David Bakan - Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition
The Enigma of Psychoanalytic Origins
The history of ideas presents a distinct challenge in explaining the emergence of psychoanalysis. While great movements of thought usually possess clear antecedents, Freud’s contributions often appear to have arisen fully formed from the work of a single individual, seemingly disconnected from the main streams of Western history
Conventional hypotheses attributing psychoanalysis to Freud's personal idiosyncrasies, a sudden "flash" of revelation, or inexplicable genius are historically unsatisfying
The Shadow of Persecution and the Art of Concealment
The silence regarding these Jewish roots may be understood through the intense anti-Semitism of late 19th-century Vienna. The year 1882, which Freud marked as a turning point in his career, coincided with a ferocious outbreak of anti-Jewish agitation, including the revival of the "blood libel" in the Tisza-Eszlar affair and the rise of the virulent anti-Semitic press
In such eras of persecution, writers often employ dissimulation, concealing their true sources or radical meanings between the lines to avoid suppression
Freud’s Jewish Identification and Associations
Despite his rejection of religious ritual, Freud maintained a fierce, positive identification with his Jewishness, viewing it as a source of vital energy and resilience
Freud’s intellectual circle was predominantly Jewish, and his intense relationship with Wilhelm Fliess played a critical role in his development
The Ancestry of Method: Kabbalah and Abulafia
The Jewish mystical tradition, particularly the ecstatic Kabbalah of the 13th century, offers striking parallels to psychoanalytic technique. Abraham Abulafia, a seminal Kabbalist, developed a method of "jumping and skipping" between concepts to unseal the soul and untie the "knots" binding it to the mundane world
Furthermore, the Kabbalistic training required a guide, anticipating the transference relationship in therapy. The initiate needed a teacher to serve as a "mover from the outside" to facilitate the inner journey
David Bakan - Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition
The Zohar and the Hermeneutics of Dreams
The affinity between psychoanalysis and Jewish mysticism is perhaps most visible in the interpretation of dreams, a practice central to both fields. While Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams is often viewed as a scientific breakthrough, its methodology bears a striking resemblance to the exegetical techniques of the Zohar, the magnum opus of the Kabbalah. Just as the Kabbalist views the Torah not merely as a narrative but as a cryptic code where every word and letter conceals a deeper, secret reality, Freud approached the dream as a "sacred text" requiring decipherment. He rejected the ancient method of interpreting dreams en masse—as a single symbolic whole—and instead adopted the method of interpreting en détail, treating each element of the dream as a separate signifier with its own chain of associations.
This atomistic approach mirrors the Jewish method of "word-play" and letter analysis, where the superficial meaning is stripped away to reveal the hidden truth. Furthermore, the Zohar is permeated with the concept of sexual polarity, describing the divine realm as a dynamic interplay between masculine and feminine principles (the Sefirot). This mystical duality finds its secular counterpart in Freud’s theory of universal bisexuality—the idea that every human being possesses both masculine and feminine psychological traits, a concept Freud initially struggled to accept but eventually integrated as fundamental to his theory of neurosis.
The Sabbatian Trauma: Redemption Through Sin
To understand the radical nature of Freud’s work, one must look to the tumultuous history of the 17th century, specifically the movement surrounding Sabbatai Zevi. In 1648, the Chmielnicki massacres devastated Eastern European Jewry, shattering their sense of security and theological order. In the wake of this catastrophe, Sabbatai Zevi arose as a messianic figure, promising redemption. However, his movement culminated not in political victory, but in his shocking conversion to Islam. Rather than abandoning him, his most devoted followers, the Sabbatians, interpreted this apostasy as a "holy sin"—a necessary descent into the realm of impurity to reclaim the "divine sparks" trapped within the darkness.
This theological revolution introduced a paradoxical idea: that one could fulfill the Law by breaking it. The Sabbatians, and later the Frankists (followers of Jacob Frank), believed that true spiritual liberation required violating the rigid strictures of the Torah. Freud’s psychoanalysis can be viewed as a secular continuation of this "Sabbatian" revolt. Just as the Sabbatians sought truth in the forbidden realms of apostasy and the violation of taboo, Freud sought the truth of the human soul in the forbidden realms of the unconscious and sexuality. He ventured into the "underworld" of the mind, exposing the repressed impulses that polite society (the Law) sought to hide, effectively secularizing the mystical doctrine of "redemption through sin" into a therapeutic process of "making the unconscious conscious".
