Sacred Psychoanalysis - etheses Repository - University of ...

at the heart of human experience as understood by psychoanalysis and religion (Bernstein
1998; DiCenso 1999; Spero 2001; Blass 2003, 2006). These reveal Freud in a more
nuanced and paradoxical light, which parallels the experience of other religious traditions
engaging with contemporary psychoanalysis. It is clear therefore that there are multiple
forms of engagement between Jewish culture, identity and religion with psychoanalysis
(Novis-Deutsch 2010b). Yet because of profoundly Jewish origins (Frosh 2008),
psychoanalysis, as it has evolved in different national and cultural contexts, still needs to
engage with anti-Semitism (Frosh 2006) because Freud was Jewish to the core. This is seen
in the letter he wrote in reply to the Chief Rabbi of Vienna’s letter in 1931 which stated
‘“the author of Future of an Illusion is closer to me than he believes”.’ Freud replied with
warmth, pride and candour:
Your words aroused a special echo in me … In some place in my soul, in a very
hidden corner, I am a fanatical Jew. I am very much astonished to discover myself as
such in spite of all efforts to be unprejudiced and impartial. What can I do against it
at my age? (Quoted in Gresser 1991: 237).
Freud’s fascination, ambivalence, denial and unanswered questions concerning Judaism,
have led to multiple and conflicting interpretations yet form another dimension that shapes
sacred psychoanalysis.
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