You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Why Did Freud Reject God? reads like a detective novel in which Rizzuto takes the reader step by step, following clues that lay out possible solutions to an intriguing question. Her methodology and process are clear: she scrupulously uses Freud's own words and theories to interpret the possible meaning and evolution of his self- identification as an atheist and ‘a godless Jew’.
Having met Dr Rizzuto, this reviewer was left with the impression that she has a Sherlock Holmesian approach (thinking/sensation functions predominate) to evaluating pertinent evidence and facts and is extraordinarily perceptive about emotional detail. These observed characteristics are borne out in her scholarly research and writing, where information collected is thoughtfully processed and organized in such a way that formulations are convincing and credible.
The adventure of this book began for Rizzuto in 1992 on seeing a travelling exhibit of Freud's antiquities which included a copy of the Philippson Bible, an annotated and illustrated tome in German and Hebrew given to Freud on his thirty-fifth birthday by his father Jakob, who had collected fascicles since 1848. For this occasion, Jakob had his copy leather bound and had inscribed in Hebrew an original Midrash from the Torah and the Talmud which reminds his son not to forget the voice of God. Fascinated by the presence of this particular gift from father to son, Rizzuto acquired access to a three-volume edition at Harvard and comparing the illustrations with her exhibition catalogue, she discovered remarkable similarities. Following the earlier documentation of correlations by Rosenfeld (1956) and Niederland (1988), she concluded that ‘… the biblical illustrations must have influenced Freud's choice of objects and perhaps even his passion for collecting’ (p. xiii). This began her psychoanalytic investigation of ‘… the circumstances for his collecting, the explicit personal meaning of the objects by his probably unconscious motives, and t