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This book introduces the psychoanalytic study of the Kabbalah as a serious discipline. It illustrates the applicability of psychodynamic concepts to Jewish mysticism and the "apocalyptical complex" and essays on specific incidents in the Bible and the Kabbalah.
List of contents
Preface -- Editorial Note -- Prologue -- Dimensions of mysticism -- The apocalyptic complex -- Mysticism and Prophecy -- Chapter Three -- Ezekiel and the Elders of Judah: The workings of a prophetic trance -- Comments -- Esoteric Mysticism, Merkavah and Hekhalot -- Chapter Four -- Four entered the garden: normative religion versus illusion -- Comments -- Chapter Five -- The psychodynamics of merkavah mysticism -- Methodology -- Methodological reflections on psychoanalysis and Judaic studies: a response to Mortimer Ostow -- Comments -- Sex And Gender in the Kabbalah -- Introduction -- Sexual metaphors and praxis in the Kabbalah -- Comments -- Crossing gender boundaries in kabbalistic ritual and myth -- Comments -- Comments on Idel and Wolfson -- Epilogue -- Concluding comments: union and reunion
About the author
Ostow Mortimer was a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who specialised in the study of anti-Semitism and religious and racial fanaticism. He maintained a private practice in Manhattan, and his works include 'Myth and Madness: The Psychodynamics of Anti-Semitism', 'Drugs in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy' and 'The Psychology of Melancholy'. His studies of terrorism, and his theories on the Psychological causes of fanaticism are arguably more relevant than ever in the post-9/11 age.
Summary
This book introduces the psychoanalytic study of the Kabbalah as a serious discipline. It illustrates the applicability of psychodynamic concepts to Jewish mysticism and the "apocalyptical complex" and essays on specific incidents in the Bible and the Kabbalah.
