Hosted by the Tampa Bay Psychoanalytic Society (TBPS) on Saturday, October 17, 2020, John Auerbach elaborated, in a most delightful presentation, the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, and linked it with Bob Dylan’s [Dylan ne Zimmerman received Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, despite being a known assaulter of women] relationship to his own father [Abraham Zimmerman], as well as with the relationship in general of parents and children. [Thanks to Covid-19, all TBPS Speaker Program meetings are now virtual and so now almost anyone with wifi can attend presentations.]
One very interesting part of the discussion was introduced by Peter Rudnytsky’s noting of the existentialist Kierkegaard’s ‘teleological suspension of the ethical’ [never acceptable, not even in 'the ends justify the means'] had the group examining Abraham’s dilemma-- unconditional obedience to God’s request to kill Isaac or ethical attention to God’s ‘Thou shalt not kill’ commandment. Recalling [Erich] Fromm, Rudnytsky found “profoundly troubling” any religion that teaches the acceptance of an ideology of authoritarianism and that values obedience to authority above all else. [I was reminded of the evangelical support of an unethical Donald Trump to the ends of a more conservative Supreme Court.]
Auerbach recounted that, after Isaac is spared, there exist no further Bible passages to indicate that Abraham and Isaac ever spoke again. Imagine, said Jessica Rausch, the trauma to Isaac [ironically, ‘laughter’ in Hebrew] knowing his own father might have killed him. And what if ‘raise him up’ was not raise Isaac up as a sacrificial offering, but rather to raise him up as 'to honor 'him? Abraham’s failure (of character) to protect his son is compared to God’s character in asking Abraham to make such a sacrifice.
While infanticide/filicide is much more prevalent than parricide, Freud chose the Greek myth of Oedipus to explain the mainstay of sexual development [recall that it is Oedipus’ father Laius who wanted to kill him first]. Auerbach mentions that Freud, in another indication of Freud’s ambivalence about Judaism -- an ambivalence shared by Dylan-- did not choose a Hebraic myth, but a Hellenic one. Anti-semitism in fin de sicle Austria put Freud, despite his success, in a marginalized group; Such groups struggle with self-love over self loathing.
Lastly, in thinking of an authoritarian and powerful God or a loving and just God, Auerbach contrasted the Freudian tripod anonymity, abstinence, and neutrality with the Rogerian triad of empathy, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard. Joseph Assouline wondered if God were not giving Abraham the opportunity to think for himself, or perhaps God had planned to stop Abraham all along, only checking to see how obedient Abraham might be? Is God seeking faith or asking Abraham to ‘wake up?’ The Judaic tradition, Linda Berkowitz reminded us, is continued discussion, a plethora of opinions [think Aron and Henik, Answering a Question with a Question].
TBPS’ next program: November 7, 2020 on Decolonizing the Mind and Anti-Racism literature.
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