Syracuse University SURFACE
Religion College of Arts and Sciences
1997
Sigmund Freud's Passover Dream Responds to Theodor Herzl's Zionist Dream
Ken Frieden Syracuse University
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Recommended Citation Frieden, Ken, "Sigmund Freud's Passover Dream Responds to Theodor Herzl's Zionist Dream" (1997). Religion. 54. https://surface.syr.edu/rel/54
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Sigmund Freud was nor a Zionisr. Despite Theodor Herzl's proximity in Vienna, Freud remained so aloof from Zionism char he hardly ever expressed himself concerning individual or national Jewish identity. Although on rare occasions he did acknowledge his Jewishness, he renounced nationalistic ideas. Developing a personal solution ro rhe "Jewish Question," Freud never explained his views at length; Freudian methods of analysis suggest char this near-roral silence derived from an avoidance or a disavowal (Verneinung). One of Freud's dreams is a "royal road" ro his ambivalence roward Judaic traditions. The decisive encounter with Zionism came in January 1898, three weeks after Freud lectured ro the B'nai B'rirh Society in Vienna and only a few months after rhe First Zionist Congress convened in Basel. At char rime Freud saw Herzl's play Das neue Ghetto (The new ghetto); his reaction took the form of a dream, which he recorded in The Interpretation ofDreams. Usually called the dream of"My son, the myop," this might also be known as Freud's "Passover dream." The manifest content of his dream is essential, for it responds to and interprets Herzl's play. Over rhe past sixty years, numerous scholars have discussed Freud "as a Jew" or have compared his writings ro Jewish sources. I will nor retrace this uneven hisrory of reception, because I do nor share irs basic assumptions; I am not concerned with chose deliberate statements of Freud chat affirmed hisJewishness while rejecting all religious beliefs. Nor do I insist char Freud directly borrowed psychoanalytic concepts or methods from ancient Jewish sources, although there is evidence of indirect influence. Rather, what interests me is Freud's ambivalence and the distortions it produces in his work. Yet my intention is not ro criticize Freud for remaining something of a crypro Jew, because his suppression of the Judaic component in psychoanalysis was virtually inevitable given the Viennese cultural and scientific contexts. Biographical writers and psychohisrorians have prepared the way for a literary interpretation of Freud's Passover dream as a reaction ro Herzl's early play and later Zionist dream. For example, they eire a letter Freud wrote ro Herzl in 1902, when he enclosed a copy ofThe Interpretation of Dreams for possible review in Die Neue Freie Presse. In this lerrer, Freud asked Herzl ro keep the book "as a sign of the esteem in which I I ike so many others-have for years held the poet and fighter for the human rights of our people." We need nor rake chis letter at irs word, bur it serves well as a preface ro Freud's more complex, and partially unconscious, message ro Herzl. In The Interpretation of Dreams, chapter 5, Freud discusses the materials and sources of dreams. He demonstrates char recent experiences are incorporated into their manifest content and gives rhe example of his own dream "char a teacher whom I know at our university says: My son, the myop (Mein Sohn, der Afyop)" (Td 273 I ID 303). The German
240 Freud's Passover Dream Responds m Herzl's Zionisc Dream 241
Myop signifies a nearsighted person, hence see the face of the other one. The woman who rase alludes co a son's inadequate vision. brought our the boy requests a kiss from him in consists of three pares; the second pare parting. She is remarkable for having a red nose. , followed by a third scene in which The boy refuses her the kiss, but while reaching and his sons appear (ibid.). Freud fails to out his hand in paning says: Auf Geseres, and ro a number of relevam "day's residues" both of us (or to one of us): Auf Ungeseres. I have postpones imerpretation of this dream umil a the notion that the latter signifies a preference. passage. (Td 426 I ID 477-78) 6, on the dream work, illustrates the of disrorcion that purporcedly give In his first interpretive gesture, Freud pro dreams. At every curn, Freud imimates vides two literary associations. He memions The disrortions bear meaning, like figures of New Ghetto and quotes the scriptural words "By aoeec:nexpressing literal comems. Hence the sub the waters of Babylon, we sat and wept." Both heading, "Absurd Dreams," is a mis allusions conceal as much as they reveal. Nowhere ~~~.