ABSTRACT
Sigmund Freud wrote two short but directly political essays, both on war, one in 1915 and the second in 1932. The first of the two essays on war was written under the impact of the outbreak of World War I. Freud was at first quite chauvinistic, patriotically siding with the Central Powers, and against those who were the accomplices of the Czar. War caused a malignant regression, both within the contending countries and within each individual. It lifted restraints all across the board. Aggression was sanctioned, murder was legitimized, and those impulses within men which had been held under control were reactivated. While at first glance Freud's essays on war do not seem to amount to much from the point of view of political theory, a close examination of their implications reveals, beneath the straightforward surface, hints of exciting theoretical possibilities.
