It is strange that a great politician, a great commander and a philosopher, should all embrace the idea that war is necessary for humans and that it is a great inducement for humanity to excel and develop. Truly the greatest human discoveries in all areas of science have been made during and after wars — for the desire to win, a basic instinct that modern man has inherited from his ancestors, propels him into using all the weapons at hand and to invent new weapons to defeat his opponent. All or most modern technology was created during war and then transferred from that arena to factories, hospitals, cars, radio and the television.

While these views are correct at the level of groups, nations and countries, they also apply on the individual level. A person’s best talents are exposed when he faces danger. The mind and the body together stir up every ounce of capability to confront and overcome danger. The heart beats faster to push the blood to the muscles and the brain, hormones flood through the body to open up the eyes — the hair stands up and nerves are alert. Every cell is activated in readiness for battle. Most of us have achieved some of our greatest successes after a battle or confrontation with reality. The losers are those who run away from a confrontation or are afraid of battles. “Wars are calamities that end in victory.”

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In the old wars, the commander had to shoot a deserter, considering him a coward. In World War I, the commanders noted a rise in the number of deserters they had to kill, which became a problem because instead of a soldier being killed by the enemy, he was now being killed by a comrade. While looking for a solution to this problem, the commanders of the British Army decided to have recourse to psychologists to look for reasons why the soldiers were running away in the first place. It was the first time that a psychologist found his way into a war to see why some soldiers stood their ground while rockets and bullets rained down and why others ran away.

In 1917, Dr. Harold Hills appeared at the command center of the British Army on the Western Front. Upon presenting himself to the commander of the division, he heard someone say: “They have sent us someone to take care of our nerves.” Officers and soldiers considered Dr. Hills to be an impostor just like other psychologists. However, with time they began to come for second and third visits to the wooden kiosk set up like a private clinic, but the number of deserters increased — especially after the fall of the front lines. It was thus that they came to admit the importance of psychologists during war, and with the beginning of World War II, deserters were no longer shot; instead they were sent to psychiatric hospitals. After many sessions and experiments, doctors discovered that the ability of a person to withstand the horrors of war differs from one person to the next and that there is not always one reason for that difference; there are usually many. Some are rooted in upbringing and the type of training a soldier has received and even the soldier’s memories of his loved ones and his home: All affect his stand, as do his political and religious beliefs, etc.

Then came the Vietnam War, the horrors of the powerful weapons, missiles and napalm used and the war of annihilation launched against the Vietnamese; the American soldiers returned home mentally devastated. Some of them resorted to the courts seeking compensation for what they had suffered — mental and spiritual mutilation. All this has turned psychology into a weapon of war rather than just a medical discipline. Strong nerves are the mainstay of a real officer and a soldier who fights in a battle. That is why a country launches what is known as a psychological war in order to destroy the enemy’s nerves; this happens during times of peace just as it happens during war — but in a different manner.

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Since the arrival of detective stories at the end of the 19th century and their proliferation in the 20th century followed by the emergence of psychological analysis, the police have increasingly depended on searching for a criminal’s motive. They try to analyze his frame of mind in addition to looking for clues such as fingerprints, things related to the criminal and his victim, questioning witnesses etc.

A recent book, co-authored by a former FBI agent, looks into the motivations behind a series of crimes that shook the United States.

Looking into the motives of crimes is an appropriate starting point for collecting the elements of analysis. If you found the body of a dead person, the first question that a detective would ask is: Who had a motive for killing this person? Could it be robbery or revenge? The police will quickly look into the victim’s past. The facts emerge as a result and point a finger at the killer. Add to it certain evidence and the killer has no choice but to confess. That is why the role of the psychoanalyst has become a key in solving many murders. The way in which a crime was committed gives the analyst an idea of the criminal.