~~1u.,·· awaiting correction: even the most appar in his imerpretarion does Freud discuss the play absurd dream has meaning, or may be given The New Ghetto, nor does he even name irs author. "ng, with rhe help of the dreamer. The Pass- And although he cites Psalm 13 7 (from Luther's dream is an imriguing example in which translation), he never discusses irs exilic senti uncovers meanings of an apparently mean ments. ~., ...... , memal product, which he calls "an absurd Freud explicitly stares chat "this dream is con incomprehensible word construction." Spe- structed upon a tangle of rhoughrs which were ly, one linguistic innovation stands like a provoked by a play seen in the theater, The New palimpsest over buried formations. Freud reveals Ghetto" (Td427 I ID 478). This remark names an cercain associated materials, yet he merely-begins unusual "day's residue" of thoughts-rather than the work of interpretation. Without claiming to characters, images, or events-that were incor .have discovered rhe exclusive meaning of Freud's porated into the dream. Freud specifies that "the dream, we may extrapolate furcher from his asso Jewish Question, concern over rhe future of chil ciations. The present analysis focuses on significa dren to whom one cannot give a fatherland, con tions linked ro rhe intertextual relationship be cern about raising them so char they may become tween Freud's Passover dream and Herzl's drama. independem [freiziigig], are easy co recognize in This dream report, together with other the corresponding dream thoughts" (Td 427 I ID dreams and letters, has led a recem critic co specu 478). The presem example, which involves dream late on Freud's "Rome neurosis." For Freud, thoughts that respond ro a mental conflicc, differs Rome was a place of exile in rhe Christian era, as from most instances in which the manifest dream Egypt was for Joseph and as Babylon was for alludes co recent occurrences. Freud cannot have Daniel after rhe fall of the First Temple in Jerusa been emirely comfortable with chis, because his lem . Freud recounts his dream: overarching dream theory conceives the dream as "the (disguised) fulfillment of a (suppressed, repressed) t:s a result of cereain events in the city of Rome, it childhood wish" (Td 17 5 I I D 194 ). Macure, ratio IS necessary ro evacuate rhe children, which also nal refleccions on the Jewish Question should not takes place. The scene is chen in from of a gate enter inro the latent dream thoughts, and accord way, a double door in rhe ancient sryle (rhe Porta ing co Freud, such conscious ideas play an indif Romana 1n Sienna, as I am already aware during ferent part in the manifest contem. Nevertheless, the dream). I sit on the edge of a fountain and am this pareicular concern draws from emotional very dejected, close co rears. A female person-an conflicts and from a childhood source: "The attendant or nun-brings rhe two boys our and dream sicuation, in which I rescue my children delivers them ro rheir father, who was not myself. from the ciry of Rome, is incidentally distOrted The older of tht rwo is clearly my eldest; I do not by its reference back to an analogous occurrence · ·o· . - --- · · ---·------· · ~ ·· ~'"'~ rives who, many years ago, were given an occasion heard rhe word used in chis way, and he considers ro relocate their children on another soil" (Td one incidenr a source for che dream: "Many years 4 29n I I D 481 n). Freud envies chose who escaped ago, when chis son of Professor M.-who today is earlier wirh rheir children. an independenr thinker-was still in school, he Freud also menrions a related experience, asso became ill with an eye infection which, rhe doctor ciated wirh che menral asylum char he saw in declared, aroused concern . .. . 'Why are you Sienna: "Shordy before rhe dream I had heard char making such a Geseres? ' he prevailed upon rhe a person of my faith had to give up his strenuously mother" (Td 428 I /D 480). The "absurd" Auf obtained posicion at a public mental asylum" (Td Geseres, chen, echoes an expression meaning "co 427 I ID 478). In recalling chis event, Freud al make a fuss" (machen ein Geseres), specifically in ludes co the anti-Semitic policies of Karl Lueger, relation to an illness of che eyes or a deficiency of mayor of Vienna from 1897. Herzl's drama and vision. The initial "concern over the future of the experience of Freud's acquaintance place in children" reemerges as a concern lest they become question the standing of Jews in turn-of-che shortsighted or one-sided-like the Cyclops. Al cenrury Vienna. We know from ocher contexts though Freud suggests char chis particular mem char Freud worried abour his own prospects and ory is the main impetus for his verbal innovation, whether rhey might be hindered by his "Mosaic" his philological observations point co deeper de descent. terminants. Freud concentrates his interpretive efforts on Freud begins co gloss Geseres by disclaiming discovering rhe significance of the seemingly responsibility for rhe explanation: "According co meaningless words Auf Gesem and Auf U ngeseres. informacion char I have received from biblical Confronted by these "absurd" phrases, Freud aces scholars [Schriftgelehrten} . . .."Here the standard like a classical philologist, bur one who subjects English translation is particularly misleading, for his own mental produce (rather chan an ancienr it renders Schriftgelehrten as "philologists." Had rexc) co analysis. He also follows the traces left in Freud consulted rhe leading Christian philologist his dream language, much as etymologists an of his time, in face, he would have discovered char alyze collective linguistic phenomena. Beneath Geseres is not a "genuine Hebrew word"; ir is, rhe layer of modern German, caking the place of rather, an Aramaism. The Aramaic word gezerah Auf Wiedersehen, Auf Geseres reveals affinities to signifies a decree; by extension, Yiddish gesere Yiddish, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Freud's manner came co mean "evil decree" and, by association, of dealing with chis linguistic plurality elucidates "misfortune." Ir derives from the Hebrew root his relationship co chese languages, and his asso Gimmei-Zayin-Resh (meaning co cur or separate). ciations indicate his troubled sense of the modern Although Freud arcribures his slightly inaccurate Jewish condition. informacion co a rabbinic source, he cannot deny In attempting to gloss Geseres, Freud does nor knowing enough to know chat his dream employs rely exclusively on his own knowledge. He enig Judaic materials. Unconsciously, Freud carries an matically refers co unnamed sources: "According awareness of che Hebrew language, which he co the informacion char I have received from bib learned as a child. He also knows a number of lical scholars, Geseres is a genuine Hebrew word, Yiddish words and is familiar with the Passover derived from a verb goiser, and may be besr con ricual, one of rhe few Jewish cuscoms char his veyed by 'commanded suffering, doom.' Accord parents retained in Vienna. Significantly, rhe Ar ing to the use of the word in Yiddish [imjargon}, amaized meaning of the Hebrew rooc Gimmei one might chink ir meanr 'weeping and wailing·" Zayin-Resh occurs in the Passover ritual, when rhe (Td 427 I ID 478). Maggid recalls char Pharaoh "decreed [gazar] Freud simultaneously claims and disavows only againsr che males." knowledge of rhe Hebrew and Yiddish his dream In the process of inrerprecing his dream, Freud employs. Through Yiddish, Geseres had enrered evokes the flight from Egypt and che marzorh Freud's Passover Dream Responds ro Herzl's Zionisr Dream 243
chat Jews eat in memory of rhe Israeli res' hascy organizer of rhe First Zionist Congress in August departure. He paraphrases: "During their flight 1897, his play naturally awakened Freud's "con from Egypt, rhe children of Israel did nor have cern about rhe future of children ro whom one cirne co allow their dough ro rise, and even today cannot give a fatherland " (Td 427 I ID 478). at Easter-rime ear unleavened bread in memory of Nevercheless, Herzl's early play is nor Zionistic; chis" (Td 427 I ID 479). Freud's association de ir merely raises rhe issues char Zionism Iacer rives in pare from che similarity he hears between sought co resolve. Ungtseres and ungesauertes Brat, unleavened bread. Herzl's ride alludes ro several discussions What is che meaning, chen, of Auf Geseres when within che play. "The new ghecro," according to spoken by Freud's eldest son? Freud himself sug che protagonist Jacob Samuel, has invisible walls. gests char his child confirms a cheorecical posicion In spire of che Jewish