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What theoretical or conceptual insights can psychoanalysis offer on what incites mankind to violence and aggression? What does it have to say from a clinical standpoint about the extremes of the social bond, and about instances when the psychoanalytical practice itself or treatment are threatened by war and barbarism, when the death drive is awakened by terror? Freud’s answer to Einstein on the question of war is a rich source of insight. It offers a different view about the current crisis of civilization, encompassing new forms of destructiveness and rigid assertions of identity. Globalization and its issues of power, and the increasing diversity due to immigration are components of this reality; however, we ought to keep in mind that all historical change ultimately affects the relationship of each subject with desire and with his or her Unconscious.