Multiculturalism, multilingualism, and the birth of psychoanalysis, I: Crosscurrents in fin-de-siècle Central Europe

^†English translation of parts of this paper from the Czech original by Eva D. Papiasvili.

Abstract

The paper explores the wider sociocultural background of the origins of psychoanalysis. Born within the liberal Jewish community of Central Europe and built by marginal people who thrived on otherness, psychoanalysis may have originated as a creative transformation of conflicts between orthodoxy and assimilation, and between the Hebrew and Classical Greek traditions. Similarities between Jewish scholarly thought and psychoanalysis are further elaborated on, especially the aspect of mobile/dynamic “becoming” compared with static “being”: both psychoanalyst and Jewish scholar travel through human experience from place to place. This enduring movement, designed for physical and psychological survival, adaptation, and sublimation, roots and anchors them both.

Key words:

• interpretation
• birth of psychoanalysis
• multiculturalism
• multilingualism
• Hebrew religious thought
• mobility
• otherness

Notes

^† English translation of parts of this paper from the Czech original by Eva D. Papiasvili.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Martin Mahler

Author

Martin Mahler is president of the Czech Psychoanalytic Society, president of the Rafael Trauma Institute, Prague, and a training and supervising analyst with the International Psychoanalytical Association.