Enlighcenmenc, which en associated wirh Wilhelm Fliess by "acting, as it abled Jews co leave che old ghecco, another ghecco u;ere, in consideration of bilateral symmetry" (Td with subder boundaries remained. Jacob scares 429 I ID 480). This far-fecched interpretacion char "rhe ghecro is che separation which I do noc screens ocher meanings. Freud concludes char, in wane, which pains me and which I am supposed general, "che dream is ofcen mosr profound where co bear" (II.v.). During che same scene, afrer Jacob ic appears mosr mad" (ibid.); bizarre elements is snubbed by his Christian friend, he paraphrases assume meaning when placed in che context of che message he has received: "Away,Jew! Back co associations. Yec Freud does noc complete his in che ghecco!" Throughout che play, Jacob strives terpretation of Auf Geseres, because of his own to escape chis ghecco, implicicly aiming ac assimi "myopic" perspective. Placing greater emphasis lation as a solution co che Jewish Question. He on rhe Greek allusion to one-eyed Cyclops, Freud discovers char chis resolution is impossible, how deemphasizes Judaic components. ever, and is destroyed by his quesr. Freud's one-sided reading of his Passover Jacob Samuel, the protagonist of The New dream occurs in several scages. From rhe outset, Ghello, is a young and idealistic lawyer who mar he diminishes the importance of Herzl's play in ries at the starr of rhe play. His wife's circle of producing rhe dream. Although he writes char Jewish financiers contrasts with char of Jacob's chis dream "is consrrucred upon a cangle of non-Jewish university friends . Known to defend thoughts which were provoked by a play," he workers, Jacob is approached by a representative neither acknowledges irs Zionist author nor dis of che coal miners; he agrees to rake on cheir case cusses any aspect of The New Ghmo. Prior events as chey prepare co scrike. Because rhe coal mine is may, however, be more chan incidental precipi joincly controlled by Jews and non-Jews, Jacob tants of the manifest dream concenc; a dream may makes special efforts co prevent a scandal char respond co recenc experiences, as the dream of would result in ami-Semitic retaliations. When Irma's injection responds to Freud's (and Fliess's) he cries co act as mediator, he falls victim in rhe unfortunate dealings with Emma Eckstein. financial barcle between Count Schramm and rwo Dreams do not exclusively represent repressed Jewish businessmen. Early in rhe play, a local childhood wishes: as contemporary cheorisrs have rabbi amici pares Jacob's death by telling a medi suggested, rhe meanings of dreams are often more eval tale. The legend of Moses of Mainz functions immediate. as a parable of the Jewish condition in Europe: Freud 's Passover dream respondi.borh directly "Moses was an honest youth, son of a merchant, and indirectly co Herzl. Because Freud's dream and wished ro become a scholar. One summer confronts cenrral issues in The New Ghetto, rhe night he sat with the ancient books of our sages question arises: How does Freud's dream incer and studied. Suddenly he heard a call for help in prec Herzl"s play? the nighr. He leaned out of the windows; ir was On about January 5, 1898, Freud was among not in the gherro. Someone was crying outside, in the first ro see Herzl's play The New Ghello in front of the ghetro. The wailing became ever Vienna RPr
freud's jokes and anecdotes characteristically her "original nature" (urspriingliche Natu1·) finds reveal something (a Tendenz, or tendentious mes expression. French culture cedes co German as che sage) char has been hidden. Much like the dream pain intensifies, and finally Yiddish slips our. The work, according co Freud, the mechanism of jokes baroness's origins are revealed, nor by an inchoate involves a transformation char disguises covert primitive wail, bur by an Eastern European ac obscenity, aggression, or criticism. A second cent; her "original nature" was Jewish. Assimi order disguise is ac work in Freud's discussion of lated Jews may laugh in comfort ar this circum such disguises. If we wish co inrerprer the con stance char acknowledges pretensions and the cealed layer of meaning in his book on jokes, rwo suppressed past. Freud himself declines ro discuss passing phrases provide poi nrs of departure. the Yiddish his joke conrains; nor does he deal When Freud begins co relate Jewish jokes, he wirh issues surrounding the assimilated