From Book News, Inc.
Traces the construction of Jewishness as a biological flaw in the science and medicine of Vienna at the turn of the century, and how Jewish physicians responded to the effort to incorporate the image into medical practice. Focuses on Freud, showing how he tried to detach himself from the stigma of being Jewish, and how his psychoanalysis evolved in the context of the biological discourse. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.


Review
"Gilman [is] one of the most original and stimulating cultural historians of his generation... Reminds us that the best cultural history does not bring us comfortingly nearer to the past, but brings its distance from us to life."-- New Statesman and Society


Book Description
"Mr. Gilman's work is the most convincing account of how Freud's anxiety about being Jewish is reflected in his work. After reading Mr. Gilman's exhaustive treatment, one cannot help seeing Freud as struggling to formulate a response to the Viennese notions of Jewishness in which he was inescapably steeped."-- New York Times."Gilman [is] one of the most original and stimulating cultural historians of his generation... A rich... account that reminds us that the best cultural history does not bring us comfortingly nearer to the past, but brings its distance from us to life."-- New Statesman & Society.In The Case of Sigmund Freud, Sander Gilman traces the "medicalization" of Jewishness in the science and medicine of turn-of-the-century Vienna, and the ways in which Jewish physicians responded to the effort to incorporate racist biological literature into medical practice. Focusing on the new science of psychoanalysis, Gilman looks at the strategic devices Sigmund Freud employed to detach himself from the stigma of being Jewish and shows how Freud's work in psychoanalysis evolved in response to the biological discourse of the time."Gilman is unrelenting in documenting how the biological literature of the 19th century was racist to its core. A stimulating and provocative book."--David James Fisher, UCLA "Historians, no matter what their field, ignore Sander Gilman's work at their peril."--George L. Mosse, University of Wisconsin


About the Author
Sander L. Gilman is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Humane Studies at Cornell University and professor of the history of psychiatry at the Cornell Medical College. [confirm]

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"There is no category of supposed human beings that comes closer to the orangutan than does a Polish Jew," said a Bavarian writer, reflecting the eighteenth-century view that Jews were profoundly flawed. The Jewish body, popular opinion held, was malformed - from feet to nose - and predisposed to a host of illnesses ranging from the plague to hysteria. The Jewish soul had a peculiar stench. The Jewish libido had a tendency toward incest. The Jewish gaze was pathological, and precluded the possibility of unbiased observation. By the close of the nineteenth century, these ideas had found their way into European medical journals, and the medical establishment was convinced that Jews were both diseased and perverted. It was an interesting time to be a Jewish physician. In The Case of Sigmund Freud, Sander Gilman traces the "medicalization" of Jewishness in the science and medicine of turn-of-the-century Vienna, and the ways in which Jewish physicians responded to the effort to incorporate this racist biological literature into medical practice. Focusing on the new science of psychoanalysis, Gilman looks at the strategic devices Sigmund Freud employed to detach himself from the stigma of being Jewish and shows how Freud's work in psychoanalysis evolved in response to the biological discourse of the time. In order to circumvent the prevailing debates about race, Gilman argues, Freud carefully formulated the particular biological charges against the Jew into a universal definition of a human being. As a consequence, his early psychoanalytic theories transcended the controversies about biological determinism, and yet remained framed by them.

FROM THE CRITICS

Booknews

Traces the construction of Jewishness as a biological flaw in the science and medicine of Vienna at the turn of the century, and how Jewish physicians responded to the effort to incorporate the image into medical practice. Focuses on Freud, showing how he tried to detach himself from the stigma of being Jewish, and how his psychoanalysis evolved in the context of the biological discourse. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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