"Einstein and Sigmund Freud: A Meeting of Great Minds" by Ulrich Baer

Excerpted from Why War? A Correspondence Between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud

Albert Einstein, the great scientist and discoverer of relativity, and Sigmund Freud, the founder of the theory and practice of psychoanalysis, met only once in person, in Berlin in 1927 during the New Year’s Eve festivities. They enjoyed each other’s company, although Einstein declined the invitation to be psychoanalyzed by commenting: “I prefer to remain in the darkness of my state of not being analyzed.” Freud wrote after their meeting: “[Einstein] is cheerful, confident, and charming, understands psychology as much as I understand physics, and in this way we had a very pleasant conversation.” Einstein praised Freud as the greatest writer since philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. While Freud appreciated the compliment, he noted in another letter that Einstein lauded his style because he lacked an understanding of the content of Freud’s writings. Today we know that while Einstein greatly admired and personally liked Freud, he also declined to support an effort to have Freud considered for the Nobel Prize, given Einstein’s uncertainty about the scientific tenability of Freud’s theories.

In 1932, Einstein was asked by the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation of the League of Nations (founded in Geneva in 1920 to provide a forum for resolving international disputes by peaceful means) to invite a public figure to comment on a topic of general concern. By that time, the scientist had become widely known as a political commentator and committed pacifist. Einstein selected Freud to respond to his open letter addressing the persistence of war in the modern age in the hope of outlining some ways to prevent it. Freud had also published several important books on culture, religion, and human concerns in general, in addition to his enormously influential psychoanalytic writings. In his letter of invitation, Einstein stressed the importance of establishing an independent, international judiciary body to mediate conflicts. He also noted the difficulty of enforcing any rules created by such a body without an independent armed force. Freud agreed with this idea but also cautioned that “there is no likelihood of our being able to suppress humanity’s aggressive tendencies.” Only in his concluding sentence did Freud permit himself to suggest that “whatever makes for cultural development is working also against war,” which differs somewhat from more pessimistic positions he takes elsewhere in his writings. In a conversation with an official from the League of Nations who facilitated the exchange, Freud warned that his letter would also contain several unwelcome truths about the persistence of man’s innate aggressive tendencies.

Drawing on theories he developed earlier and especially in his 1930 publication Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud proposed that war is rooted in an innate drive for destruction and perhaps among the inevitable expressions of man’s distaste for the restraints of civilization. Einstein considered himself a “militant pacifist.” Throughout the course of his illustrious career he gave many speeches and published numerous statements and open letters against the cult of militarism, in support of conscientious objectors, and against armament. In his letter and anticipated some of Freud’s insights.

The exchange was simultaneously published in German, English, and French in 1933. By that time Hitler had risen to power in Germany and the threat of war was growing more ominous with each passing month. Einstein had left his native Germany in 1932, renounced his German citizenship, and moved in October of 1933 to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1940. Freud remained in Vienna, where he had spent his adult life, until emigrating to London in 1938, following the German annexation of Austria.

The correspondence between Einstein and Freud remains dismayingly relevant to this day. Their letters brought together the perspectives of one of the greatest scientists of all time and the groundbreaking founder of psychoanalysis—each of them responsible for radically transforming their respective disciplines. Their exchange offers a unique interdisciplinary exploration of some of the destructive challenges facing humanity and constitutes a rare collaboration of two unparalleled thinkers who devoted themselves to understanding our existence on both a universal and a human scale.