Prof. Sigmund Freud’s long-awaited study of Jewish religion and culture, entitled “Moses and Monotheism,” was published today by the Hogrth Press. (American publication is scheduled for June 19 by Alfred A. Knopf.)
The famous founder of psychoanalysis, now living in London in exile from his native Austria, has turned the light of his psychological methods on the origins of Judaism and related questions with the result that he has produced a number of conclusions bound to stir controversy.
Prof. Freud maintains that Moses was an Egyptian, that he was murdered by the Jews in the wilderness, that a second Moses gave to the Jews the teachings of Jehovah, that religion in general is analogous to a neurosis in the individual and that anti-Semitism results partly from the fact that some Christians have not assimilated their Christianity.
Dr. Freud realizes that “to deny a people the man whom it praises as the greatest of its sons is not a deed to be undertaken light heatedly — especially by one belonging to that people.” In a foreword written in Vienna before March, 1937, he stated that he would not publish the book for fear of repercussions in Catholic countries but would permit it to lie hidden until it might “safely venture into the light of day.” However, in a second foreword written in June, 1938, in London he said that he now dared to make his findings public.
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