Kauders, Anthony D.

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Eran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina

Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB): Qucosa

REZENSIONEran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen PalästinaEran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina, Göttingen/ Bristol, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2013, 285 S., ISBN 978-3-525-36992-0, EUR 59,99.Reviewed by Anthony D. Kauders.Was it possible to reconcile Freudian psychoanalysis with early Zionism? This is  the  central  question  that  informs  Eran  Rolnik’s  well-written  study  of  the relationship  between  psychology  and  politics  in  the  Yishuv.1 There  are  several assumptions  underlying  this  question:  that  Freud’s  influence  was  such  that intellectuals in far-away Palestine were bound to consider his theories; that Freud’s Jewishness  made  such  a  response  inevitable;  and  that  the  encounter  between psychoanalytic  ‘deconstructivism’  and  Zionist  ‘collectivism’  entailed  controversy, even irreconcilability. Let me begin with the first assumption.  Rolnik maintains that psychoanalysis was popular with Jewish immigrants to Palestine, quickly gaining supporters among prominent Zionists and often informing Jewish responses to psychology in the first  decades of the last century (p. 24). This ‘enthusiasm’, Rolnik argues, all but ended with the publication of Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion in 1939 (p.  195).  Most  of  Rolnik’s  narrative,  however,  suggests  otherwise.  While  Achad Ha’am praised  Freud (p.  41),  most  of  his  like-minded activists,  including  Hugo Bergmann, Gershom Scholem, and Martin Buber, rejected Freudian theory (p. 61, 63,  73,  157).  And  while  members  of  Hashomer  Hatzair  discussed  Freud  as  a potential  liberator  of  repressed  sexuality,  Freudianism  failed  to  make  inroads institutionally. The health service refused to pay for psychoanalytic therapy (p. 147),  for example, and the opponents of Freud were successful in halting plans for a chair  in  psychoanalysis  at  the  Hebrew  University  (p.  148).  Only  in  1977  did  the International Psychoanalytic Association organize its first conference in Israel, and only in that year did Joseph Sandler become the first professor of psychoanalysis at  the Hebrew University. In short, Freud did not fare better in the ‘Holy Land’ than elsewhere;  indeed,  the ‘enthusiasm’ (p.  195)  Rolnik mentions  in connection with reactions  to  Freud paled in comparison with the appeal of  psychoanalysis  in  the United States and was confined to (Zionist) intellectuals who hoped that this new mode of thinking would add to their understanding of the Jewish predicament.1 The book first appeared in Hebrew in 2007.ReviewEran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina.Reviewed by Anthony D. Kauders.MEDAON 14|2014 – URL: http://www.medaon.de/pdf/MEDAON_14_Kauders.pdf1This limited impact qualifies the second assumption, namely that the Yishuv’s reception  of  psychoanalysis  was  determined  by  Freud’s  Jewishness.  To  be  sure, there were numerous attempts to establish the Jewish ‘nature’ of psychoanalysis, a tradition that exists till  this day. Freud’s  concept of repression,  for example, was explained with the penchant among European Jews to ‘assimilate’ and suppress their Jewish descent  (p.  196).  According  to  this  reading,  the  fact  that  an acculturated Viennese  Jew  came  up  with  the  notion  that  uncomfortable  truths  were  forcibly ‘forgotten’ was not surprising, given his identity and, by extension, Jewish identity in  the  diaspora.  Freud’s  public  image,  moreover,  suffered  considerably  after  the publication of his book on Moses, embarrassing leading psychoanalysts such as Max Eitingon and eliciting sharp rebukes by Martin Buber, among others (p. 207). But as Rolnik shows in great  detail,  much of the debate on psychoanalysis  in Palestine reflected  European  as  opposed  to  specifically  ‘Jewish’  concerns  regarding  the psyche, concerns that had been raised in similar ways but in different contexts since the  turn-of-the-century.  