Description
On Freud’s "Moses and Monotheism" discusses key themes in Sigmund Freud’s final book, Moses and Monotheism, written between 1934 and 1939. The contributors reflect on the historical context of the time during which the book was written, including Freud’s mindset and his struggle to leave Austria to escape the Nazi regime, and investigate its contemporary implications and relevance.
Drawing parallels with contemporary society, the chapters cover topics like historical truth, the effects of Nazism on Freud’s writing, Freud’s "relationship" with Moses, the transmission of trauma across generations, the origins and psychodynamics of anti-Semitism, Freud and Moses as leaders, and the notion of Tradition. This book also reflects on the stories of Moses and of Freud – the search of a people for a "Promised Land," the deep scars of slavery, and the struggle of a man to establish an ideology and ensure its continuity.
On Freud’s "Moses and Monotheism" will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. It will also be of interest to scholars investigating the nature of truth, and social scientists interested in the broader applications of Freud’s discussions of the nature of civilization.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors
Series Editor’s Forward
Gabriela Legorreta
Editor’s Introduction to On Freud’s "Moses and Monotheism"
Lawrence J. Brown
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 1
1. "The Jewish Offensive" – The Reception of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism in Mandatory Jewish Palestine
Eran Rolnik
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 2
Lawrence J. Brown
2. Freud’s "Phylogenetic Fantasy" and His Construction of the Historical Moses
Peter T. Hoffer
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 3
Lawrence J. Brown
3. The Probable in Nazi Times: The Opposing Fates of the Mystical and the Law.
Laurence Kahn
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 4
Lawrence J. Brown
4. "Moses – Freud’s Literary Twin"
Merav Roth
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 5
Lawrence J. Brown
5. Memory and Historical Truth in Moses and Monotheism: The Contemporary Significance of "Historical Truth"
Sara Collins
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 6
Lawrence J. Brown
6. The Mule and the Dancer: Freud, Moses, and the Dilemma of the Hybrid
Sara Boffito
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 7
Lawrence J. Brown
7. The Puzzle of Freud’s Puzzle Analogy: Reviving a Struggle with Doubt and Conviction in Freud’s Moses and Monotheism
Rachel B. Blass
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 8
8. Der Mann Moses and the Man Freud: Leadership, Legacy and anti-Semitism
Shmuel Erlich
Editor’s Introduction to Chapter 9
9. Freud: On Tradition
David Benhaim
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Lawrence J. Brown
