In this seminar, Stephen Frosh and Devorah Baum address the relationship between psychoanalysis and Jewish Studies. In some ways, the history of psychoanalysis is a Jewish one, they will suggest. Freud’s own Jewish identity and the social position of Jews in his lifetime were crucial to the development of his ‘science’, as was the Jewish identity of most of his immediate followers. Psychoanalysis was always subjected to antisemitism and was ‘expelled’ by the Nazis for being a ‘Jewish science’. In the urban environments in which psychoanalysis has flourished, Jewishness has been a significant force. In addition, psychoanalysis has often turned its attention to ‘Jewish’ concerns, from questions of interpretation and language to sexuality and the Bible. This means that not only has psychoanalysis been influenced by its Jewish connections, but Jewish studies, broadly defined, has been impacted upon by psychoanalytic ideas and methods of investigation.
Drawing on their recent experience of editing the Routledge International Handbook of Psychoanalysis and Jewish Studies Frosh and Baum will explore how these two disciplines interact with one another. Using sections of the Handbook as a framework, the seminar will engage with Histories; Judaism and the Bible; Antisemitism and the Holocaust; and Jewish culture.
Stephen Frosh is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. He has a background in academic and clinical psychology and was Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Vice Dean at the Tavistock Clinic, London, in the 1990s. He is the author of many books and papers on psychosocial studies and on psychoanalysis. His most recent books are Antisemitism and Racism: Ethical Challenges for Psychoanalysis (Bloomsbury, 2023) and How to be Real: A Survival Guide in Challenging Times (Verso, 2025).
Devorah Baum is Professor in English Literature at the University of Southampton. She is also attached to the Parkes Institute at Southampton, one of the world’s leading centres for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations. Devorah Baum is the author of On Marriage (Hamish Hamilton, 2023), Feeling Jewish: A Book for Just About Anyone (Yale University Press, 2017) and The Jewish Joke: An essay with examples (less essay, more examples) (Profile, 2017).