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This work provides an excellent introduction to a very important topic in psychoanalysis—the Jewish world of Sigmund Freud. This unique book, based on papers presented at a conference held at the Center for Jewish History in New York in December 2006, examines key aspects of Freud and his life, which are often under-emphasized, neglected, or denied in psychoanalysis. Although it is less than two hundred pages, it is packed with information about Freud's Jewish world, his identity, ideas about Jews, and the origins of Judaism—all of which provide a deeper understanding of Freud, psychoanalysis, and his cases.
In chapter 1, Salberg explores how the historical and cultural lives of Jews in the nineteenth century, and in particular, Freud's parents, shaped his identity. She presents her ideas about how Freud's mother's personality, attitude toward Judaism, and his ambivalent relationship with her affected him and psychoanalysis: “Everything shameful for Freud becomes identified with the passive, the feminine and the Jew, and becomes hidden in the unconscious. This split is embedded within the very structure of psychoanalysis” (p. 19). This controversial position reduces the value of this interesting and comprehensive chapter; her extreme viewpoint oversimplifies, and at times even misunderstands, psychoanalytic theory and requires extensive debate, which cannot be elaborated on in this brief chapter.
In chapter 2, Rozenblit reviews Jewish immigration patterns throughout Europe and the growth of the Austrian Jewish population by the 1930s. She documents their economic transformation and assimilation, and highlights the anti-Semitism, which “blamed Jews for all their ills” (p. 25). She claims that Jews developed a “‘tripartite identity’—politically Austrian, culturally German, and ethnically Jewish” (p. 30). This chapter examines Freud's ability to acculturate and assimilate, and yet to maintain his distinct ethnic identity as a Jew.