fact that Russia was their strong ally during the two World Wars. As the conflict continues and our paranoia cannot be disguised from us, it is vital for a group to display the 'attackers' as bloodthirsty, evil monsters beyond the pale. It is worth mentioning that each side of the conflict does the same thing. Why though? Because in order to hide our own desire towards the aggressiveness, we need to present the enemy (real or imaginary) as a heartless monster. This is the only and the best way that politicians and rulers use very often to distract people`s attention from the urgent problems in the country. Hence, one could readily discern that when a country is in a state of crisis or any other kind of economic, political, or cultural problem, the authorities immediately create events in order to occupy people with a country`s successes or even more serious problems but in other countries. Mostly, it is done for the media. That is why media workers call this type of events 'pseudo-news'.

Freud, in turn, suggests in his book “Civilization and its Discontents” that groups were originally formed not only to fight with forces of nature but also to combat the psychological dangers. Hanna Segal supports his point of view, presuming that conflict within a group and guilt about aggression are usually dealt with by projecting hostility onto the 'enemy group'. Moreover, the author also mentions a very important factor in group behavior. She claims that if a group`s actions were looked at as on the individual ones, the individual would be considered as mad or psychotic. It means that if we endow a man`s superego with the one of a group, the horrors would not be even endurable for individual existence.

Hanna Segal says: 'I think that the degree of dehumanization we encounter in such group practices as genocide we would see in an individual only in the psychotic or the criminal psychopath'. Indeed, humans are social creatures who develop group forms in order to face problems and conflicts together. From this point of view, groups seem to be quite helpful for individuals. Nevertheless, groups include and are able to free the death drives which can, in turn, be dangerous for both: individuals within the group, as well as, other groups. The book also explains how dangerous it is that mankind took control over the forces of nature. With the present state of things, Freud implies, there would not be a difficulty for men to exterminate each other in the world using the conquered laws of nature. Indeed, people have already invented numerous kinds of nuclear weapons, tear gas and much other chemical hardware, claiming that all of it will be used exceptionally for 'protection or defense'. But if no one is going to attack, what is the point to accumulate the 'defense weapons'?

Taking all these remarks into consideration, it becomes clear that the situation with the refugees can be justified from a psychoanalytic point of view. Hanna Segal supposes that psychoanalysis can be of great use in such social situations. Mainly, because the group behavior is usually irrational. It leads to the nuclear race that can destroy us all, war conflicts that, in fact, are harmful to the planet, and building so-called defensive walls between countries. The situation with the Southern refugees can serve as a great example. The US authorities made people think about refugees as of evil monsters who, if allowed to cross the border, can destroy the most powerful state in the world. However, it brings lots of controversies. The same officials at the same time in their reports describe the migrants as people who try to escape poverty and a high crime rate. Therefore, they are presented as both, dangerous conquerors and miserable peasants. According to Hanna Segal, people usually do that to hide their own aggressiveness desires. The US authorities claim that they restrain the migrants exceptionally for the security reasons. But, in fact, isn`t it the US who have their troops in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan?

According to Bion, there are several types of groups of people. The first one is a workgroup that is 'reality-orientated' and the second one is 'basic assumption' group. When the workgroup dominates, we get a reality-orientated society, which means that we form groups in order to survive together in nature. However, when a 'basic-assumption' type dominates, we get situations of excessive anxiety. If it was an individual, he would already be considered psychotic. In a group case, however, society is still able to function. Brion also mentions that in both of these case leaders are extremely important. They are a necessary element in our society that makes us feel safe. Nevertheless, when the basic-assumption mix of impulses, desires, and phantasies takes control, the group pushes up leaders that represent this psychotic element to a great extent. President Donald Trump, who sent the government of the USA in the longest shutdown because the Democrats did not want to build a wall between two countries, would be a great example.

It is said in a book that groups are 'usually narcissistic, self-idealizing, and paranoid in relation to other groups'. Well, it is worth mentioning here that a great number of asked refugees claim that they would never expect such a cold salutation from the USA citizens. American residents are afraid that migrants will bring diseases, dirtiness, and crime to their 'ideal and clean' society. Freud`s thought that we can love each other in a group only if there are outsiders whom we can hate, can also be applied here. The officials in the USA can now easily make the Americans believe that their nation is better than others. Especially, it is true if the wall between peoples is built. It would show that the enemies were so dangerous that the barrier had to be built. Moreover, American political stability is a serious danger now. The government is already in shutdown, people protest in the streets every day, the Democrats want the impeachment of the President. The situation with the caravan of potentially dangerous refugees could be the best occasion to rally the people.

Overall, the whole situation proved how predisposed our society is towards aggressiveness, paranoia, and war. Eventually, every society, in order to exist, needs enemies whom they can detest. We create weapons and chemicals for our defense at the same time claiming that we will never be the one to attack. The political leaders all over the world say the same thing, which is so-called deterrence. It means that a country which possesses atomic weapon would not attack or start a war because a number of other countries can attack it in response. It is noticeable that by saying it, politicians visualize and deny the lethal war at the same time.

The situation in the 21 century came that far that there is a real threat of a 3 World War or the repetition of the Cold War. The governments of influential countries have already started a nuclear race explaining that they do it for the 'security reasons'. However, it is much more likely that there is a hidden desire for aggression under it. Otherwise, there would not be dozens of war conflicts which number is constantly increased from year to year. Another psychoanalyst, Fornari, claims that each war is usually started 'as a defense against guilt about previous wars'. He provides the USA as an example. The US felt guilty because of the devastation they caused during the Vietnam War and because of their failure in this conflict. Therefore, the Gulf War was necessary with the aim to get rid of the depression about Vietnam.

Perhaps, we have come it too strong because we even start thinking that the machines can start the war, not us. It is understandable, though, as no one would like to have such a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. Moreover, there is and always will be a universal dismissal of what we have done and to which consequences the war/conflict led. The war after war, it seems like we do not care about the millions of victims, lost lives, ecological catastrophe etc. Maybe someday we will subdue our distress caused by communal life using our aggressive instinct and desire of self-destruction. Yet as Freud said: 'But who can foresee with what success and with what result?'