After a short summary of the history of the Jews and of anti-Semitism, and after explaining that unconscious motives alone can be decisive in this history, Davidson proposes his own theory. This theory is simple but in no way convincing. The old conflict between patriarchy and matriarchy is at work between anti-Semites and Jews. The Jews 'remind' the anti-Semite 'continuously of his matriarchal dependence'. Matriarchal reminders are still effective in the unconscious of the anti-Semite, and he projects them on, and persecutes them in the Jews.

It is certainly correct that the Jews have preserved many archaic trends, and that this circumstance makes them apt objects of projection. But it is difficult to say why among these archaic trends the 'matriarchal' ones should be paramount. Matriarchal trends are mostly very weak and repressed in Jewish tradition, covered by an excessively stressed patriarchy. It is to be regretted that the author seems not to know some of the previously published psychoanalytic papers on anti-Semitism.