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The Old Testament And Modern Psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2024

Extract

That there is a connection between the Old Testament and Modern Psychology may seem a farfetched idea which has no foundation in fact, but both are related in Judaic roots.

The Old Testament is a divinely inspired book written by Jews about Jews, whilst psychology is the science based on the ideas of a Jew—Sigmund Freud. Freud, who is generally accepted as the father of modern psychology, found recognition first among Jews, but when his method— psychoanalysis—proved to be successful in the treatment of nervous disorders, it spread beyond the small group of Jewish enthusiasts into the circles of Christian psychologists.

It is no mere coincidence that a Jew realized the importance of psychological problems in the present world. Centuries of ghetto life had made the Jews extremely sensitive in their reactions to people who lived in freedom. The enforced isolation shaped their mentality into a set pattern different from that of the surrounding European world which was developing its own particular culture.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1954 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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Footnotes

1

It may be necessary to point out that this paper, although following closely on the articles concerned with the spiritual sense, is not intended as an example of exegesis but as a symbolical use of the Bible which can today especially enliven the Sacred Text.—Editor.