or con apologizes for their source: "We ask for no proof vened Jew in modern European culrure. of nobility from our examples; we do nor inquire Mosr relevant to rhe issue of collective identity inro their descem, bur only inro their efficacy" (W is a submerged allusion to Zionism. Freud leaves 49 I j 49). In another conrexr, Freud regrets that the political and ethnic dimensions untouched he has nor been able co "divest" (entkleiden) a story when he analyzes chis anecdote: "Irzik has been of Yiddish. The socially d isadvanraged language declared fie for the artillery. He is obviously an recurs at several stages, specifically acknowledged intelligent fellow, bur inflexible and not inrer as a source of humor (W 103, 108 I J 108, 114). esred in the post. One of his superiors who is well Freud remains somewhat uneasy wirh rhe folk inclined coward him rakes him aside and says: 'I humor and Yiddish "Jargon" he embeds in an wane co give you a rip: Buy yourself a cannon and analysis of mental processes. The suppression of make yourself independent'" (W 56 I J 56). socially inferior Yiddish is apparently integral to We know chat chis independenr artillery man one story Freud tells. This joke allows the reller to is Jewish from che Yiddishized form of his name, expose what assimilated Jews have concealed; Iczik. The anecdote plays on stereotypes of Jews' namely, meaner origins. Presumably a converted aversion to military service and resistance ro au Jew, the baroness of chis scory knows (as did thority. Because lrzik cannot subordinate himself Freud) a smanering of Yiddish: to rhe artillery unit, his superior ironically sug gests char he scare his own army. This is a patently The doccor, who has been asked to arrend rhe ridiculous idea, exaggerating che tendency that is Baroness ac her delivery, declares thac rhe mo evident in Irzik's behavior. While ir obliquely ment has nor yec come, and therefore suggests to satirizes Zionist aspirations, rhe joke reflects the Baron rhac chey play a game of cards in rhe Freud's own concern wirh independence. In chis neighboring room. Afcer a while che Baroness' cry conrexc, one may recall a pose-Freud tan wirricism of pain reaches che ears of rhe rwo men. "Ah mon char is popular among Yiddishisrs: "Whar is rhe Dieu, que je souffre.'" The husband leaps up, bur difference berween a language and a dialecr? A the donor counters, "Ir's nothing; lee's go on language has an army and a navy ... Power and playing." A lirrle while Iacer one hears che woman aurhoriry have, indeed, always given German in childbirth again: "Mein Go11, mein Go11, was fiir priority over Yiddish in Western culrure. Schmerzen.1"-"Don'r you wane co go in, Herr In 1905, the Irzik joke assumed special pa Professor)" rhe Baron asks.-"No, no, ir is nor thos. Many Jewish Socialises pantctpared in rhe Yet time."-Finally, from rhe neighboring room failed revolution of 1905, and following Herzl's one hears rhe cry of an unmistakable: "Ay, vey. death che Zionists continued co struggle for rhe vry"; then rhe doccor throws down his cards and Jews' political independence in a Jewish home says, "Ir's rime." (U'I 78 I J 81) land. Both rhe Socialises and rhe Zionists soughr Freud only partially analyzes chis anecdote. ro assert themselves, with or wirhour weapons. In lie wrires chat che woman's pain gradually breaks fact, there were almosr no Jewish artilleries, nor through rhe layers of her culrivared manner, until co menrion armies or na,·tes. dur•nt-: rht- period ·-. --- ~- ··· ···--·, cannons, Jews had only cexrual canons. rian Rome. They benefic from che "finer educa Herzl's early play and Iacer Zionist dream un tion" a non-Jewish attendant provides, bur they derstandably provoked Freud's reAeccions on rhe also parr from her while expressing a preference furure of his children. In rhe analysis of his Pass for Freud in something like rhe ancestral mother over dream, Freud cautiously scares char he wishes congue. co raise (erziehen) his children in such a way "char This rerurns us co che enigmatic words Auf rhey may become independent [/reiziigig)" (Td Geseres and Auf Ungeseres. Freud refuses co read rhe 427). Alexander Grinsrein nores char chis central decree char these words pronounce. He guesses phrase may also mean co "become . .. liberal char rhe Yiddish signifies "weeping and wailing," minded.