A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Problem of Antisemitism

In his “New Introductory Lectures,” Freud posed the question of how, in the course of human development, the transition from the phase of animism toward the phase of religion was accomplished. In his “Totem and Taboo” as well as in his “Moses and Monotheism” he contributes richly to a greater clarification of the problem. It is, however, necessary for the sake of a certain form of inquiry which this paper wants to propose that his insights be somewhat reworded. This writer certainly does not presume that they should have taken a different form in the original formulation. He only suggests that his contribution might prove stimulating for a further elucidation of the problem.

In the course of human development an attempt was made to transplant a world of many Gods (Age of Animism)1 by one God of a different nature. The many Gods were in the semblance (image) of man, sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile to man, never unreachable for him, never above his critique. Furthermore, man did not deny them their mutual right of existence. We might, by stretching conceptual meanings term them “Ego Gods,” that is Gods who in their assumed qualities resemble the human ego (functionally equated to the ego) which is subject to the influences of instinctual wishes. Their lack of rigidity with reference to the problem of value is another instance of their similarity to the ego dominated man (in contrast to the super-ego dominated man). If we call the Gods of this phase ego-Gods then it is apparent that the God of the monotheistic age is termed the super-ego God. He is all powerful, decides over good and evil. From Mount Sinai he handed down to mankind the Ten Commandments—ten mighty prohibitions, the hardest inhibitions