James Oppenhiem

A Psycho-Analysis of The Jews (1926)

A Psycho-Analysis of The Jews (1926) by James Oppenhiem

From the Introduction

To take a race and lay it open with the dissecting knife of psycho-analysis, so that one ‐ may see the inside of it, is certainly an impossible task; yet anyone who has read Little Blue Book No. 985, A Psycho-Analysis of America, may know that a nation, and even a race, will yield up some of its secrets to the new insight.

It should be understood, too, that a psycho‐analysis can never be a celebration of the patient. Even a Helen of Troy, if placed upon the dissecting table, would appear, finally, as far less beautiful than she seemed to be. How‐ ever, the reason for an analysis is to find out what is the matter, so that the patient may be cured. The world today is sick. As I showed in the booklet on America, modern Christianity is a sickness, and, so we must admit, is Judaism. Not until sicknesses of this nature pass can the world enter upon a new and greater era.

It physical sickness has yielded more and more to the science of medicine, so we may hope that mental sickness, whether of the individual or the mass, may also begin to yield to that outgrowth of medical science, the new psychology.

This is not the place to discuss the theories of the new psychology. Readers who are interested may find them set forth in Little Blue Book No. 978, The Psychology of Jung, which gives a summary of the work of Freud, Adler and Jung. It will, however, for the understanding of those who have not read either of the booklets mentioned, be necessary to devote a few pages to those theories which are applied in this treatise. Since they are quoted from my other work, they may be skipped by those who already are acquainted with them.

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