Jewish Philosophy and Psychoanalysis

Michael Oppenheim is a professor in the Department of Religion at Concordia University.

• Chapter 1 Jewish Philosophical Narratives of the InterhumanChapter 2 Psychoanalytic Narratives of DevelopmentChapter 3 Of GiftsChapter 4 Transference and TranscendenceChapter 5 Luce Irigaray: An/Other Fling with the Philosophers

This work advances the ongoing conversation between psychoanalysis and religion by revealing unexpected convergences between modern Jewish thought and post-Freudian developments in (largely) Anglo-American psychoanalysis. Oppenheim traces the striking similarities between each group’s conception of human life as fundamentally formed by, and finding its deepest meaning in, relations with others and/or the Other. From Rosenzweig to Buber to Levinas, and from Melanie Klein to Fairbairn to Erikson and Winnicott—and with a substantial foray into the work of Luce Irigaray—Oppenheim demonstrates that, however differently figured, the 'interhuman' returns again and again as a central concern in all of these authors’ narratives of human development, love and transformation.