Freud’s Rejection of His FatherIn very fundamental ways, Freud rejected his father; indeed, the central psychoanalytic concept of the Oedipus complex is one powerful expression of this rejection. Of special relevance to the present topic is the fact that Freud’s expression of his rejection is often—indeed, typically—found in a religious context. The attempt to understand this rejection takes us rather far afield of our topic, but it is necessary to go into this in order to grasp much of Freud’s attitude toward God, and in particular his motives for the rejection of Jewish religiousness.26 Jakob Freud (pictured with young Sigmund in Figure 2-2) is regularly described as a happy man with considerable wisdom who was apparently rather content with life.21 Jones comments that Freud’s father had a gentle disposition and that he was loved by all his family.28 We see the other side of this type of character in Freud’s description of his father in Micawber-like terms as being “always hopefully expecting something to turn up.”29 People reliably speak of Jakob as having a good sense of humor, which was frequently expressed in Jewish anecdotes—a trait noticeable in his son as well.30 There seems to have been nothing in Jakob of the stern father or disciplinarian so common at the time in German culture. Instead, he comes across as a kindly, permissive, somewhat nurturant grandfather figure. We may recall that he was much older than Amalia and actually became a grandfather at about the time of his marriage to her. (Jakob’s first grandson was Emanuel’s son, John, who was born one month after Jakob and Amalia’s marriage.31) At least in Vienna, Jakob was far from a business success. The poverty of Freud’s early years left a life-long mark on him. Apparently, Jakob lacked real energy and focused drive, since these characteristics did not show in his business (or elsewhere, for that matter).32 That Jakob was not a strong and manly figure was one of the great disappointments of Sigmund’s life. The following incident, frequently commented upon, shows how painfully Freud responded to what he perceived as his father’s weakness: I may have been ten or twelve years old, when my father began to take me with him on his walks.…on one such occasion he told me a story to show me how much better things are now than they had been in his days. “When I was a young man,” he said, “I went for a walk one Saturday in the streets of your birthplace; I was well dressed, and had a new fur cap on my head. A Christian came up to me and with a single blow knocked off my cap into the mud and shouted: ‘Jew! get off the pavement!’” “And what did you do?” I asked. “I went into the roadway and picked up my cap,” was his quiet reply. This struck me as unheroic on the part of the big, strong man who was holding the little boy by the hand.33 |