Abstract
This chapter by psychoanalyst and author JC Stoloff (Pourquoi l’antisémitisme, Editions Pascal, 2009) discusses Freud’s theoretical positions on anti-Semitism. The author points out the inherent contradictions of Freud’s successive positions while, at the same time, highlighting their potential utility in explaining the current resurgence of hatred toward Jews in many parts of the world, but specifically in France. The principal Freudian contribution is to propose the existence of an anti-Semitism that is deeply rooted in the collective unconscious. The example of France allows the reader to appreciate how the various strands of this phobic reaction to Jews – whether stemming from Christian or Islamic sources or from a leftist political anti-Zionist stance – are woven together and, in all cases, draw on the same traditional anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Translated from the French by Mary V. Seeman
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Stoloff, JC. (2020). Understanding the Current Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: The Situation in France. In: Moffic, H., Peteet, J., Hankir, A., Seeman, M. (eds) Anti-Semitism and Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37745-8_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37745-8_21
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