French Literature Reviews - 2026
Y. H. Yerushalmi, Freud's Moses
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, Freud's Moses
Paris: Gallimard, coll. "Tel", 2011.
EAN 9782070133673.
266 p.
Price: EUR 8.50
Publisher's Overview:
Moses and Monotheism holds a unique place in Freud's body of work.
As his most controversial text for its reconstruction of the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and antisemitism, it provoked deep hesitation in its author, who struggled to define it—was it a historical novel or applied historical analysis?—and even hesitated to publish it as Nazism triumphed. Yet, for Freud, it answered a dual and pressing imperative: to heed his father's earlier injunction to return to the Bible, and to explain why, despite being an unbeliever, he felt so profoundly Jewish.
Concluding that a "national character" can be transmitted "independently of direct communication and the influence of education by example," Freud posited that "Jewishness" persists "in the blood and in the nerves," distinct from the religion of Judaism itself, and that the former was enduring even when the latter might end. But was the true conclusion reached by Freud, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi asks, rather that psychoanalysis—that "Jewish affair" of which its founder spoke—was the continuation of Judaism stripped of its illusory religious manifestations, while retaining its core monotheistic characteristics? Ultimately, as a "godless Jew," as he liked to define himself, did Freud not see psychoanalysis as a godless Judaism?
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (1932–2009) was born in New York to a Russian family that had emigrated to the United States.
His father was a Hebrew teacher. Yerushalmi taught at Harvard, where he chaired the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and subsequently served as Professor of Jewish History at Columbia University from 1980 to 2008. Editions Gallimard has also published his work Zakhor (Tel no. 176).
Sigmund Freud's Moses and Monotheism holds a unique place in his body of work, distinguished by its inquiry into the origins of Judaism and the persistence of Jewish identity. Freud struggled to define the text, questioning whether it was a historical novel or applied historical analysis. This work reflects broader twentieth-century debates regarding the secularization of traditional belief systems and the transmission of cultural memory across generations.
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi asks whether Freud saw psychoanalysis as the continuation of Judaism stripped of its religious manifestations, while retaining its core monotheistic characteristics. The text examines Freud's self-identification as a godless Jew and his view of psychoanalysis as a Jewish affair. Readers interested in the intersection of psychoanalytic history and the development of Jewish identity in the modern era may find this examination of Freud's final project relevant.