Miscellaneous Abstracts

The author of this article discusses the question of the greater prevalence of neuroses among Jews and the presumed “nervous” make up of their character. He finds that the more immediate causes lie in what has been so aptly termed by Myerson as social heredity. For centuries the Jews have lived in an acutely hostile environment and the ever present threat of destruction, the constant state of fear engendered and a perpetual state of anxiety—all without an adequate outlet or compensation—have greatly lessened their emotional stability and led more particularly to the development of extreme suspiciousness and sensitiveness. It was not surprising therefore that confronted with a bitter reality, the Jew was often willing to forsake it and seek refuge in spiritual mysticism to develop what the author terms a social neurosis. Another prolific source of conflicts was the need of adjustment to different cultures consequent upon frequent migration from one country to another, and as a frequent concomitant of it, the intensified struggle within the home itself between the old and new generations. Furthermore, by reason of social and economic stringencies, the Jews were obliged to concentrate in large cities and forced into driving industrial occupations, the stress and strain of it reflecting itself in greater emotional instability. To these factors are to be added the unusual closeness of blood and family ties, which the author believes are traceable to the earliest phantasies of infancy and childhood.

Not all of these factors, however, strike sufficiently deep roots to alter personality, nor are they altogether peculiar to the Jews. Accordingly, the author seeks other and deeper causes to be found, as he believes, in the peculiarities of the Jew's religious philosophy, his views of social ethics and his reactions to the same. He observes first, that the essential features of Jewi