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Freud's bold reinterpretation (1914a) of Michelangelo's statue of Moses generated more mysteries than it resolved. These include the nature of the emotional impact on Freud of the sculpture, specific aspects of the writing process itself, Freud's decision to publish the essay anonymously, the identity of the artist whose
Moshe Halevi Spero is Professor, Postgraduate Program of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, School of Social Work, Bar-Ilan University; Senior Clinical Psychologist, Department of Psychiatry, Sarah Herzog Memorial Hospital, Senior Clinical Psychologist, Weinstock Department of Oncology-Hematology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem.
four little sketches accompany the text, the meaning of the various sobriquets with which Freud referred to the essay, and a surprising condensation in his recounting of specific events in the biblical episode itself. The current essay reconsiders Freud's thesis in light of the artwork included in the text, mimetic qualities of the text, and specific rabbinic sources of which Freud was apparently unaware. The theme of two sets of Tablets is reinterpreted as a latent reference to the double inscription of the unconscious. The signature line left empty by Freud is reinterpreted as a void transformed by negativization into a creative structure, an “invisible edifice,” though only partially successful in Freud's own estimation.