Was it possible to reconcile Freudian psychoanalysis with early Zionism? This
is the central question that informs Eran Rolnik’s well-written study of the
relationship between psychology and politics in the Yishuv.1 There are several
assumptions underlying this question: that Freud’s influence was such that
intellectuals in far-away Palestine were bound to consider his theories; that Freud’s
Jewishness made such a response inevitable; and that the encounter between
psychoanalytic ‘deconstructivism’ and Zionist ‘collectivism’ entailed controversy,
even irreconcilability.
read full review in Medaon by Anthony Kauders>>