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This book contains nine papers by five authors under the editorship of Mortimer Ostow who contributed an Introduction and three papers. Most of the papers were prepublished elsewhere. The Introduction deals with the scope of the book: (1) The power of knowledge and learning which is important to Judaism and psychoanalysis. (2) Marginality, by which the editor means that the Jews feel that they are outsiders and psychoanalysis as a new science and profession has had a great attraction for Jewish intellectuals who felt excluded from an academic career. (3) Working at the interface. Ostow describes the internal organization of the psychoanalytical association. At the suggestion of Dr Ernest Jones the 'Committee' was founded to represent a stable body of true friends who could 'in the event of further dissension, be … of practical assistance by replying to criticisms and providing him [Freud] with necessary literature, illustrations for his work drawn from the committee's own experience, and the like (Jones, The Life & Work of Sigmund Freud, Vol. II, p. 172). The committee was proud of those qualities which Freud considered essentially Jewish, namely, to use Freud's words, a 'common mental construction', freedom from intellectual restriction, and dispensing with the approval of the 'compact majority'. It may be that essential humanitarianism, with its respect for physical and mental integrity of the individual person, is derived from Judaism. 'Many of the early analysts, including Freud, participated in Jewish social, self-defence and Zionist activities while rejecting religion' (pp. 17–18).
In another section the book deals with Psychoanalytic studies of Judaism. The editor is highly critical of the early work as the contributors lacked a thorough knowledge of Jewish matters. Ostow's reservations fall into two categories: (a) The method from the psychoanalytic point of view. The basic analytical theories were derived from clinical experience with individua