You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
In 1915 Reik wrote: “Psychological analysis of the puberty rites enables us to recognize in the Sinai passage a historical counterpart to the important present day rites of initiation that take place in the bush.”* Forty-five years later he has returned to this theme and given new meanings to our biblical drama.
These latest of Reik's adventures in psychoanalytic archeology are concerned with Moses on Mount Sinai and with the birth of Eve. Reik treats particular biblical passages as records of myths which, in being passed down through countless generations, have been changed in much the same way as wish fantasies are transformed into dreams. In this sense he is analyzing the defenses of biblical reader against recognizing the primal conflicts in their own lives.
Puberty rites among primitive peoples are characterized by several central events: 1) the youths are taken from their mothers and subjected to severe ordeals by their fathers; 2) they are isolated from the community, symbolically put to death and then brought back to life; and 3) they are re-introduced to the community as new born, full-fledged members.
By analyzing various textual passages, both in terms of unconscious implications and in light of “higher criticism,” Reik is able to uncover various elements of these puberty rituals in the biblical narrative. For example, the “shining” face of Moses and his warning to the Hebrews not to ascend the mountain, are associated for Reik with the mask of the medicine man and the isolation of initiates from the rest of the community. Reik feels that in the exodus from Egypt Moses took a “leap backward” and engaged his followers in the ancient ritual practices of their ancestors. This religious regression, accompanied by a total rejection of Egyptian polytheism, was a necessary prelude to the advance into monotheism. The idea of One God seems significant to Reik mainly in its rejection of the female deity and the concept of God's imagelessness. He sees Christianity's re