1
Prob-
ably man still stands under the magic spell of
his
childhood, which a not unbiassed memory
1
Such a situation forms the basis of Macaulay's " Lays of
Ancient Rome." He assumes the
part of a minstrel who, sadly
disappointed with the violent contests of the political parties of his time, contrasts them with the
unity and patriotism of their
forbears.
Il6 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
presents to him as a time of unalloyed bliss.
Incomplete and dim memories of the*past, which
we call tradition, are a great incentive to the
artist, for he is free to fill in the gaps in the
memories according to the behests of his
imagina-
tion and to form after his own
purpose the image
of the time he has undertaken to
reproduce.
One might almost say that the more shadowy
tradition has become the more meet is it for the
poet's use. The value tradition has for poetry,
therefore, need not surprise us, and the analogy
we have found of the dependence of epic poetry
on
precise conditions will make us more inclined
to
accept the strange suggestion that with the
Jews it was the tradition of Moses which turned
the
Jahve worship in the direction of the old
Mosaic religion. The two cases, however, are
very different in other respects. In the one the
result is
poetry, in the other a religion, and we
have assumed that the latter under the stimulus
of a tradition was
reproduced with a faithfulness
for which, of course, the
epic cannot provide a
parallel. Enough remains, therefore, of our
problem to encourage a search for better analogies.
3. The Analogy
The only really satisfactory analogy to the
remarkable
process which we have recognized in
the
history of Jewish religion is to be found in a
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION 1
17
domain
apparently remote from our problem. It
is, however, very complete, approximating to
identity. Here again we find the phenomenon
of
latency, the appearance of inexplicable
manifestations which call for an
explanation,
and the strict condition of an
early, and subse-
quently forgotten, experience. Here too we find
the characteristic of
compulsiveness, which
overpowering logical thinking strongly engages
the
psychical life; it is a trait which was not
concerned in the
genesis of the epic.
This
analogy is met with in psychopathology,
in the
genesis of human neurosis
: that is to
say,
in a
discipline belonging to individual psychology,
whereas
religious phenomena must of course be
regarded as a part of mass psychology. We shall
see that this
analogy is not so startling as it
appears at first sight; indeed, it is rather in the
nature of an axiom.
The
impressions we experienced at an early age
and
forgot later, to which I have ascribed such
great importance for the aetiology of the neuroses,
are called traumata. It
may remain an open
question whether the aetiology of the neuroses
should in
general be regarded as a traumatic one.
The obvious
objection is that a trauma is not
always evident in the early history of the neurotic
individual. Often we must be content to
say that
there is
nothing else but an unusual reaction
to
experiences and demands that apply to all
Il8 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
individuals; many people deal with them in
another way which we may term normal. Where
we can find no other explanation than an heredit-
ary and constitutional disposition we are naturally
tempted to say that the neurosis was not suddenly
acquired but slowly developed.
In this connection, however, two
points stand
out. The first is that the
genesis of the neurosis
always goes back to very early impressions in
childhood. 1 The second is this: it is correct to
say that there are cases which we single out as
"
traumatic " ones because the effects unmistak-
ably go back to one or more strong impressions
of this
early period. They failed to be disposed
of
normally, so that one feels inclined to say
: if
this or that had not
happened, there would have
been no neurosis. It would be sufficient for our
purposes even if we had to limit the analogy in
question to these traumatic cases. Yet the gap
between the two
groups does not seem unbridge-
able. It is
quite possible to combine both aetio-
logical conditions in one conception ; all depends
on what is defined as traumatic. If we
may
assume that an
experience acquires its traumatic
character
only in consequence of a quantitative
element that is to
say, that if the experience
evokes unusual
pathological reactions the fault
1
That is why it is nonsensical to maintain that
psycho-analysis
is
practised if these early periods of life are excluded from one's
investigation; yet this claim has been made in many quarters.
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION
Iig
lies in its
having made too many demands on the
personality then we can formulate the con-
clusion that with one constitution
something
produces a trauma whereas with another it does
not. We then have the
conception of a sliding
scale, a so-called complemental series, where two
factors
converge to complete the aetiology; a
minus in one factor is
compensated by a plus in
the other.
Generally the two factors work together
and only at either end of the series can we speak
of a
simple motivation. In consequence of this
reasoning we can leave out of account the
difference between traumatic and non -traumatic
aetiology as being unimportant for our analogy.
Despite some risk of repetition, it may be
useful to
group together the facts relating to the
important analogy in question. They are as
follows. Our researches have shown that what
we call the phenomena or symptoms of a neurosis
are the
consequences of certain experiences and
impressions which, for this very reason, we recog-
nize to be
aetiological traumata. We wish to
ascertain, even if only in a rough schematic way,
the characteristics common to these
experiences
and to neurotic symptoms.
