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Psychoanalysis Moves to Palestine: Immigration, Integration and Reception

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Book cover Psychoanalysis, Identity, and Ideology

Abstract

Psychoanalysis as a clinical practice traveled to Palestine in the 1920s and became marginally established in the Jewish community there in the 1930s, when a psychoanalytic institute was founded in Jerusalem. Eran J. Rolnik offers a thorough historical examination of the encounter between psychoanalysis and Jewish Palestine, as the early stages of the reception of psychoanalysis into Jewish society in Palestine are portrayed and analyzed. We are offered a fresh look into events in the first half of the twentieth century and into the forces working for and against the reception of psychoanalytic ideas and practices. Tensions between Zionism and the Zionist movement, and the individualistic bias of psychoanalysis qua psychotherapy naturally came to the fore. This chapter is marked by both originality and erudition. What emerges is a rich and lively picture of life in the Jewish community of Palestine in the days before World War II, with a special emphasis on cultural developments. The difficult experiences of immigrants, who were actually refugees forced to leave their homelands are described touchingly, and all involved come to life with their hopes, fears, and dreams.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tel-Aviv University, Israel

    Eran J. Rolnik

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  1. Eran J. Rolnik
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Austrian Institute for International Affairs, Vienna, Austria

    John Bunzl (Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer) (Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer)

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Vienna, Austria

    John Bunzl (Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer) (Senior Research Fellow, Lecturer)

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Haifa, 31905, Israel

    Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi (Professor) (Professor)

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Rolnik, E.J. (2002). Psychoanalysis Moves to Palestine: Immigration, Integration and Reception. In: Bunzl, J., Beit-Hallahmi, B. (eds) Psychoanalysis, Identity, and Ideology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6324-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-6324-9_7

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