Commentators  unsympathetic  to  psychoanalysis  such  as Jakob Klatzkin joined the neo-romantic camp in rejecting Freud’s hyper-rationalism (Überbewusstsein), a critique also voiced by Ludwig Klages and C. G. Jung and one that was to dominate the German reception of psychoanalysis in the late 1920s (p. 52). Likewise, Buber’s skepticism resembled that of many middle-class burghers in Vienna  or  Berlin  who had  difficulties  reconciling  their  belief  in  emotional  self-control and  Bildung with the purported power of the (sexual) unconscious (p. 61).  Jewish youth activists in Palestine, furthermore, mirrored the aims, proclivities, and fears  of  their  counterparts  in  Central  Europe:  they  too  sought  authenticity, truthfulness, and naturalness against the ideals of an older generation (p. 60). Once they had adopted socialist doctrines,  they too embraced positions popularized by leftist psychoanalysts such as Wilhelm Reich, whereby the ‘reality principle’ was a product  of  history  and  could  be  changed  accordingly.  The  kibbutz,  where  early childhood education was to be managed collectively, would hopefully spell the end of the Oedipus complex (p. 183). When the left-wing pedagogues of the Yishuv later disagreed  with  Reich  because  his  belief  in  sexual  liberation  threatened  Zionist collectivism, their critique corresponded closely to that of German communists for whom  Reich’s  ‘bourgeois’  pre-occupation  with  sexuality  threatened  party  unity (p. 187). In short, the reception of psychoanalysis in Jewish Palestine centered on similar  issues  as  the  reception  of  psychoanalysis  in  non-Jewish  Europe.  Freud’s Jewishness may have made many Zionists proud, but it was his ideas rather than his  ethnicity that demanded a response.The  Jewish  encounter  with  psychoanalysis  in  Palestine,  as  the  example  of Wilhelm  Reich  indicates,  was  defined  by  an  inherent  tension  between  Freud’s hermeneutics  of  suspicion  and  the  altogether  different  demands  of  the  Zionist collectivistic  enterprise.  Rolnik  repeatedly  touches  on  this  tension.  As  much  as Zionists  were willing to consider psychoanalytic  concepts in order to explain the Jewish  predicament,  overcome  the  ‘inhibitions’  of  diaspora  culture,  or  heal  the Jewish soul, these concepts were only useful if they served the larger objective of creating  a  new  Jewish  culture.  Ironically,  this  tension  may  have  subsided  in ReviewEran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina.Reviewed by Anthony D. Kauders.MEDAON 14|2014 – URL: http://www.medaon.de/pdf/MEDAON_14_Kauders.pdf2contemporary Israel—but for different reasons than one might anticipate. As Rolnik concludes in his epilogue, the absence of conflict cannot be attributed to the success of ‘liberalism’, ‘individualism’, or ‘pluralism’ against the forces of Zionist socialism, but rather to the tendency of most psychoanalysts  to address the Israeli ‘national psyche’. The fact that so many Israeli psychoanalysts have focused on the effects of trauma, hypothesizing a collective Jewish victimhood of past and present violence alike, has meant that the conflict between the critical, deconstructivist spirit of Freud and the collectivist spirit of Zionism has all but disappeared. Instead, psychoanalysis in Israel has become Israeli psychoanalysis in its preoccupation with certain themes. If the encounter between Freudianism and Zionism once involved controversy and often implied irreconcilability, this is no longer the case. Rolnik’s book is testimony to this change.Zitiervorschlag Anthony Kauders: Rezension zu: Eran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina, in: MEDAON – Magazin für jüdisches Leben in Forschung und Bildung, 8. Jg., 2014, Nr. 14, S. 1-3, online unter http://www.medaon.de/ pdf/MEDAON_14_Kauders.pdf [dd.mm.yyyy].Author Anthony D. Kauders teaches Modern European History at Keele University. His most recent publication is Der Freud-Komplex. Eine Geschichte der Psychoanalyse in Deutschland (Berlin: Berlin Verlag 2014).ReviewEran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina.Reviewed by Anthony D. Kauders.MEDAON 14|2014 – URL: http://www.medaon.de/pdf/MEDAON_14_Kauders.pdf3

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Eran Rolnik: Freud auf Hebräisch. Geschiche der Psychoanalyse im jüdischen Palästina

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