Moses and the Great Parricide
Freud’s final and most controversial book, Moses and Monotheism, serves as the capstone of this Sabbatian theme. In this work, Freud stripped the Jewish people of their greatest father figure by arguing that Moses was not a Jew, but an Egyptian nobleman. He further hypothesized that the ancient Israelites, unable to bear the strict spiritual demands of Moses' monotheism, rose up and murdered him in the wilderness.
This theory was not merely historical speculation; it was a psychological assertion of independence. By "killing" the father-figure of Moses and revealing his foreign origins, Freud was enacting a symbolic parricide, liberating the "son" (modern Jewry/Science) from the crushing weight of the "father" (Orthodox Tradition/Law). It was a quintessential act of Sabbatian apostasy—a rejection of the traditional myth to uncover a traumatic, repressed truth. Freud argues that the guilt from this primal murder was repressed and later returned as the strict ethical monotheism of the prophets, just as repressed childhood traumas return as neurotic symptoms in the individual.
The Devil and the Suspended Superego
In the psychoanalytic worldview, the "Devil" is rehabilitated. Historically, the Devil represented the forces of instinct, rebellion, and the body—everything the strict religious Superego sought to crush. In his analysis of the 17th-century painter Christoph Haizmann, Freud explicitly linked the Devil to the repressed unconscious.
The psychoanalytic cure requires the analyst to occupy a unique position: that of a "suspended superego." Unlike the judgmental priest or the rigid moralist, the analyst hears the patient's darkest confessions—their "devilish" thoughts—without condemnation. By temporarily suspending the moral law, the analyst allows the patient to integrate these repressed energies. In this sense, psychoanalysis completes the mystical project: it heals the split in the soul not by banishing the Devil (the instincts), but by recognizing him, understanding him, and ultimately reconciling him with the self. Freud, the godless Jew, thus fulfilled the mystic’s goal: the unification of the divided self through the courageous exploration of its darkest depths.
Summary
David Bakan’s work posits that psychoanalysis is not a creation ex nihilo but a secular transmutation of Jewish mysticism. By tracing the lineage from the Zohar’s exegetical methods through the antinomian revolts of Sabbatai Zevi and Jacob Frank, Bakan argues that Freud channeled the energy of these mystical heresies into a scientific framework. Freud’s "talking cure" is thus revealed as a modern method for redeeming the "sparks" of the soul trapped in the darkness of the unconscious.
https://filedn.eu/l8NQTQJmbuEprbX2ObzJ3e8/Blogger%20Files/Freud_s_Mystical_Origins.pdf
This briefing document synthesizes the core arguments presented by David Bakan regarding the intellectual antecedents of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. The central thesis posits that psychoanalysis is not a "full-blown" creation of a single inexplicable genius, but is deeply rooted in the history of Judaism, specifically the Jewish mystical tradition and the Kabbala.
Bakan argues that Freud’s repeated affirmation of his Jewish identity was more significant to the development of psychoanalysis than previously recognized. The document explores the hypothesis that Freud utilized a "Jewish mystical armamentarium" to grapple with scientific problems, potentially obscuring these sources—a practice termed "dissimulation"—due to the virulent anti-Semitism of 19th-century Vienna. Key takeaways include the transition of psychoanalysis from a biological to a psychological discipline, the influence of secret traditions on Freud's methodology, and the social pressures that necessitated the secularization of mystical concepts.
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I. The Problem of the Origins of Psychoanalysis
The development of psychoanalysis presents a unique challenge to the history of ideas. While most intellectual movements have clear predecessors, psychoanalysis is often treated as the spontaneous creation of Sigmund Freud.
The Myth of Inexplicable Genius
- The "Full-Blown" Fallacy: Bakan challenges the view of Freud as a "genius who burst upon the world" with a message divorced from historical continuity.
- Roots in the Past: The text asserts that "everything new must have its roots in what was before," suggesting that the radical difference between psychoanalysis and Western modes of thought requires a search for alternative origins.
- Three Blows to Narcissism: Freud identified three major blows to human self-evaluation:
- Cosmological: Copernicus (man is not the center of the universe).
- Biological: Darwin (man is an animal).
- Psychological: Freud (the ego is not master in its own house).
The Two Periods of Freud’s Intellectual Life
Freud’s career is divided into two distinct phases:
- Pre-Psychoanalytic Period: Focused on biological problems, anatomy, physiology, and neurology. This period was characterized by "solid and fruitful medical research" and a commitment to the materialism of his mentors like Brücke.
- Psychoanalytic Period: Emerging in his late thirties, this phase marked a "triumph of his life" where he returned to cultural and historical problems, which he described as "the path in which I began."
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II. Hypotheses of Intellectual Development
Bakan identifies several existing hypotheses used to explain how Freud arrived at his discoveries, while suggesting they are insufficient without the context of Jewish mysticism.
