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Innate, genetic, hormonal & physical factors Freud came to believe in a death or aggressive instinct because he saw so much violence, sadism, war, and suicide. Konrad Lorenz (1966) believed that species, both animal and human, survived by having an aggressive instinct which protected their territory and young, and insured only the strongest individuals survived. The sociobiologists, noting the frequency we go to war, also suggest that we have inherited an aggressive nature, a tendency to lash out at anything that gets in our way, a need to dominate and control.

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http://www.psychologicalselfhelp.org.../chap7_24.html

<font color="blue"> I am personally reading The Lucifer Effect (why good people become evil.) I'm halfway through the book and already I am convinced that the above idea might not be totally true. (ref the frequency we go to war....)

I am wondering if it is the environment of war that makes people aggressive, and not any innate desire? The military uses a uniform, commanders, protocol to cause a change in their forces. They "become" soldiers. It's all part of the plan to create machines that can protect others and put themselves in the way of death. When the "soldier" is no longer needed in the military, the uniform comes off, the environment becomes the safety of home and no longer is the need and training to kill in effect.