Psychoanalysis and antisemitism: from the myth of the Judeo-Satan to the otherness at the pulsional

Abstract

We question antisemitism for its historical, social and psychological reasons. We reconsider the Freudian analyzes about Moses as a hero, an introducer of circumcision, up to the thesis of his murder. Next, we analyze Bonapartean research on the formation of the Judeo-Satan myth and the psychological causes of anti-Semitism falling back on the aggression drive. Our methodological purpose is, from the Laplanchean point of view, to consider the Ptolemaic and Copernican arguments, especially the latter, as they are committed to the role of the other in the drive. Following this journey, our conclusions aim at the pulsional or aggressive roots of anti-Semitism encompassing both the individual and collective spheres.