AI Summary
5 min readIn 1936, Sigmund Freud received a Yiddish translation of one of his works and wrote back to the translator, Max Weinreich: “I can’t read your book, but it makes me so happy.” That paradox—being moved by something you cannot actually read—is the starting point of Naomi Seidman’s Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish. Rather than asking whether Freud’s theories were secretly Jewish, Seidman asks a different question: what did it mean for Freud, and for his Yiddish- and Hebrew-speaking readers, to encounter psychoanalysis in Jewish languages? The book is a study of surfaces—of book covers, prefaces, letters, jokes, and the sheer pleasure of seeing a famous Jew rendered in a familiar alphabet.
The surface theory of Jewish connection
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of New Books in Jewish Studies
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction and Episode Setup** - Alex Weiser (YIVO) introduces the podcast and guests: Naomi Seidman and Ken Frieden, discussing Seidman's new book *Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish*.
- 2 (02:26) **Origin Story: The "Freud Closet"** - Seidman describes how she began collecting Hebrew and Yiddish translations of Freud, starting with a used bookstore find in Jerusalem.
- 3 (08:10) **Defining the Book's Distinct Approach: Surface Reading** - Seidman distinguishes her work from previous scholarship on the "Jewish Freud."
- 4 (11:27) **The Baroness Joke: A Case Study in Surface vs. Depth** - Ken Frieden introduces a joke from Freud's *Joke Book* (1905) about a baroness who cries out in French, then German, and finally Yiddish ("Vay, Vay") when giving birth.
- 5 (16:37) **The Galician Jew on the Train: The Game of "Begeling"** - Seidman analyzes another joke from Freud's collection about a Galician Jew and a distinguished gentleman.
- 6 (20:21) **Surface Reading vs. Suspicious Reading** - Seidman explains the tension between Freud's legacy as the founder of "suspicious reading" (looking for hidden meanings) and her method of surface reading.
- 7 (23:12) **Bracketing the "Jewishness" of Freud's Method** - Frieden asks if Seidman agrees there are resonances between Freudian interpretation and Talmudic/midrashic interpretation.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
There is an academic interest in the "Jewish Freud," aiming to detect Jewish influences on Freud, his own feelings about being Jewish, and suppressed traces of Jewishness in his thought. This book takes a different approach, turning its gaze not on Freud but rather on those who seek out his concealed Jewishness. What is it that propels the scholarly aim to show Freud in a Jewish light? Naomi Seidman explores attempts to "touch" Freud (and other famous Jews) through Jewish languages, seeking out his Hebrew name or evidence that he knew some Yiddish. Tracing a history of this drive to bring Freud into Jewish range, Seidman also charts Freud's responses to (and jokes about) this desire. More specifically, she reads the reception and translation of Freud in Hebrew and Yiddish as instances of the desire to touch, feel, "rescue," and connect with the famous professor from Vienna.
Join YIVO for a discussion with Seidman about this newly published book, led by scholar Ken Frieden.
Buy the book: here
This book talk originally took place on June 6, 2024.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/jewish-studies
More from this podcast
New Books in Jewish Studies →