Sigmund Freud's "anti-Semitism"

[M Winther]

For obvious reasons, Freud always worried that psychoanalysis was to
be viewed as a solely Jewish enterprise. That explains his enthusiasm
when Jung joined the society (the other non-Jew, Poul Bjerre, defected
very early, a fact which he always prided himself on).

Freud's need to suppress Jewish references in his case histories was
probably predicated on his own universalism. He wanted psychoanalysis
to be viewed as a universal discipline, and not a method specifically
for Jewish doctors and Jewish patients.

So it is not quite correct to say that the ongoing anti-Semitism, as
such, caused him to suppress Jewish references. After all, the
anti-Semites would have had none of him anyway.

More surprising is that Freud, himself, often made use of moderately
"anti-Semitic" remarks. When Adler dropped dead of a cerebral
hemorrhage at a meeting in Scotland, Freud wrote to Arnold Zweig that
the "Jew-boy out of a Viennese suburb had done well for himself" (cf.
Bair, D. 'Jung', p.722, n.51). This sentiment might explain why Freud
notoriously attributed anti-Semitic remarks to others, most
particularly CGJ.

Another example occurred when C.G. Jung was engaged in animated
conversation with philosophy professor William Stern (Jewish). Freud
brought the conversation to an abrupt end by shouting: "Sit down with
me! Bad company ruins good manners!" In his American travel diary he
later wrote (evidently with great satisfaction) : "...the shabby Jew
[the distinguished professor Stern] in embarrassment departed" (cf.
Bair, D. 'Jung', p.162).

Freud, it seems, had some form of problem with his Jewish identity.
Psychologically, he might have experienced it as asphyxiating, and he
wanted to escape. Psychologically, a strong ethnic identity and
culture can be experienced as a sort of mother principle. As such, it
can be beneficial, but it can also have an asphyxiating effect,
holding the son back and restraining him. Possibly, Freud projected
the mother complex on the Jewish community, and this is why it evoke
irritation.

One night, when Freud's son arrived home, he found the psychoanalytic
society, a wholly Jewish community, enveloped in thick cigar smoke,
and he wondered how any living being could possibly survive in such
conditions.

I hypothesize that the way in which Freud wholeheartedly embraced
Jung, was predicated on the above. He represented a gale of fresh air,
and the hero proper, while the Jewish community of cigar smokers
corresponded to the phallic beings (the Cabiri, etc) who in mythology
always surround the Mother deity. They represent little phallic
outgrowths on the Mother, a male principle incapable of properly
breaking free.

Historically, this has its counterpart in matriarchal society when
male identity was moulded on the "phallus of the mother", in ancient
Egypt represented by Set, the archfiend of Horus. Horus was the sun
hero proper who broke free of the Mother and established patriarchal
society. Freud, then, would view moderately gifted Jews as little more
than maternal phallic outgrowths, and this would explain his
disparaging attitude towards them.

It is a shadow projection, i.e. Freud would see something of himself
in these men. He himself suffered from this particularly Jewish
syndrome of unconscious identity with the maternal phallus.
Unconsciously, he was stuck on the body of the Mother, and this
irritated him very much. A Jewish professor, like William Stern, would
be particularly suitable for Freud's shadow projection. Freud would
make use of his sharp tongue to sever the phallic Jew from the body of
the Mother. He was seen as a "shabby Jew", a slack penis as opposed to
an erect and virile penis.

Obviously, I am not arguing that Freud was an out-and-out anti-Semite.
I am analyzing the aggression toward Jews which he gave expression to,
and which often resulted in their suicide. Freud was very cruel toward
the Jewish circle. H. Silberer, for instance, in his book about
alchemy, only made an innocent reference to Jung. But this was enough
to ostracize him, and he committed suicide.

However, this might perhaps contribute to our understanding of certain
forms of bigotry. When the victim, on the surface, is a product of his
own cultural and ethnic group he is experienced as a little twig on
the tree trunk of the Mother, i.e. the inferior form of masculinity.
While the perpetrator has a negative mother complex, the victim is cut
off vicariously. So the reason for the aggression could derive from a
shadow projection.

Mats Winther