1. The "Flash" or Revelation Hypothesis
- Freud himself suggested his insights came in "revelatory" moments, such as the "Secret of Dreams" revealed on July 24, 1895 (the Irma’s injection dream).
- Bakan notes these assertions often have a "stylistic" or "grandiose" quality that substitutes reverence for analysis.
2. The "Germinal Idea" and Cryptomnesia
- Paul Bergman’s Hypothesis: Psychoanalysis may be the result of a germinal idea "dropped on the soil of an extremely rich mind."
- Originality vs. Influence: Freud often claimed to be the "real originator" of ideas (like the sexual etiology of neuroses) while simultaneously recounting incidents where mentors like Breuer, Charcot, and Chrobak suggested those very ideas to him years prior.
- Cryptomnesia: The text suggests Freud may have experienced "apparent originality" by repressing the sources of his ideas, only to have them resurface as his own discoveries.
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III. Jewish Mysticism as an Intellectual Armamentarium
The core of the analysis focuses on the "depth and fecundity" of Jewish mysticism and its role in Freud's creative process.
The Tradition of Secrecy
- The Kabbalistic Mode: Jewish mystical thought (Kabbala) was traditionally transmitted orally to "selected minds" and dealt with "secret matters."
- Cultural Diffusion: Mysticism played a special role in Jewish contact with the Western world, particularly after the 17th century, serving as a revolutionary movement that weakened classical Jewish patterns and facilitated Western entry.
- Sabbatai Zevi: The 17th-century "false Messiah" is cited as a critical figure. Bakan suggests Freud grappled with the same emotional and social problems inherent in the Sabbatian movement, but framed them as scientific problems.
Techniques of Interpretation
- The Zohar and Hasidism: These traditions provided a rich collection of parables, aphorisms, and exegetical interpretations.
- Communication through Folklore: Mystical lore often reached the individual not through formal study but through "little nuggets" in stories, jokes, and family comments.
- Direct Influences: The text mentions that Freud’s parents and the Jews of Vienna were immersed in an environment where Jewish mystical thought was "in the air."
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IV. Anti-Semitism and the Necessity of Dissimulation
A major theme of the briefing is the social pressure that likely forced Freud to secularize and conceal the Jewish mystical origins of his work.
The Climate of Vienna (1880s–1890s)
- The "Turning Point": In 1882, Freud abandoned his theoretical career due to his "bad financial position," a situation influenced by the rising anti-Semitism in academia.
- Ritual Murder Accusations: The era was marked by intense anti-Semitic agitations, such as the Tisza-Eszlar trial (1882) and the work of August Rohling, who used the Talmud and Zohar to incite violence against Jews.
- Political Pressure: The rise of Karl Lueger and the Christian Socialist Party created an environment where Jewish literature was a "primary object of attack."
The Theory of Dissimulation
Bakan draws on Leo Strauss’s analysis of "writing between the lines":
- Persecution and Writing: Great writers living in times of persecution often develop a technique of "dissimulation," hiding their true sources or most controversial ideas to avoid "fatal opposition."
- Maimonides as Precedent: Thinkers like Maimonides and Spinoza set down teachings in obscure ways so that "only a small number of people would be able to penetrate and understand them."
- Freud’s "Screen Memories": Bakan suggests that Freud’s lack of clarity concerning his sources—and his tendency to attribute his ideas to "revelation" or "originality"—functions as a form of intellectual dissimulation to protect psychoanalysis from being dismissed as "intrinsically controversial" Jewish mysticism.
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V. Key Insights and Personal Context
The Concept of Heimlichkeit
- In the epilogue, Bakan explores Freud's analysis of Heimlichkeit (privacy/homeliness/secrecy), a term Freud used to characterize his "Jewish feeling." This suggests a deep, internal connection between his identity and the concept of the "hidden."
The Influence of Oral Tradition
- Yitzchak Yosef Rosenstrauch: The author's grandfather is cited as an example of how mystical devotion was transmitted. Though "uneducated" by usual standards, his devotion to God and his "handful of Yiddish books" made a profound impression.
- Refusal of Secular Logic: Rosenstrauch’s reply to his grandson regarding why he recited prayers he didn't understand—"Why do I have to understand, if the One Above understands?"—illustrates a mode of thought radically different from Western rationalism, yet central to the environment that produced Freud.
Conclusion of the Hypothesis
The document concludes that a "full appreciation of the development of psychoanalysis is essentially incomplete" unless it is viewed as a secularization of Jewish mystical thought, shaped by the dual forces of intellectual genius and the social necessity of hiding one's heritage in a hostile environment.