Book Review
Psychotherapy
The Genius of Genesis: A Psychoanalyst and Rabbi Examines the First Book of the Bible Dennis G. Shulman. New York (NY): iUniverse Inc; 2003. 194 p. US$43.95.
Reviewer
rating*: Excellent
Review by: Paul Ian Steinberg, MD, FRCPC
Edmonton, Alberta
This scholarly and engaging book is written from a personal perspective. There are 21 pages of notes and 10 pages of references. Shulman’s dual vocations of psychoanalyst and rabbi enable him to demonstrate parallels between, and convergences in, Genesis and the psychoanalytic canon. His book leads inexorably to the conclusion that much of what psychoanalysis has discovered in the last 100 years was, to some extent, anticipated by the author(s) of Genesis over 2 millennia ago. Shulman actually goes further to conclude that, while psychoanalysis focuses on insight as its ultimate goal, Maimonides (writing over 800 years ago) went deeper, formulating a four-fold process of teshuvah, repentance. The 4 parts of the process are awareness, which corresponds to insight; confession, the public admission of sin; resolution to never commit the sin again, including facing temptation and not repeating transgression; and restitution, repairing the damage one has done. Shulman’s conclusion is, to some extent, debatable. Insight that is not accompanied by behavioural change moving toward more adaptive and constructive behaviour is limited insight. An individual who has benefited from psychoanalytic therapy is not enjoined to undergo public confession but may well attempt restitution (1) and, one hopes, would be more likely to avoid repeating the same mistakes. This is not to diminish the accomplishments of the author(s) of Genesis and subsequent Jewish authors; their work was well ahead of its time and has been seen as, not only preceding, but also serving as an intellectual ancestor of psychoanalysis (2,3).
Shulman divides his book into 6 chapters. The bulk of the book deals with the major personalities of Genesis, informed by a psychoanalytic sensibility. Shulman concludes,
Each of us is Adam and Eve, fragile, frightened and forever barred from the garden. . . is Abraham. . . ready to sacrifice. . . ethical principles and life purpose . . . and . . . elevating life to the sacred . . . is Jacob, eagerly deceiving others and ourselves . . . and . . . when forced to confront ourselves, . . . struggles with angels and demons, and sometimes emerges transformed, but limping (p 159–160).
Shulman shows how Genesis dialectically depicts man as both Freud and Jung saw him: savage and divine, animal and angel, dust and ashes, and the creature for whom God created the world. He shows how personal transformation in Genesis sometimes takes more than one generation—what Jacob dreams only inconsistently, his sons Joseph and Judah learn more completely. I would add that this is frequently seen in our patients and their children.
This book is clearly and concisely written. The contents are very well organized. One chapter flows easily into the next. The author is an expert on the subject by virtue of his qualifications in 2 professional disciplines. The text is free of production errors.
This brief review can only convey a hint of the richness of human motivation that Shulman elicits from the stories of family pathology that constitute the heart of Genesis. Shulman portrays these familiar characters in a new light. This book will appeal to any mental health professional interested in the application of psychoanalysis to literature, to readers of Scripture open to contemporary approaches, and to mental health professionals willing to have their clinical work informed by a psychoanalytic approach to familiar figures in our mythology. It is a pleasure to read.
References
1. Klein M. Love guilt and reparation and other works 1921–1945. London (UK): Hogarth Press; 1937/1975. Love, guilt and reparation. p 265.
2. Bakan D.Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition. Princeton (NJ): Van Nostrand; 1958.
3. Shulman DG. Clinical Psychoanalysis as Midrash. CCAR Journal: Reform Jewish Quarterly. Forthcoming.
*Reviewer
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Good / Bon
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Not recommended / Pas recommandé
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