War fractures identity and ethics, a dual crisis sharply staged in Liam O'Flaherty's The Sniper (1923). This article develops a dialectical framework contrasting Freudian and Lacanian readings of the protagonist's psyche under fire. It juxtaposes Freud's repression and death drive with Lacan's gaze and the Real to trace the destabilization of self and other across key scenes: rooftop detachment, the kill shot, the enemy's fall, and final recognition. Attending to the story's terse style, the analysis treats physiological and behavioral cues cautiously, avoiding unsupported diagnoses. To explain the sniper's cold efficiency, it draws on Bandura's theory of moral disengagement and situates his remorse in relation to models of moral injury (Litz, B. T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C., & Maguen, S. [(2009). Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(8), 695–706.]; Shay, J. [(1994). Achilles in Vietnam: Combat trauma and the undoing of character. Scribner.]). The encounter with the enemy's face is read through Levinas's concept of infinite demand, alongside Lacanian critiques (Žižek; Butler), while brief reference to the Irish Civil War emphasizes its fratricidal stakes.