We are all neurotic Players: game theory, Psychoanalysis, and wars

This article analyzes neurosis as a collective and political phenomenon by articulating game theory and psychoanalysis. Inspired by Clarice Lispector, it examines conflicts, from interpersonal relations to wars, as strategic interactions marked by uncertainty, repetition, and power asymmetry. It uses concepts such as non-cooperative games, incomplete information, and payoffs, while psychoanalysis highlights the role of the unconscious and repetition. The analysis considers cases such as the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and Palestine, as well as gender-based violence, understood as repeated games. Finally, it emphasizes the ethical need to reflect on politics and war in a context of increasing circulation of violent discourses that shape the social body. In our methodology, game theory is employed as a holistic tool, assisting in guiding our interpretations, organizing the analyzed phenomena, and identifying patterns of repetition that may contribute to the subject’s understanding of certain occurrences. It is applied here not as a rigid mathematical apparatus, but as a heuristic and interpretive tool.