Freud and Jewish Identity

Abstract

The idea of psychoanalysis as a `Jewish science' remains contentious, raising important issues about the specificity of the conditions of emergence of any discipline, and concerns about essentializing claims to knowledge. This paper presents material relating to Freud's own thinking on his Jewish identity and its connections with the origins of psychoanalysis. It is argued that psychoanalysis was constructed out of the very specific social and cultural conditions of the Jews in Europe at the end of the 19th century, and that this has left its mark on psychoanalysis ever since. This does not mean that no other origins for psychoanalysis are imaginable; it is simply a statement of what actually happened, and what has to be faced.