Freud's Jewish identity, circumcision, and the theory of castration anxiety: problem or pride?

Punzi, Elisabeth

doi:10.1080/13674676.2014.980721

Cited by 1 publication

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References 21 publications

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“…But can this perception of femininity be shown to be demonstrably unique to Jewish culture? As a third example, Punzi (2014) argued that, despite his atheism, "Freud had a positive Jewish identity, which was connected to profound knowledge in Jewish religion and tradition" and that his insights about traditional Jewish circumcision contributed to his theory of castration anxiety as central to early human development.…”

Section: Jewish Ethnic Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging with the unknown: How Judaism enabled Freud's psychological discoveries

Jennings

2023

J History Behavioral Science

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A large literature has formed around the question of how Freud's Jewishness and/or Judaism influenced his psychological discoveries and development of psychoanalytic theory and methods. The article organizes the literature into several core theses but brings new clarity and insight by applying two essential criteria to demonstrate an impact of Judaism on Freud's thinking: direct content and historical timing. First, there should be evidence that Freud incorporated actual content from Jewish sources, and second, this incorporation must have occurred during the most crucial period of Freud's early discovery, conceptualization, and development of psychoanalysis, roughly 1893–1910. Thus, for example, Bakan's well‐known theory that Freud studied Kabbala is completely negated by the absence of any evidence in the required time period. Part I reviews the literature on the influence of Freud's ethnic/cultural Jewish identity. Part II introduces the Judaic sacred literature, explores Freud's education in Judaism and Hebrew, and presents evidence that Freud had the motive, means, and resources to discover and draw from the “Dream Segment” of the Talmud—along with the traditional Judaic methods and techniques of textual exegesis. Freud then applied these same Judaic word‐centered interpretive methods—used for revealing an invisible God—to revealing an invisible Unconscious in four successive books in 1900, 1901, and 1905.

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Section: Jewish Ethnic Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Engaging with the unknown: How Judaism enabled Freud's psychological discoveries

Jennings

2023

J History Behavioral Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Freud's Jewish identity, circumcision, and the theory of castration anxiety: problem or pride?

Cited by 1 publication

References 21 publications

Engaging with the unknown: How Judaism enabled Freud's psychological discoveries

Engaging with the unknown: How Judaism enabled Freud's psychological discoveries

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