Stanley Schneider

The Oceanic Feeling, Mysticism and Kabbalah: Freud's Historical Roots

Freud wrote to Romain Rolland in March 1923: “. . . your name has been associated with the most precious of beautiful illusions, that of love extended to all mankind. But a great part of my life has been spent [trying to] destroy illusions of my own and those of mankind” (E. Freud, 1970, p. 346). In his correspondence with Rolland, Freud was impressed with Rolland’s ability to transcend the scientific and be able to emotionally relate to others in brotherly love. This major difference between Freud and Rolland came to the fore after Freud sent Rolland a copy of The Future of an Illusion (Freud, 1927). Rolland expressed disappointment that Freud had neglected to include subjective feelings, which Rolland called: “a sensation of ‘eternity,’ a feeling as of something limitless, unbounded—as it were, ‘oceanic’” (Freud, 1930, p. 64). (See Jones, 1974, p. 594.) Freud, the scientist, noted: “I cannot discover this ‘oceanic’ feeling in myself. It is not easy to deal scientifically with feelings (1930, p. 65) . . . it is very difficult for me to work with these almost intangible qualities” (1930, p. 72). Since these amorphous feelings could not be defined objectively, Freud did not investigate the intangible. He never stated that these feelings did not exist, they just were not part of his Weltanschauung. He admired

The self and the soul

This paper explores the elusive and esoteric concepts of self and soul. After examining the psychological concept of self, as differentiated from ego, the authors present a unified theory of psychological, psychoanalytical and spiritual conceptualizations in light of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. We suggest that understanding the self system (whether in object relations, intersubjective or interpersonal terms) is enhanced by the framework found in the Jewish mystical literature.

Fundamentalism and Paranoia in Groups and Society

This paper will examine the concepts of fundamentalism and paranoia to contribute understanding to how extremist positions have developed. Fundamentalism is a rigid, dogmatic, and skewed view that dismisses other competing and conflicting viewpoints. Extreme feelings can only lead to extremist behavior. Fears in our inner selves will only fuel the fires of paranoia, encourage fundamentalist behavior, and lead to group conflicts. We will examine this on micro (group) and macro (society) levels.

The supervision group as a transitional object

The supervision group as a transitional object, allowing for the exploration and expression of feelings relating to the conflictual bind, enabling the intern to cope with the dual roles of university student and agency professional.

Jerusalem, Religious Awakenings and Schizophrenia

The article explores how delusional processes are activated psychologically and how clinicians need to look beyond the seemingly non-reality aspect and instead listen to the delusion in the context of the patients life experience. The social and spiritual context of Jerusalem, where some people decompensate and reconstitute themselves, is focused upon, as well as the delusional world of the schizophrenic.

Freud's atonement

The authors explore Freuds preoccupations with death and dying. In particular, they focus on the day of Freuds death, which was the Jewish Day of Atonement and the Jewish Sabbath. The significance of this event, which the authors think was “planned,” was not just in order to obliterate years of pain and suffering from cancer, but also to overcome a lifelong burden of conflict and guilt about his relations with his family and colleagues as well as his Jewish cultural/religious upbringing. The authors consider whether the timing of Freuds death represented a premeditated return to his cultural and religious roots.

Freud's Meeting with Rabbi Alexandre Safran

Sigmund Freud went to considerable effort to disguise his knowledge of the Hebrew language and Jewish primary sources. In this way he tried to prevent his new creation, psychoanalysis, from being seen as a ‘Jewish science’. The authors present new evidence that Freud had a considerable interest in, and knowledge of, Jewish religious texts. This is shown in an exchange of letters which have recently come to light, between the Los Angeles psychoanalyst, Dr Samuel Eisenstein, and the prominent Kabbalist and Chief Rabbi of Geneva, Rabbi Dr Alexandre Safran, which discuss a meeting that took place at Freuds request at his home in Vienna in 1934.

The First Stages in the Development of the Small Group: A Psychoanalytic Understanding

Building upon the pioneering work of Saravay, this article describes the first stages in the development of a therapeutic small group. We follow the classic psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual stages as described by Freud with the modifications of Karl Abraham. We feel that this understanding will help us better conceptualize a dynamic understanding of small group process. In order to illustrate the theoretical formulations, examples are given from the process of a therapeutic group run along Group-analytic lines.

On: Can you push a camel through the eye of a needle?

Fred Busch (2009) chooses an interesting metaphor for the beginning part of the title of his recent paper: ‘Can you push a camel through the eye of a needle?’ We feel that the latter part of the title: Reflections on how the unconscious speaks to us and its clinical implications, tells us a bit about why this particular metaphor was chosen. The metaphor is found in writings of three major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, with a slight variation. In Judaism, the metaphor is found in the Talmud Tractate Brachot 55b:

Nothingness and narcissism

This paper discusses the psychoanalytic concept of narcissism and the Kabbalistic understanding of how man is viewed in relationship to God. If God is considered to be both nothingness and everythingness, and man follows a pattern of trying to be like the Creator, Imatio Deo, then this has major implications for mans sense of self. We discuss the seeming paradox of both wanting to be self-absorbed while, at the same time, trying to achieve a level of spirituality and completeness that is similar to wanting to be like God. We arrive at a more complete exposition of the egoistic or narcissistic self.