·· In rhe standard edition ofFreud's works, although Gezeres more accurately refers co ordi however, James Srrachey rranslaces freiziigig as be nances or ediccs, typically directed against Jews. ing able co "move freely across frontiers"(/ D 478), Gezeres were linguistic evencs, pronouncements which emphasizes che rerricorial problem of che char determined che face of the European Jewish Jews. This alcernace translation resonates wich community. In 1421, for instance, che Vienna Herzl's play, which also arouses rhoughrs about Geserah led co che execution and expulsion of rhe Jews' potential freedom co move-beyond rhe Jews. Such a catastrophe in exile pervades rhe walls of che new gherco. atmosphere of Freud's dream, scarring wich his Ar a rare moment in Herzl's play, a Jewish allusion co che Babylonian exile as lamented in woman addresses herself co an ariscocraric non Psalm 137. Jew. Jacob's sister-in-law expresses concern over Freud limits his imaginative creation, chen, by rhe upbringing of her children and asks Count declining co honor the manifest dream thoughts. Shramm ro make inquiries about a certain gover Asche Babylonian Talmud asserts, "A dream char ness: "I will of course rake only a person who has is nor interpreted is like a Jeerer char is nor read " served in good houses ... . You understand: it's (Tractate Berakhor 55b). Although Freud says important with children. One really wanes co give char he rrears rhe dream as a "holy cexr" (Td 492- chem a finer education [Erziehung]" (I.vii.). She 93 I ID 552), he does nor probe rhe deeper mean would like her Jewish children co receive rhe ings of rhe gezerah his son utters; nor does he same genceel upbringing as aristocratic Viennese. discuss his pained sense of the Jews' precarious The non-Jewish governess in question reappears posicion in their Viennese exile. Myopic in his in the Passover dream, perhaps conftaced with own way, Freud chose co underestimate rhe crisis Freud's own childhood nanny, as the "attendant, Herzl perceived and dramatically depicted in The nun" who cares for his children in Rome. This New Ghetto. passage also recalls the moment when Jacob's We muse, chen, reinterpret rhe words of mother explains: "I accustomed myself co a better Freud's eldesr son. Saying Auf Geseres and Au/ way of speaking chan Jewish-German Uuden Ungeseres means, as Freud himself indicates, allot deutsch], so chat he [her son] would nor have co be ring leavened bread (gesauertes Brot) co rhe nun ashamed of me" (l.iv.). She rhus sees herself apart and unleavened bread (ungesauertes Brot) co him from che socially backward Wasserscein. self. As if co assert rhe difference and repudiate Despite supervision by a Christian arrendanc, assimilarionisr hopes, Freud's son affirms his in Freud's dream rhe eldest son reveres co Yid awareness of Passover cuscoms. His "finer educa dish, or ac lease compounds Viennese German tion" has nor eliminated all rraces ofJewish tradi with layers of Yiddish, Aramaic, and Hebrew. tion. Furthermore, Auf Geseres and Auf Ungeseres Freud's hope char his children may become are condensations of fuller sraremenrs char might freiziigig, independent or liberal-minded, does read: Auf lhnen-Geseres, "Upon you [nun)-de nor mean char they muse become Christian. Ful crees," and Auf dir-Ungeseres, "Upon you (fa filling in a disguised manner Jacob Samuel's wish rher]-che negation of decrees." The son's sup co escape "the new gherco" of modern anti-Semi- posed consciousness of bilateral symmetry might Freud's Passover Dream Responds co Herzl's Zionist Dream 247 then emerge as an awareness of Jewish-Christian Ghetto initially aims at the former solution to the ,.ncipathies. Freud's dream furrher responds to Jewish Question; on his deathbed, Jacob still theJewish Question by recalling both a history of cries out char he wants to escape the ghetto. In persecution and the central ritual ofJewish mem spite of his and orhers' efforrs at assimilation, ory, che Passover Seder. In his assimilated Vien however, the problematic separation remains. nese context, however, Freud never employs the The story of Moses of Mainz epitomizes the haz word Passah (or Pesach), bur instead refers ro Pass ardous posicion of European Jews: a single srep over as Osterzeir, Easrer-rime. This linguistic beyond ghetto walls may expose one to murder. quirk aptly reflects Freud's cultural dilemma, The technical "bilateral symmetry" Freud dis which demands euphemistic self-denials. In any cusses might, hence, suggest a