Freud and the figure of Moses: the Moses of Freud.

Moses was a lifelong preoccupation of Freud, representing a double and idealized self and object. Freud identified with different aspects of Moses during different periods of development, from concrete hero to abstract ideal. He turned to Moses in the concluding phase of his relationship with Fliess and his self-analysis, and then at other times of crisis. The Moses recreated by Freud is important to the evolution of the concepts of the superego, and his Moses studies simultaneously illuminate the developmental significance of internalization, identification, and abstract symbolic thought. Latently autobiographical, the Moses motif is related to the analysis of unconscious conflict and trauma and to issues of Jewish identity and analytic ideals.     

Forty Years with Moses

Noting that he has been in academia for 40 years, the author likens his experience to that of being among the group that emigrated from Egypt under the leadership of Moses and Aaron and wandered in the desert for 40 years. The biblical story is used to identify the various problems that one is likely to confront under the leadership of contemporary versions of Moses and Aaron. Survival strategies are also proposed for those who find themselves in this predicament.     

摩西法律的契约形式和以律法为核心的希伯来宗教

本文详细地探讨了以色列圣约的神学构成、历史背景及其宗教隐喻,指出尽管它具有与整个古代近东相同的立法与司法习俗,但它更强调的是神与以色列立约和日后重立约的宗教经历。以色列对古代近东契约观念的使用使得神人关系概念化,神人之约被最深刻地体现于西奈经历中,并从中衍伸出一种浓厚的历史意识,形成守约得福、背约遭祸的神学历史观。此后,随着古代希伯来历史的发展,律法地位的提高导致了犹太宗教的结构变化,并产生了两种神学倾向:一是“约”的概念的淡化,二是律法被绝对化并赋予了其外在的形式。这使得律法被本体化,逐渐取代约而成为犹太信仰的基础,犹太教也因此成为以实现律法的要求为目的的宗教,公义的外在化由此极大地削弱了信仰的精神内涵。本文正是通过上述对希伯来神人之约与古代近东契约的对比研究,试图深入地领会契约律法发生和发展的深刻的历史和现实意义,并思考包括基督教在内的诸多思想和历史问题。     

The Moses, mega-Moses, and Armstrong illusions: integrating language comprehension and semantic memory

This study develops a new theory of the Moses illusion, observed in responses to general knowledge questions such as, "How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?" People often respond "two" rather than "zero" despite knowing that Noah, not Moses, launched the Ark. Our theory predicted two additional types of conceptual error demonstrated here: the Armstrong and mega-Moses illusions. The Armstrong illusion involved questions resembling, "What was the famous line uttered by Louis Armstrong when he first set foot on the moon?" People usually comprehend such questions as valid, despite knowing that Louis Armstrong was a jazz musician who never visited the moon. This Armstrong illusion was not due to misperceiving the critical words (Louis Armstrong), and occurred as frequently as the Moses illusion (with critical words embedded in identical sentential contexts), but less frequently than the mega-Moses illusion caused when Moses and Armstrong factors were combined.     

Moses and Oedipus: Psychological Perspectives on Their Life Stories

The present paper compares the chronicles of Moses and Oedipus, examining six life events: birth, exile, submission/resistance to the Divine, trial of passage, seeming failure and success, and reversal of fortune. The biblical conception of Providence is contrasted with the Greek sense of Fate.     

Moses Mendelssohn's Philosophy of Jewish Liturgy: A Post-Liberal Assessment

This paper represents an attempt to reflect on the significance of liturgy for postliberal Jewish thought. I do this by investigating the work of the eighteenth‐century Jewish enlightenment figure Moses Mendelssohn in the context of the postliberal thought of George Lindbeck. Mendelssohn not only shows how liturgy can be central to postliberal approaches to monotheism, but he also shows how enlightenment notions of a universal rational religion remain necessary and productive for postliberal interpretations of monotheism. In this latter move, Mendelssohn forms a corrective to Lindbeck's postliberalism.     

Portrait of Promise: Moses and the Journey to Consciousness

Recent literature in psychology suggests that the narcissistic personality has become the most prominent personality type in the Western world. The North American over-valuation of individualism and stress on the development of the isolated self are threatening the human maturation needed to successfully engage the challenges of living in the twenty-first century. This article explores the ways in which a psycho-spiritual analysis of the prophetic figure of the biblical Moses presents an antidote to the epidemic of narcissism defeating our potential toward more mutually satisfying and personally integrated living. When asked if civilization would survive, C.G. Jung replied that it would if only enough people would take responsibility for their own consciousness.