A Leap of Faith into Moses: Freud’s Invitation to Evenly Suspended Attention

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Abstract

This chapter argues that Moses and Monotheism invites its readers to approach it in a state of “evenly-suspended attention,” the mindset that Freud recommends his colleagues practice in the therapeutic scene. This method of reading is contrasted with the prominent one in the discipline of literature, namely, close reading. Developed by the Anglo-American New Critics around the time of Moses ’ publication, close reading depends on what Freud terms “deliberate attention.” This chapter further demonstrates that reading Moses in a state of evenly-suspended attention is understood by Freud to require an act of faith in one’s unconscious or internal alterity. It concludes with a call for a reevaluation of what a Freudian or psychoanalytic reading is typically understood to mean in the humanities. That is, while Freud is conventionally thought of as the optimal close reader, Moses suggests otherwise.
Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationFreud and Monotheism
Subtitle of host publicationMoses and the Violent Origins of Religion
EditorsGilad Sharvit, Karen S. Feldman
Place of PublicationNew York, NY
Pages108-137
Number of pages30
ISBN (Electronic)9780823280056
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2018
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameBerkeley Forum in the Humanities
PublisherFordham University Press

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Psychology

ULI publications

  • uli
  • Anti-Jewish attitudes
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Antisemitism
  • Catastrophe, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Collective memory
  • Collective remembrance
  • Common memory
  • Cultural memory
  • Destruction of the Jews (1939-1945)
  • Emblematic memory
  • Extermination, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Final solution
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- <<Der>> Mann Moses
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- <<Der>> Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- Moise et le monotheisme
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- Moises y la religion monoteista
  • Freud, Sigmund -- 1856-1939 -- Moses and monotheism
  • Historical criticism
  • Historical memory
  • Historiography
  • History -- Authorship
  • History -- Criticism
  • History -- Historiography
  • Holocaust
  • Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Holocaust, Nazi -- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Jewish Catastrophe (1939-1945)
  • Jewish Holocaust (1939-1945)
  • Jews -- Nazi persecution
  • Monotheism
  • Myth
  • National memory
  • Nazi Holocaust -- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
  • Nazi persecution of Jews
  • Public memory
  • Religion
  • Religion, Primitive
  • Shoʼah (1939-1945)
  • Social memory
  • Violence (in religion, folklore, etc.) -- Violence Religious aspects
  • Violence -- Moral and religious aspects -- Violence Religious aspects
  • Violence -- Psychological aspects
  • Violence -- Religious aspects
  • World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews
  • אלימות -- היבטים דתיים
  • אלימות -- היבטים פסיכולוגיים
  • אנטישמיות
  • פרויד, זיגמונד -- 1856-1939 -- משה האיש ואמונת היחוד
  • פרויד, זיגמונד -- 1856-1939 -- משה האיש והדת המונותיאיסטית
  • שואה
  • العنف -- أبعاد دينية
  • العنف -- جوانب نفيسة
  • اللاسامية
  • المحرقة النازية (1939-1945)
  • Ḥurban (1939-1945)
  • Ḥurbn (1939-1945)

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