ABSTRACT
Traumas that are relived are not themselves relivings. On the contrary, they normally strike out of the blue with no precedents that leap to mind to help their victims cope. For starters, not all relivings are so direct a transposition of their traumatic originals. Otto von Bismarck was for his own times, and has remained, the personification of Realpolitik—of naked, calculating power politics. His proudest claim to fame as Realpolitiker was to have united the German states outside of Austria in 1870–1871. To begin with, Bismarck’s cauchemar des alliances bespoke a morbid defensiveness against a real danger. To his credit as statesman, he saw that real danger and defended against it effectively, albeit compulsively. His reliving was impassioned even if it was not self-generated but instead was likely prompted by the names of the Spanish queen and the French province when these commanded his attention.
