Customer Reviews

Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition

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This book's premise is that much of Freud's psychoanalytic theory had its roots in the Jewish religion,particularly the mysticism of the Kabbala. The author also explains how Freud's own Jewish heritage contributed, either consciously or unconsciously, to his psychological theories. I recommend this book to anyone interested in exploring the roots of Freud's development of psychoanalysis.

Bakan starts this intriguing book with a quote from Freud "Everything new must have its roots in what was before." So what were the roots for Freud's revolutionary ideas?

Bakan presents an excellent argument that either consciously or unconsciously, Freud drew on the mystical Jewish tradition in formulating psychoanalysis. His preface to the New Edition adds additional information that was not available to him when he wrote the original in 1958, and is well worth reading.

Aside from its insights into psychoanalysis, this book provides a valuable history of Jewish mysticism, including some surprising detours. It also educated me on turn-of-the-century Vienna's virulent anti-Semitic environment -- something of which I had not been fully aware.

As with Richard Noll's "Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung" (also reviewed by me), it provides some unusual viewpoints on the psychoanalytic revolution and is well worth reading.

Bakan's book is not a disparagement of Freud, but a collection of conjectures, speculations, and fantasies on whether the "origins" of psychoanalysis were in the personality of Freud or in the culture of Freud's era. First, as to "origins," he does not define this term. Second, he does not use the term "personality," but he refers here and there to Freud's "genius," "experiences," or "insight." Third, as to "culture," he defines culture as "the achievement of at least several generations, involving relatively large numbers of people, whose life experiences pool themselves into a characteristic entity, a socially carried and organized personality." Fourth, he refers frequently to "traditions," but does not define this term.
How does he expect to differentiate personality elements from cultural elements without defining his terms? Culture cannot be reduced to "a socially carried and organized personality," today, any more than in the 1930's of Ruth Benedict.
Bakan's very pleasant language gives impressionistic descriptions of "Jewish traditions," such as (1) the rabbinic traditions that are the "origins" of Conservative and Orthodox Judaism and (2) the messianic, chiliastic, and millenarian Sabbatian traditions that are the "origins" of Reform Judaism. These descriptions are impressions because there is no consistent exposition of historical evolution in the book against a framework of scientific theory.
In a system of religion, ideas provoke revisions and revivals. In Judaism, an instance of such resistance is Sabbatian resistance to established order. Bakan finds the "origins" of the sexual theory of neuroses, of constitutional bisexuality, and of the technique of free association somewhere in this system. For example, in "The Moses of Michelangelo," Freud describes a statue of Moses as "struggling successfully against an inward passion for the sake of a cause." These words of Freud's, Bakan says, are really about Freud's struggling in a "cultural tradition" against other "cultural traditions," such as anti-Semitism. Similar impressions are had of Moses and Monotheism.
Personality is certainly controlled by the cultural system and therapy certainly emerges from religion. However, if the reader wants any systematic exposition that differentiates personality and culture in some ways to understand how this came about, a century ago in the case of Freud and psychoanalysis, or if the reader wants better to understand the emergence of therapy from religion, he needs to look elsewhere, and would surely be better rewarded by reading Freud's own "On the history of the psychoanalytic movement" (1914, CP, Volume 1) than by reading about Freud.