The US novelist, Bernard Malamud, once wrote that all biography is ultimately fiction, a fair enough statement from one of the most distinguished novelists of his generation provided we understand fiction simply as a story. So what kind of a story has Joseph Berke given us in his account of a hidden Freud?

In the first instance it is an amusing, even profound, turning of Marx on his head. Instead of religion as a defence against the realities of materialism - the soul of soulless conditions - Berke tells a story of Freud using materialism as a defence against the Hassidic religion in which he was raised. It is a pretty good story that will especially appeal to readers who have a taste for psychohistory. It is interesting to see how much of psychoanalysis Berke can trace to roots in Jewish mysticism.

His account of Jewish mysticism is rich and informed. Here is his definition of mysticism: ‘Essentially mysticism is an attempt to establish a conscious connection