On Freud's “Moses and Monotheism”

On Freud’s "Moses and Monotheism" discusses key themes in Sigmund Freud’s final book, Moses and Monotheism, written between 1934 and 1939. The contributors reflect on the historical context of the time during which the book was written, including Freud’s mindset and his struggle to leave Austria to escape the Nazi regime, and investigate its contemporary implications and relevance.

Drawing parallels with contemporary society, the chapters cover topics like historical truth, the effects of Nazism on Freud’s writing, Freud’s "relationship" with Moses, the transmission of trauma across generations, the origins and psychodynamics of anti-Semitism, Freud and Moses as leaders, and the notion of Tradition. This book also reflects on the stories of Moses and of Freud – the search of a people for a "Promised Land," the deep scars of slavery, and the struggle of a man to establish an ideology and ensure its continuity.

On Freud’s "Moses and Monotheism" will be of great interest to all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. It will also be of interest to scholars investigating the nature of truth, and social scientists interested in the broader applications of Freud’s discussions of the nature of civilization.