Freud and the Melancholy Rabbi

‘One day they will say that Sigmund Freud read the Law with a rabbi, and no one will believe it.’

Vienna, 1903, and two unlikely figures meet: Rashab, the fifth Rabbi of Lubavitch, and Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Rashab has journeyed from Lubavitch to Vienna with his son, his future successor; the paralysis in his arm and a persistent stutter leading him to this consultation with Freud.

The two men discuss their ideologies — bringing in Kabbalah, psychoanalysis, faith, science — shining a light on their own fears and internal struggles. Freud analyses the details yet further with his distinguished pupil Wilhelm Stekel.

Taking place in a rapidly changing world, this book records a brief meeting between two individuals whose contrasting beliefs will shape the twentieth century.