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These notes arose from reflections on a Jewish patient suffering from an obsessional-compulsive character disorder.
Study of this patient, and of other Jewish patients, showed me that there was a quality in their personalities, revealed primarily in the obsessive-compulsive reaction, but evident in a whole variety of subtle ways, which was distinct from similar disorders in non-Jewish individuals.
The Jewish culture is an ancient one, and Jewish people of widely diverse kinds are bearers of it in the present day. The patterns of behaviour they show can, I believe, be usefully linked to the culture they have inherited. I propose, therefore, in these notes to describe this one patient with emphasis upon certain themes in his material. These themes seem to me to reveal special characteristics. The characteristics are, of course, shared by all individuals who belong to a minority group, and are not, in themselves, unique. Rather it is my wish to draw attention to phenomena whose very familiarity to analysts may have caused them to be neglected.
I should make it clear, however, that my choice of case material derives from a particular period, in a particular country—that is, the patient is a second-generation Jew living in England and influenced radically by the majority group, and by the English tradition, particularly its social and academic aspects. As I have pointed out in a section on social considerations, there must be profound differences between my patient and his Jewish brothers in other countries living within different majority groups.
After the case description, I shall endeavour to abstract certain themes under separate headings. My aim in abstracting these themes is to try to point to a psychological pattern which provides the basis of a culture and a religious belief that still remains alive and powerful not only within the Jewish group, but one which inevitably affects the majority group to which the Jewish minority group belongs. To give examples, one theme