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PB 8(2):168-172 (1997)

Moses and Civilization: The Meaning Behind Freud's Myth by Robert A. Paul New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996, 268 pp., $32.50

Author: Richard A. Friedman PhD

Abstract

Readers see many themes in the Bible. For Christians, the entire Hebrew Bible is preparation and prefigurement for the advent of Jesus as messiah; structural anthropologists find in the same material key distinctions (light from dark, clean from unclean, etc.). And Martin Bergmann (1992) feels that the Bible is the story of tension between sacrifice (especially child sacrifice) and redemption. Paul, using a synthesis of structural anthropology and psychoanalysis, discovers yet another biblical theme: that of the end of the primal horde and the beginning of a rule of law through the successful rebellion of a band of brothers.

Among the current popular criticisms of Sigmund Freud is the charge of Lamarckist tendencies, especially in Totem and Taboo, where Freud seems to postulate some sort of unconscious and hereditary racial memory of the rebellion of the sons against the father in the primal horde. Paul exonerates Freud, crediting him, in effect, with discovering the nonbiological means by which cultural memories are transmitted (p. 172). Resurrecting Freud's discredited story about the primal horde, Paul convincingly demonstrates that it is a major theme in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Both contributions deserve appreciation.

In one sense Paul's theme is a straightforward one:

The biblical narrative, parallel[s] Freud's scenario of the primal horde…: Moses, as leader of a band of oppressed brothers [the Hebrew slaves], has led a successful rebellion, done away with the rule of his [symbolic] father [Pharaoh], the jealous, persecuting patriarch, and instead of placing himself in the role of the old senior male, now aims to establish a new form of social organization, governed by just and legitimate laws. In the wilderness, after experiencing the joyful moment of victory and wish fulfillment, Moses and his band have…to face the deep ambivalences in human life that render his task of establishing a just society difficult. (p. 136)

PB 8(2):168-172 (1997)

Moses and Civilization: The Meaning Behind Freud's Myth by Robert A. Paul New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996, 268 pp., $32.50

Author: Richard A. Friedman PhD

Abstract

In one sense Paul's theme is a straightforward one:

The biblical narrative, parallel[s] Freud's scenario of the primal horde…: Moses, as leader of a band of oppressed brothers [the Hebrew slaves], has led a successful rebellion, done away with the rule of his [symbolic] father [Pharaoh], the jealous, persecuting patriarch, and instead of placing himself in the role of the old senior male, now aims to establish a new form of social organization, governed by just and legitimate laws. In the wilderness, after experiencing the joyful moment of victory and wish fulfillment, Moses and his band have…to face the deep ambivalences in human life that render his task of establishing a just society difficult. (p. 136)