THE PRESS

The following statement, quoted in the New York Times of October 20, was issued as a warning to European statesmen by psychiatrists holding an annual meeting in the Hague:

We psychiatrists, whose duty it is to investigate the normal and diseased mind, and to serve mankind with our knowledge, feel impelled to address a serious word to you in our quality of physicians.

It seems to us that there is in the world a mentality which entails grave dangers to mankind, leading, as it may, to an evident war-psychosis.

War means that all destructive forces are set loose by mankind against itself.

War means the annihilation of mankind by technical science.

As in all things human, psychological factors play a very important part in the complicated problem of war.

If war is to be prevented the nations and their leaders must understand their own attitude toward war.

By self-knowledge a world calamity may be prevented.

Therefore we draw your attention to the following:

1. There is a seeming contradiction between the conscious individual aversion to war and the collective preparedness to wage war. This is explained by the fact that the behaviour, the feelings, the thoughts of an independent individual are quite different from those of a man who forms part of a collective whole. Civilized twentieth century man still possesses strong, fierce and destructive instincts, which have not been sublimated, or only partly so, and which break loose as soon as the community to which he belongs feels itself threatened by danger.

The unconscious desire to give rein to the primitive instinct, not only without punishment but even with reward, furthers in a great measure the preparedness for war.

It should be realized that the fighting-instinct, if well directed, gives energy for much that is good and beautiful. But the same instinct may create chaos if it breaks loose from all restraint, making use of the greatest discoveries of the human intellect.

2. It is appalling to see how little the peoples are alive to reality.

The popular ideas of war as they find expression in fulldress uniforms, military display, etc., are no longer in keeping with the realities of war itself.

The apathy, with regard to the actions and intrigues of the international traffic in arms is surprising to any one who realizes the dangers into which this traffic threatens to lead them. It should be realized that it is foolish to suffer certain groups of persons to derive personal profit from the death of millions of men.

We come to you with the urgent advice to arouse the nations to the realization of fact and the sense of collective self-preservation, these powerful instincts being the strongest allies for the elimination of war.

The heightening of the moral and religious sense in your people tends to the same end.

3. From the utterances of well-known statesmen it has repeatedly been evident that many of them have conceptions of war that are identical with those of the average man. Arguments such as "War is the Supreme Court of Appeal" and "War is the necessary outcome of Darwin's theory" are erroneous and dangerous, in view of the realities of modern warfare. They camouflage a primitive craving for power and are meant to stimulate the preparedness for war among the speaker's countrymen.

The suggestive force of speeches made by leading statesmen is enormous and may be dangerous. The warlike spirit, so easily aroused by the cry that the country is in danger, is not to be bridled, as was evident in 1914.

Peoples, as well as individuals, under the influence of suggestions like these, may become neurotic. They may be carried away by hallucinations and delusions, thus involving themselves in adventures perilous to their own and other nations' safety.

We psychiatrists declare that our science is sufficiently advanced for us to distinguish between real, pretended and unconscious motives, even in statesmen. The desire to disguise national militarism by continual talk about peace will not protect political leaders from the judgment of history. The secret promoters of militarism are responsible for the boundless misery which a new war is sure to bring.

International organization is now sufficiently advanced to enable statesmen to prevent war by concerted action.

Protestation of peace and the desire for peace, however sincere, do not guarantee the self-denying spirit necessary for the maintenance of peace, even at the cost of national sacrifice. If any statesmen should think that the apparatus to ensure peace is, as yet, insufficiently, organized, we advise them to devote to this purpose as much energy and as much money as is now being expended on the armaments of the various countries.

We cannot close without expressing our admiration for those statesmen who show by their actions that their culture and morality are so far advanced that they can lead people to a strong organization of peace. In our opinion, they alone are truly qualified to act as the leaders of nations.