delicate balance c;ase, Freud gives meaning to his apparently between Christianity and Judaism. His dream of meaningless verbal combination by associating it Auf Geseres and Auf Ungeseres neither cedes to the with the Jewish practice of eating unleavened assimilationist temptation nor embraces Herzl's bread in memory of rhe Exodus. This association Zionism. The Passover dream confronts contem is all the more reason for his concern that his porary perceptions of the Jewish exile and, in rhe children become independent. absence of a Moses to lead the return to Palestine, Freud's Passover dream represents and re seeks an elusive equilibrium. sponds to the uneasy posicion of assimilated Jews in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Confronted by anti-Semitic policies such as those of Karl Lueger, Bibliography the post-Enlightenment version of ancient and medieval gezeres, Freud's dream work sought a References co Sigmund Freud's Di( Traumdeutung (Td) solution. At the same rime, repressed Yiddish are in the edition of che Studienausga!H, ed. Alexander and Hebrew signifiers remained present, await Mitscherlich, Angela Richards; James Srrachey, vol. 2 (Frankfurt a.M.: S. Fischer, 1972). Alrhough rhe trans ing expression. Because it was impossible roes lations are my own, for the benefic of rhe English reader cape "the new ghecro," as Herzl's play showed I include corresponding page references ro The lnter dramatically, Freud's dream found a linguistic pmation of Dreams (!D), rrans. James Srrachey (New compromise. In the dream, his son employs an York: Avon, 1965). Freud's Der Witz und wne Be "absurd" expression chat posits continuity with ziehung zum UnbewujJten (W) was originally rranslared the Jewish condition and ritual, and which cases inco English by A. A. Brill as Wit and Its Relation to the him as an opponent of persecution. This ace and Unconscious (New York: Moffar, Yard, 1916); it later irs consequences differentiates Freud's son from appeared as jokes and Their Relation to the U ncomciwJ (j). Freud's father, whose public humiliation Freud All quotations in rhe presenr conrexr are based on the never forgot (Td 208 I I D 2 30). German cexc conrained in rhe Studienausgabe. ed. Alex Before his marriage, Freud considered conver ander Mitscherlich, Angela Richards, James Srrachey, vol. 4 (Frankfurr a.M.: S. Fischer, 1970). Translations sion bur remained a Jew. In Herzl's play, chis are my own; page numbers refer firsr ro the German path is represented by a Dr. Bichler who has ar edition and chen co the corresponding pages of)olw and tempred to escape "the new gherro" through con Their Relation to the Unconscious, rrans. James Strachey version. The ingenuous Emanuel Wasserstein (New York: Nonon. 1963). See also rhe follow•ng ref asks why he convened, to which Dr. Bichler re erences. sponds, "What I did is the individual solution of Harold Bloom, .. Freud. Fron(ler Concepts. Jew.,hness. the question .... Or rather, an attempt at a solu and Inrerpretar•on.·· Amenran Imago 48 (1991) 1))- tion . . .. For-between us-it solves nothing" 5 2; Jose Brunner. ··The (I r)Relevance of Freud ·s Jew•sh (l.i.). Freud apparently also reached this conclu ldenriry ro the Or•g•ns of Psychoanalym.·· Pc)dJO sion. analysis and Contemporary Thought 14 ( 1991) (J')) -B4;
Freud experienced ambivalence toward the an Jerry V. Diller, Freud'J Jeu·ish Identity: A Cau Study 111 tithetical options of assimilation and separatism the!mparr of Ethmoty ( R ucherford, N.J. Fa.rlt•t:h D.d: · that Htrzl presents in h1s early play. The Neu inson University Press. 1991); Ken Fritdtn. Freud·J Dream "/I nurpretation (Albany: Scare University of New Hellene in Freud's Cultural Theory," German Life and York Press, 1990); Sander L. Gilman, The Cau ofSrg Leum 45 (1992): 50-65; Jacques Le Rider, Moderniti mund Freud (Balrimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins UnJver viennoiu et rriw de I' identiti (Paris: Presses U n 1versi tai res siry Press, 1993); Gilman, Freud, Race, and Gender de France, 1990), 197-222; and Yosef Hay1m Yeru (Princeron, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993); shalmi, Freud'1 Mow:)udaiJm Terminable and Intermin Gerard Haddad, L "enfant illigitime: Sourw talmudiqueJ de able (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991 ). Ia p1y(hanalpe (Paris: Poim hors ligne, 1990); Ulla Haselsrein, ""Poers and Prophets: The Hebrew and rhe KEN FRIEDEN