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Loading... Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition (1958)by David Bakan
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"Dr. Bakan's book … is destined to become a landmark in the study of the historical origins of psychoanalysis." — American Journal of Psychiatry In this pioneering work, David Bakan challenges the popular view of Freud as an entirely secular intellectual, schooled in modern culture rather than Jewish traditions. Bakan contends that the father of psychology was profoundly influenced by mystic lore about which he appeared to know very little — and which represents the antithesis of scientific method. This work is based on the premise that Freudian psychoanalytic theory is largely rooted in the Jewish religion, particularly the mysticism of the kabbala. In a fascinating interpretation of the blend of personality and cultural history, Bakan explains how Freud's Jewish heritage contributed, either consciously or unconsciously, to his psychological theories. The author employs Freud's own distinction between being a Jew and the acceptance of Jewish doctrine to demonstrate the effect of Jewish mysticism in the formation of Freud's technical genius. With its focus on the ways in which Freud was and was not Jewish, this study offers a model example of the problem of Jewish identity — as embodied by one of the giants of modern science, who professed to be both "infidel" and "Jew." No library descriptions found. |
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In Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition, David Bakan very ably demonstrates the religious sources of the presumably novel concepts and techniques of Freudian psychoanalysis. He supplies some biographical context, showing the genuine enigma of psychoanalytic origins, as well as Freud's access to kabbalistic ideas. Bakan quite suitably draws on Leo Strauss's theory of esoteric text from Persecution and the Art of Writing to address Freud's apparent textual subterfuges in his antisemitic cultural context. (And he could have gone a step further in showing how Strauss himself was instructed by that context, as well as drawing on Jewish hermeneutic traditions.) An overview of the Jewish mystical milieu here includes a historical and doctrinal survey. In particular, Bakan points out the major events of Sabbatian and Frankist apostasy, suggesting that Freud underwent an analogous development towards a humanistic secularism.
In the original central text Bakan leaves open the question of whether the kabbalistic influence in Freud's formulation of psychoanalysis was conscious or unconscious. But in the 1965 "Preface to the New Edition," he is able to cite his later communication with Chaim Bloch, a student of kabbalah and acquaintance of Freud, who attested to German scholarship on the subject among Freud's bookshelves along with a French translation of the Zohar.
Moving into the meat of the book, Bakan organizes his study around two complementary symbolic figures--Moses and the Devil--and Freud's treatments of and relationship to each of them. In the final section on similarities between kabbalah and psychoanalysis, the foci are hermeneutics and sexuality. Each large section is divided into short, accessible chapters, and I really did find them a pleasure to read.
This book has confirmed me in my suspicion that modern occult magicians probably read too much Jung and not enough Freud.