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Democracy Within: Religion, Politics, and the Americanization of Psychoanalysis During and After World War Ii

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Democracy Within: Religion, Politics, and the Americanization of Psychoanalysis During and After World War Ii DEMOCRACY WITHIN: RELIGION, POLITICS, AND THE AMERICANIZATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS DURING AND AFTER WORLD WAR II A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Mary C. Miles May 2008 © 2008 Mary C. Miles DEMOCRACY WITHIN: RELIGION, POLITICS, AND THE AMERICANIZATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS DURING AND AFTER WORLD WAR II Mary C. Miles, Ph. D. Cornell University 2008 This dissertation is about the ways in which discussions of religion and those of psychoanalysis intersected and shaped each other in post-war America. Anyone who believed in either a salvation-based religion or a rational psychology found his or her beliefs challenged by the momentous developments of the mid-twentieth century – World War II, genocide, atomic destruction, and the cold war. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and religious leaders with interests in those fields found mental and emotional causes for these catastrophes and blamed repression, fear, and neurotic projection. In their views, just as Nazism and Stalinism had been fueled by psychological drives, democracy and liberty, to be maintained, had to be projected from deeply within the souls and psyches of Americans. The project of developing psychologies and models of the brain that reflected external commitments to freedom and democracy moved to the forefront of both popular and professional psychotherapy. My thesis aruges that discussions of psychoanalysis in the middle decades of the twentieth century offered American religious thinkers from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to introduce the values that they associated with their religion into the worlds of psychology – both professional and popular. While behavioral and biological models threatened, in the view of many religious onlookers, to dehumanize the practice of psychiatry, psychoanalysis introduced discussions of ethics, freedom, and the meaning of life. From religious leaders, to psychiatrists who practiced faith, to patients who were spiritual seekers, the same impulses appear in their work – the desire to find, in psychoanalysis, an antidote to the materialism that they feared was lurking within the psychiatric world, and a longing to apply their discoveries to larger political philosophies. Hence, the phrase “democracy of the mind” emerges from these efforts to identify a psychiatry and a way of thinking that bolster democratic values as defined by twentieth century modernists and liberals – freedom of expression and religion, pluralism, tolerance and reverence for the individual. The democratic mind is ordered so as to avoid “dictatorship” in the form of repression and to allow free expression among various thoughts and desires. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Mary Miles grew up in State College Pennsylvania, with brief stays in Rhode Island, Georgia, Virginia, and Hershey, PA. After graduating with honors from the University Scholars Program at the Pennsylvania State University with a degree in History in 1994, Mary went on to obtain a Masters degree in American History from that same university in 1997. She enrolled in the Cornell Ph.D. program in 1997. Mary has been teaching courses on the history of psychiatry and religion, as well as on writing, at Penn State since 2002. She is very active in animal welfare activities. iii To all who have helped along the way iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing a Ph.D. program can be a very complicated and arduous adventure. I have been extremely lucky to have had a lot of help from many wonderful people. I would never have begun this endeavor without the inspiration and encouragement of the teachers that I encountered during my undergraduate and Masters programs at Penn State. Bill Pencak became then, and is now, the best friend imaginable. Through all of our travels and adventures throughout the world, he has provided insight and advice as well as fun. Annie Rose was my first graduate mentor and an exquisite role model. Jack Spielvogel’s inspirational teaching and advice imbued me with enthusiasm for teaching and continues to provide invaluable life lessons. I was privileged to learn from Gary Cross, Art Goldschmidt, John Franz, Phil Stebbins, On-cho Ng, Isabel Knight, Gary Gallagher, Londa Schiebinger, Robert Proctor, Philip Jenkins, Bill Petersen, Dan Letwin, Dan Beaver, and Dan Silverman as well. I am very grateful to all of my Penn State mentors. At Cornell, I could never have asked for, nor imagined, a better advisor and group of mentors. Through an array of turbulence, and occasional triumphs, my advisor, Larry Moore, has