Moses: Freud's ultimate project

Authors

• Risto Olavi Nurmela Åbo Akademi University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.66577

Keywords:

Judaism, Freud, Sigmund, 1856-1939, Psychology and religion, Psychoanalysis and religion, Moses, (Biblical leader), Atheism

Abstract

Moses and Monotheism was the last work of Sigmund Freud, known as the founder of psychoanalysis. It is not a study of psychoanalytical issues, but mainly a study of the biblical figure Moses, albeit with psychoanalytical applications. Freud attempted to prove that Moses’ original monotheistic religion, which he, an Egyptian, gave to the Israelites, was one without sacrifices and priests, whereas the Israelite religion known from the Bible was not even strictly monotheistic. Moses’ religion, according to Freud, was the religion of Ikhnaton, the similarity of which to Israelite religion Freud was in fact among the first to realize. The religion of Moses, which Freud thought he was able to reconstruct, was in my view actually Judaism, which later developed from Israelite religion. Freud was a stern atheist, but nevertheless also an uncompromising Jew, who never thought atheism would exclude Jewishness. As such he stands as a fine example of Judaism being something more and other than religion and ethnicity. Freud worked on Moses and Monotheism during his five last years. What apparently motivated him was Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, which presented a threat to Freud personally as well as to his life’s work, since the Nazis outlawed psychoanalysis. This threat became a reality when Germany occupied Austria in 1938. Freud fled to London where he finished Moses and Monotheism, published only months before his death in September 1939. In this work Freud’s appreciation of Judaism finds a remarkable expression.