Myth and Madness: The Psychodynamics of AntisemitismThe persistence of anti-Semitism and its current resurgence after a brief post-Holocaust suppression, challenge those who study human behavior to locate the causal bases of anti-Semitism and find approaches to combat it. This is an astonishing report of a nine-year study of the psychodynamics of anti-Semitism. Undertaken by Dr. Mortimer Ostow on behalf of the Psychoanalytic Research and Development Fund, it puts flesh and bones on the discussion of antisemitism in Sigmund Freud's 1939 classic theoretical study "Moses and Monotheism. "Its close adherence to case material, and application of psychoanalytic theory to historical data and cultural products, yields new insights into bigotry and equity alike. By examining prejudiced patients and their myths, Dr. Ostow shows the common threads of anti-Semitism in a variety of national and cultural settings, even under supposed optimal conditions when antisemitism is stringently controlled. The work uses the psychiatric approach, and can be read as a study of how this area of behavioral science reveals the interplay of the individual and the group, cultural background and material opportunities. The book is divided into five major segments: Psychoanalytic interpretation of anti-Semitism in the past; clinical data on anti-Semitic sentiments in a variety of personal and national settings; mythological dimensions of anti-Semitism and apocalyptic doctrines; specific anti-Semitic myths including pre-Christian early and medieval Christian, "racial" and post-modern Muslim anti-Semitism. The final segment focuses on the pogrom mentality, including the Nazi phenomenon, antisemitic fundamentalism, and black anti-Semitism. "Myth and Madness "is informed by an amazing breadth of learning: from biblical exegesis to modern sociology, from close attention to mundane patients to evaluating mythic claims of the loftiest, and at times most dangerous sort. This is a landmark effort--one that will be the touchstone for theoretical and clinical works to come. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 59
... religion , lit- erature , politics , philosophy , and intellectual and cultural history . Many insights were recorded that we found interesting and fruitful . However , as a practical matter , we decided that the major findings of our ...
... religious my- thology so as to bring about persecution . Benjamin Ginsberg focuses almost entirely on material rather than psychological motives ( 1993 ) . Leon Poliakov , in his four - volume history of antisemitism ( 1965 , 1973 ...
... religion has rendered a great service in the restriction of per- verted sexuality , by guiding all libidinal currents into the bed of propa- gation " ( vol . 3 , p.273 ) . Aside from Freud's many references to antisemitism in a number ...
... religion , Christianity , upon them . All of Freud's comments about antisemitism were written before the Holocaust , and in fact before the Holocaust was imaginable . Moses and Monotheism itself might be regarded , although it was begun ...
... religion as a source of support rather than as a source of ethics . They admired patriots and people with power rather than artists , scientists , and humanitarians . They were moralistic and conventional . They exhibited an aversion to ...
Contents
3 | |
Study of Clinical Data | 43 |
Mythology | 63 |
Antisemitic Myths | 95 |
The Pogrom Mentality | 151 |
Conclusions | 175 |
181 | |
187 | |