1899
19th century
A01=Clemence Boulouque
Author_Clemence Boulouque
Category=JBSR
Category=QDTM
Category=QRJ
Category=QRVK2
celebrated
charting
coexistence
contributions
conversations
descriptions
development
discourse
dominant
emancipation
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
fascinated
ideas
inquiry
modernity
mysticism
mythical
notion
otherness
philosophers
possibility
pre-Freudian
reflections.
resonance
scientific
subcultural
unconscious
WWI
Product details
- ISBN 9780226838212
- Weight: 426g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 19 Mar 2025
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
A history of the unconscious in public discourse before Freud and its significance for Jewish emancipation.
When Sigmund Freud published his theory of the unconscious, in 1899, he popularized an idea that had fascinated generations of Jewish philosophers before him. In this book, Clémence Boulouque charts the development of the pre-Freudian unconscious from subcultural inquiry to dominant discourse during the long nineteenth century. Although Freud’s scientific notion differed from Schelling’s mythical description of the abyss from which creation springs, its resonance with older ideas was celebrated as an opportunity to express specifically Jewish contributions to modernity. Indeed, Boulouque shows that the pre-Freudian unconscious emerged from conversations in Jewish mysticism about otherness and coexistence. In the hopeful years before World War I, Boulouque argues, such reflections offered the possibility of emancipation not only to Jews but to all.
When Sigmund Freud published his theory of the unconscious, in 1899, he popularized an idea that had fascinated generations of Jewish philosophers before him. In this book, Clémence Boulouque charts the development of the pre-Freudian unconscious from subcultural inquiry to dominant discourse during the long nineteenth century. Although Freud’s scientific notion differed from Schelling’s mythical description of the abyss from which creation springs, its resonance with older ideas was celebrated as an opportunity to express specifically Jewish contributions to modernity. Indeed, Boulouque shows that the pre-Freudian unconscious emerged from conversations in Jewish mysticism about otherness and coexistence. In the hopeful years before World War I, Boulouque argues, such reflections offered the possibility of emancipation not only to Jews but to all.
Clémence Boulouque is the Carl and Bernice Associate Professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at Columbia University. She is the author of many books, including Another Modernity: Elia Benamozegh’s Jewish Universalism.
