Freud, Race, and Gender

Sander L. Gilman

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780691025865, 9780691032450
• eBook ISBN: 9780691223001
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

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 siècle, 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.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Sigmund Freud and the Epistemology of Race
• Chapter Two: The Construction of the Male Jew
• Chapter Three: Jewish Madness and Gender
• Conclusion: Systemic Diseases: Cancer and Anti-Semitism
• Notes
• Index