NP Freud on War and Death

[Terrance]

I can't find it on-line, but it's worth reading. 

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/ex/175.html

[War] strips us of the later accretions of civilization, and
lays bare the
     primal man in each of us. It compels us once more to be
heroes who
     cannot believe in their own death; it stamps strangers
as enemies, whose
     death is to be brought about or desired; it tells us to
disregard the death
     of those we love. 
                                      Sigmund Freud, 1915