been steadfastly encouraging, kind, and wise. Larry’s classes and tutelage provided me with an exceptional education and his insight and guidance continue to shape my intellectual development. Richard Polenberg and Dominck LaCapra heroically saved the day by stepping up at the last minute to join the committee. I have been lucky enough to learn from both of them in a range of formats including graduate seminars, colloquia, and teaching assistantships. Michael Steinberg, through his warm encouragement, extraordinarily thought provoking courses, and enthusiastic mentorship provided invaluable aid. I am also grateful to Mary Beth Norton, Michael v Kamman, Itsy Hull, Steven Kaplan, Joan Brumberg, Vicki Caron, Rachel Weil, Nick Salvatore, and Will Provine for giving me the opportunity to learn from them. The entire Cornell History faculty was exceptionally supportive. My fellow graduate students created an extraordinary environment for discussion, camaraderie, and growth, particularly in the context of our department’s phenomenal forum, The European Colloquium. My proofreader, Ruth Parrish has provided much-needed advice, cheerfully given. My friends – feline, canine, and human – at Centre County PAWS have greatly enriched my life as I have been working. My students, fabulous poker group, and other friends here at Penn State have made me glad that I came home. My great friend Gary has provided nurturance, guidance, and enthusiasm. His presence in my life has been irreplaceable. My dearly loved family can never be thanked enough. My Mom, Dad, and brother, Philip, have been the center of my life and continue to be my very best friends. I’m happy to have Sharon and Casey joining this circle as well. Finally, my beloved furred companions bring unfettered joy and affection. Sheppy, Puppers, Amanda, Phineas: missed but never forgotten. Guy, Adelaide, Ariel: gentle, loving, forever friends. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Biographical Sketch iii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Table of Contents vii 1. Introduction: Religious Outsiders and the Americanization of Psychoanalysis 1 2. “Democracy of the Mind”: Rabbi Joshua Liebman’s Interpretations of Judaism, Psychoanalysis, and American Politics during the World War II Era 28 3. Therapeutic Heresy?: American Catholic Interpretations of Psychoanalysis during and after World War II 83 4. Emotional Salvation: Psychoanalysis’ Catholic Champions 111 5. “Light Must Endure Burning”: The Holocaust in Viktor Frankl’s Interpretations of Religion and Psychoanalysis 151 6. Ascent from the Pit: Psychoanalysis, Religion, and Politics in Post World War II American Narratives of Mental Illness 194 7. Conclusion: Insiders in an Outsiders’ World? 254 Bibliography 286 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: RELIGIOUS OUTSIDERS AND THE AMERICANIZATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS As mature men and women we should regard our minds as a true democracy where all kinds of emotions and ideas should be given freedom of speech. If in political life we are willing to grant civil liberties to all sorts of parties and programs, should we not be equally willing to grant civil liberty to our innermost thoughts and drives, confident that the more dangerous of them will be outvoted by the decent and creative majority within our minds? Rabbi Joshua Liebman, 1946 …ours is not an age of peace – either individual or social. It is an age where men and women are tormented and torn, riven with all kinds of inner conflicts….an era such as ours needs a creative partnership between religion and psychiatry, the sanctuary and the laboratory. Such a partnership can…aid men and women blessed with new sanity and perspective to become architects of a more just and peaceful world. Rabbi Joshua Liebman, 1948 If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man’s evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity. Sigmund Freud, 1939 1 Sigmund Freud did not believe in God. Paradoxically, Rabbi Joshua Liebman believed not only in God, but in the wisdom of Freud as well. Both thinkers argued that psychoanalysis would enable individuals to maintain the type of healthy inner lives that would allow them to contribute to strong democratic communities. Only Liebman, however, proposed that religion could work in tandem with analysis to establish “true democracy” within the minds of individuals. He urged his audiences to organize their thoughts in accordance with the same values that they associated with democratic societies at the mid-twentieth century – free speech, civil liberties, pluralism, and tolerance. He construed Judaism, psychoanalysis, and American democracy to be mutually reinforcing. The first psychoanalyst of Jewish background – Freud himself – spent much of his lifetime working to disprove religion and identify its negative effects upon civilization. Liebman, a rabbi engaging psychoanalysis,
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