Jewish Origins of the Psychoanalytic Movement. - Tapa dura

Dennis B. Klein explores the Jewish consciousness of Freud and his followers and the impact of their Jewish self-conceptions on the early psychoanalytic movement. Using little-known sources such as the diaries and papers of Freud's protege Otto Rank and records of the Vienna B'nai B'rith that document Freud's active participation in that Jewish fraternal society, Klein argues that the feeling of Jewish ethical responsibility, aimed at renewing ties with Germans and with all humanity, stimulated the work of Freud, Rank, and other analysts and constituted the driving force of the psychoanalytic movement.

Dennis B. Klein is director of the Center for Holocaust Studies of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. He has published numerous scholarly articles in European and Jewish history.