Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition (Dover Books on Biology, Psychology, and Medicine)

Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition (Dover Books on Biology, Psychology, and Medicine) Review

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.

A pioneering scholarly investigation into the intersection of personality and cultural history, this study asserts that Freudian psychology is rooted in Judaism — particularly, in the mysticism of the Kabbalah. It examines how Freud's Jewish heritage contributed, either consciously or unconsciously, to his psychological theories and clarifies the foundations of modern psychoanalysis.