Interpretations of Freud's Jewishness, 1924-1974

During the first fifty years of historical and biographical commentary on Freud and the origins of psychoanalysis there were three periods of interpretation of Freud's Jewishness. During the first period, extending from the mid-1920s until the 1950s, it was widely assumed, following the works of Wittels, that Freud was essentially Viennese, that his Jewishness was at most incidental. During the second period, extending until the late 1960s, Freud was believed by some, following Bakan, to be essentially Jewish, and to have concealed that important aspect of his life intentionally. During the most recent period, and especially in the early 1970s, psychoanalysis was interpreted as a compromise wrought by Freud to meet the conflicting demands of secular German and scientific modernity and Jewish and other traditions.