The Centre for Jewish Studies
University of Manchester
Extra-Mural Lectures 1998-99
For the full list of lectures, click here
Mar 9, Reuven Silverman: Aspects of the Contribution
of Jews to Psychology
Abstract:
The Jewishness of those who made the greatest contributions to psychology
and psychotherapy has often been minimised or dismissed as irrelevant.
In the case of Freud and some of his foremost followers and critics it was
both central to their identity and in some important respects, informed
their theories. This is true of Erich Fromm, Abraham Maslow, and Viktor
Frankl, who are the main subjects of this lecture.
In these examples, the ethos of the Jewish psychologist is that of the
acculturated European Jew who stands at the margins of society and to a
certain extent alienated both from his Judaism and from the wider host culture.
The prototype was the philosopher Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza who bequeathed
his holistic approach and his determinism to twentieth century psychology.
He was simultaneously alienated from his Jewish roots and indebted to Jewish
philosophy and mysticism.
Freud's exposure of the conflicts in the human psyche has been seen
as a reaction to Antisemitism. The reductionist view of Freud as basing
human motivation on sexuality, however, is shown to be an incomplete reading
of his theory. It fails to take into account Freud's later concept of Eros.
A correlate to the concept exists in Spinoza and parallels may be drawn
from biblical and rabbinic Judaism.
Erich Fromm's vigorous critique of Freud and his admiration for the
psychological aspects of Spinoza's philosophy combined with a wide eclecticism
which included Marxism, Zen Buddhism and Hassidism. The result was a humanist
psychology with a strong ethical and mystical characterology in his view
of the individual in relation to society. Both Freud and Fromm developed
theories of selfhood and identity which may be seen as responses to the
equivocal situation of the Jew.
Abraham Maslow provides an example of the situation of an American-born
Jew who struggled to make his way as a psychologist in an academic atmosphere
which was not yet ready to receive Jews into that field. This is reflected
in his theories of motivation and self-actualization which, despite his
atheism, he believed to be driven by a Jewish consciousness.
The Holocaust experience as represented by Viktor Frankl is the most
outstanding case of how positive therapeutic value may be derived from the
encounter with absolute evil. Frankl, though secular, upholds the value
of religion in a way similar to that of Fromm, but with a theoretical commitment
to the spiritual conscience as part of the structure of the psyche. Frankl's
logotherapy, or therapy of meaning, calls into question Freud's instinct
theory, Fromm's socio-psychological determinism, and Maslow's self-actualization
based on a hierarchy of needs. It presents a healing programme with the
goal of self-transcendence, which takes place in the tasks of the moment,
in some ways analogous to the concept of mitzvah.
Amongst the questions these examples raise is the central one: is the
Jewish contribution to psychology and psychotherapy a challenge to Judaism
or complementary to it ?
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Rabbi Dr. Reuven Silverman, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre,
is Rabbi of the Manchester Reform Synagogue and the author of Baruch
Spinoza, Outcast Jew, Universal Sage (1991).
The Centre for Jewish Studies
The Department of Religions and Theology
University of Manchester
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Manchester M13 9PL
United Kingdom
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e-mail: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk