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Even at the end of his life Freud wrote seminal pieces. In the last textual volume of the Standard Edition, volume 23, we find major essays on the theory of mind (An Outline of Psychoanalysis ), the nature of psychotherapy (“Analysis Terminable and Interminable ,” “Constructions in Analysis ,” and “Splitting of the Ego in the Process of Defense ”) and the psychology of religion, Moses and Monotheism (Freud, 1939). Of these three types of essay, each reflecting numerous predecessors in Freud's long career, the first two quickly entered the mainstream of psychoanalytic reflection. Although unfinished, An Outline contains valuable instances in which Freud rethought his metapsychological principles, his basic theory of the mind, which he was yet quite willing to revise, contrary to exaggerated reports of his demand for orthodoxy. The papers on psychotherapeutic technique, especially his comments on splitting, are vital, frequently cited, and integrated into the scientific fabric of psychoanalysis, particularly object relations theory. In contrast, the fate of Moses and Monotheism, Freud's “historical novel” in which he imaginatively reconstructed the origin of the Jews, met with embarrassed acceptance or absolute rejection, often mixed with vilification of Freud's mind and intentions.
Yosef Yerushalmi, a respected scholar of Jewish life and culture and Professor of History at Columbia, has retrieved Moses and Monotheism both from those who use it excessively to “analyze