Let us first consider the former. All these
traumata belong to early childhood, the period
up to about five years. Impressions during the
time when the child
begins to speak are found to
be
especially interesting. The period between two
ISO MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
and four years is the most
important. How soon
after birth this sensitiveness to traumata
begins
we are not able to state with any degree of
certainty.
The experiences in question are as a rule
entirely forgotten and remain inaccessible to
memory. They belong to the period of infantile
amnesia which is often
interrupted by isolated
fragmentary memories, the so-called " screen -
memories.
55
They concern impressions of a sexual and
aggressive nature and also early injuries to the
self
(injuries to narcissism)
. We should add that
children at that
early age do not yet distinguish
between sexual and purely aggressive actions so
clearly as they do later on; (the " sadistic " mis-
understanding of the sexual act belongs to this
context). It is of course very striking that the
sexual factor should
predominate and theory
must take this into account.
These three
points early happenings within
the first five
years of life, the forgetting, and the
characteristic of
sexuality and aggressivity
belong closely together. The traumata are either
bodily experiences or perceptions, especially those
heard or seen; that is to
say, they are either
experiences or impressions. What connects the
three
points is established theoretically, by
analytic work; this alone can yield a knowledge
of the
forgotten experiences, or to put it more
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION 121
concretely, though more incorrectly is able to
bring those forgotten experiences back to memory.
The theory says that, contrary to
popular
opinion, human sexual life or what later cor-
responds with it shows an early blossoming
which comes to an end at about the
age of five.
Then follows the so-called latency period
lasting up to puberty during which there is no
further sexual
development; on the contrary,
much that had been achieved undergoes a retro-
gression. The theory is confirmed by anatomical
study of the growth of the internal genitalia;
it
suggests that man is derived from a species of
animal that was
sexually mature at five years,
and arouses the
suspicion that the postponement,
and the
beginning twice over, of sexual life has
much to do with the transition to humanity.
Man seems to be the only animal with a latency
period and delayed sexuality. Investigations of
primates, which so far as I know have not been
made, would furnish an invaluable test for this
theory. It must be significant psychologically
that the
period of infantile amnesia coincides
with this early blossoming of sexuality.
Perhaps
this state of affairs is a
necessary condition for the
existence of neurosis, which seems to be a human
privilege, and which in this light appears to be
a survival from
primaeval times like certain
parts of our body.
What features are common to all neurotic
122 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
symptoms ? Here we may note two important
points. The effects of the trauma are twofold,
positive and negative. The former are endeavours
to revive the trauma, to remember the
forgotten
experience, or, better still, to make it real
to live once more
through a repetition of it; if
it was an
early affective relationship it is revived
iij an analogous connection with another person.
These endeavours are summed
up in the terms
"
fixation to the trauma " and "
repetition -
compulsion.
53
The effects can be
incorporated
into the so-called normal
Ego and in the form of
constant tendencies lend to it immutable charac-
ter
traits, although or rather because their
real cause, their historical
origin, has been for-
gotten. Thus a man who has spent his childhood
in an excessive and since
forgotten " mother -
fixation "
may all his life seek for a woman on
whom he can be dependent, who will feed and
keep him. A girl who was seduced in early
childhood
may orient her later sexual life towards
provoking such assaults over and over again. It
will thus be seen that to understand the
problems
of neurosis enables us to
penetrate into the secrets
of character formation in
general.
The negative reactions
pursue the opposite
aim; here nothing is to be remembered or
repeated of the forgotten traumata. They may be
grouped together as defensive reactions. They
express themselves in avoiding issues, a tendency
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION
123
which may culminate in an inhibition or
phobia.
These
negative reactions also contribute con-
siderably to the formation of character. Actually
they represent fixations on the trauma no less
than do the
positive reactions, but they follow
the
opposite tendency. The symptoms of the
neurosis
proper constitute a compromise to
which both the
positive and negative effects of
the trauma contribute; sometimes one com-
ponent, sometimes the other, predominates.
These
opposite reactions create conflicts which
the
subject cannot as a rule resolve.
The second point is this. All these phenomena,
the
symptoms as well as the restrictions of per-
sonality and the lasting changes in character,
display the characteristic of compulsiveness; that
is to
say, they possess great psychical intensity,
they show a far-reaching independence of psy-
chical
processes that are adapted to the demands
of the real world and
obey the laws of logical
thinking. They are not influenced by outer
reality or not normally so ; they take no notice of
real
things, or the mental equivalents of these, so
that
they can easily come into active opposition
to either.
