title: To be or not to be a Jew? A dilemma of Sigmund Freud?
abstract: The paper presents the position that Freud was not torn by the conflict "To be or not to be a Jew" as some have contended, but, rather, that he had resolved upon "to be ...", and did not long to reject his Jewish identity. What is maintained here is that evidence cited in support of supposed ambivalence regarding Jewish identity is better interpreted in terms of Freud's life-long ambivalence toward his father, his drive to denigrate and destroy him. Evidence is brough that it is his father, rather than himself, whom Freud identifies with the Moses figure - and the consequences of his identification are used to explain both his obsession with the Moses theme and his seeming digressions into Bible-analysis in "Moses and monotheism". The latter, which Freud described as a sequel to "Totem and Taboo", is seen as the acting out of the wish for parricide described in that work.
mesh_terms: D005619:Freudian Theory; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007062:Identification, Psychological; D007585:Jews / Q000266:history*; D008297:Male; D009813:Oedipus Complex; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory