Freud, Race, and Gender

A Jew in a violently anti-Semitic world, Sigmund Freud was forced to cope with racism even in the 'serious' medical literature of the fin de siecle, which described Jews as inherently pathological and sexually degenerate. This book argues that Freud's internalizing of these images of racial difference shaped the questions of psychoanalysis. A Jew in a violently anti-Semitic world, Sigmund Freud was forced to cope with racism even in the "serious" medical literature of the fin de siecle, which described Jews as inherently pathological and sexually degenerate. In this provocative book, Sander L. Gilman argues that Freud's internalizing of these images of racial difference shaped the questions of psychoanalysis. Examining a variety of scientific writings, Gilman discusses the prevailing belief that male Jews were "feminized," as stated outright by Jung and others, and concludes that Freud dealt with his anxiety about himself as a Jew by projecting it onto other cultural "inferiors"--such as women. Gilman's fresh view of the origins of psychoanalysis challenges those who separate Freud's revolutionary theories from his Jewish identity.