ABSTRACT
The wartime psyche is different from that of peacetime in its attitude to the law. In times of peace, the law is a pillar of civilization, and honouring it allows societies to reject revenge under all circumstances. In a 1919 article, Sigmund Freud related to diverse personal expressions that manifest in times of peace compared with times of war. Freud related to everyone who experienced war, civilian or soldier, but especially to soldiers who undergo the jolting experience of war. The soldier's privilege to kill is unlike any other human experience, and he is ultimately changed, linked to the death he brought about. Years later, soldiers become agitated when remembering battle victories and the deaths involved. With normal life suddenly interrupted by military service, and later continued without the link to its starting point, discontinuity becomes the unspoken heritage of war.
