The Tower of Babel in Psychology and in Psychiatry: Towards a Theory of Determinants in Psychology

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Come let us make brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Come let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name — lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And Jehovah came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

And Jehovah said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language — and this is what they begin to do: and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. Come, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off building the city. Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth; and from ^* An abstract of parts of this paper was published in the Psychoanalytic Review … Vol. 36, No. 2, April, 1949 under the title: “Ideological Warefare in the Psychological Sciences.” The author discussed many aspects of this part with Leopold Bellak, M.D., whose many suggestions are gratefully acknowledged.

thence did Jehovah scatter them abroad upon the tace of all the earth.” Genesis XI, 1-9. The Holy Bible, American Standard Version.

The suggestive power of the Bible myth of the Tower of Babel reflects an important feeling man has had about himself throughout the ages. It is but an expression of psychological truth in ancient garb. God, the father, took away from his children one language in order to punish them for attempting to be as powerful as he, and so took from