They are as a state within the state,
an inaccessible
party, useless for the common
weal; yet they can succeed in overcoming the
other, the so-called normal, component and
in
forcing it into their service. If this happens
then the
sovereignty of an inner psychical reality
124 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
has been established over the
reality of the outer
world ;Tthe
way to insanity is open. Even if it
does not come to this, the
practical importance
of the conflict is immeasurable. The
inhibitions,
or even
inability to deal with life, of people
dominated by neurosis are a very
important
factor in human
society. The neurosis may be
regarded as a direct expression of a " fixation "
to an
early period of their past.
And how about latency, a question especially
interesting in regard to our analogy ? A trauma
in childhood can be
immediately followed by a
neurosis
during childhood; this constitutes an
effort of defence
accompanied by the formation
of
symptoms. The neurosis may last a long time
and cause striking disturbances, or it
may remain
latent and be overlooked. As a
rule, defence
obtains the
upper hand in such a neurosis ; in any
event
changes of the personality remain like
scars. A childhood neurosis seldom continues
without an interval into the neurosis of the adult.
Much more often it is succeeded by a time of
undisturbed
development, a process made possible
or facilitated
by the physiological latency. Only
later does the
change appear with which the
neurosis becomes
definitely manifest as a delayed
effect of the trauma. This
happens either at
puberty or somewhat later. In the first case it
comes about because the instincts
strengthened by
physical maturity can again take up the battle
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION
125
in which at first
they were defeated. In the second
case the neurosis becomes manifest later because
the reactions and
changes of the personality
brought about by the defence mechanisms prove
to be an obstacle for the
solving of new problems
of life, so that
grave conflicts arise between the
demands of the outer world and those of the
Ego,
which strives to
preserve the organization it had
painfully developed in its defensive struggle. The
phenomenon of a latency in the neurosis between
the first reactions to the trauma and the later
appearance of the illness must be recognized as
typical. The illness may also be regarded as an
attempt at cure, an endeavour to reconcile the
divided
Ego divided by the trauma with the
rest and to unite it into a
strong whole that will
be fit to
cope with the outer world. Yet such an
effort is
rarely successful unless analytic help is
sought, and even then not always. Often it ends
in
entirely destroying and breaking up the Ego or
in the
Ego being overpowered by the portion that
was early
split off, and has since been dominated,
by the trauma.
To convince the reader of the truth of our
statements the exhaustive communication of
several neurotic life histories would be
necessary.
The difficulty of the subject, however, would lead
to
great discursiveness and entirely destroy the
character of this
essay. It would become a
treatise on the neuroses and even then would
126 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
enforce conviction
only on that minority of
people who have devoted their life's work to the
study and practice of psycho-analysis. Since I am
speaking here to a larger audience I can only
ask the reader to lend a tentative credence to the
abbreviated
exposition which he has just read;
I, on my part, agree that he need accept the
deductions which I
propose to lay before him
only if the theories on which they are based turn
out to be correct.
Nevertheless I can
try to relate one case
which will show clearly many of the
peculiari-
ties of neurosis that I have mentioned above.
One case cannot, of course, display everything;
so we shall not be
disappointed if its content seems
far
away from the analogy we are seeking.
A little boy who, as so often happens in the
families of the
petite bourgeoisie, shared his parents
5
bedroom had
ample, and even regular, oppor-
tunity for observing sexual intercourse at an age
before he was able to talk. He saw much and
heard still more. In his later neurosis, which
broke out
immediately after the time of his first
seminal emission, disturbed
sleep was the earliest
and most
trying symptom. He became extra-
ordinarily sensitive to nocturnal noises and, if
once awakened, could not
get to sleep again.
This disturbance was a true
compromise symp-
tom: on the one hand the
expression of his
defence
against his nocturnal observations, on
HIS PEOPLE AND MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION
127
the other hand the endeavour to re-establish the
wakefulness which had enabled him to listen to
those
experiences.
Stirred
early to aggressive virility by these
observations the
boy began to excite his penis by
touch and to make sexual advances towards his
mother, putting himself thus in his father's place
through identification with him. This went on
until at last his mother forbade him to touch his
penis and threatened to tell his father, who would
take the
offending organ away. This threat of
castration had a
very strong traumatic effect on
the
boy. He relinquished his sexual activity and
his character underwent a
change. Instead of
identifying himself with his father he began to be
afraid of him,
adopted a passive attitude towards
him and by means of occasional disobedience
provoked his father to punish him physically.
This
corporal punishment had sexual significance
for him and in that
way he could identify
himself with the ill-treated mother. He
began
to
cling more and more closely to his mother as
if he could not bear to be without her
love, even
for a moment, since this constituted a
protection
against the danger of castration from his father.
The latency
period was spent in this modification
of the
(Edipus complex; it remained free from
obvious disturbances. He became a model child
and was successful in school.
So far we have
pursued the immediate effect
128 MOSES AND MONOTHEISM
of the trauma and confirmed the existence of a
latency period.
The