Psychology and Kabbalah by Z'Ev Ben Shimon Halevi

Author:Z'Ev Ben Shimon Halevi [Halevi, Z'Ev Ben Shimon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychology, Movements, Jungian, Religion, Judaism, Kabbalah & Mysticism
ISBN: 9780877285298
Google: f2cHe0SOXmoC
Amazon: B0734GLPG4
Publisher: Weiser Books
Published: 1992-01-14T23:00:00+00:00

30. The Unconscious

The Freudian view of psychology lays strong emphasis upon the id-Nefesh. Indeed, Freud argued that the energy of the psyche was derived mainly from the id which is why there is such preoccupation with satisfying the basic needs of life so that a person can survive and propagate. This is a specific standpoint and one that relates particularly to the body and lower psyche; the unconscious being largely, according to Freudians, concerned with id drives. The ego and the super-ego-ideal are seen as developments of the id that emerge to control the instincts, so that the most favourable conditions for fulfilment can be obtained. For example, people will not support someone who only considers himself because society is a balance between personal necessity and communal needs that aid all. This means that socially unacceptable behaviour is repressed. It is nevertheless still at work in the unconscious of both the individual and the community. The recognition of this hidden dimension was Freud’s chief contribution to psychology.

However, it must be said that Freud’s discovery of the unconscious was not new. He himself acknowledged that the arts and philosophy were well aware of it; but it was he who brought it to the attention of the scientific world although he had a difficult time getting them to accept its presence and power to influence. Later, his valuation of the unconscious, and the part it played in his scheme of the psyche, became less important as his emphasis focused upon the id, ego and super-ego-ideal. This reveals the range of Freudian perception which, when placed upon Jacob’s Ladder, covers the body Tree and the lower face and middle zone of the psyche; the unconscious being a grey area above and beyond Hod and Nezah. This is where Freud and Jung parted company for the latter was more interested in the higher dimension of the psyche and in the subdivisions of the unconscious.

Freud saw the archetypal levels of the mind but he considered their symbolic imagery as mostly instinctive and sexual in origin. Here we see how even a great man’s perception can be influenced by the astrological set of his psyche, for it is interesting to note that Freud had a Taurus Sun at his birth, which inclines a person towards the sensual and earthy, and a Gemini Moon which gives an extremely analytical ego that is forever probing what the fixed sign of the Bull is absorbed in. Moreover, his Scorpio Ascendant not only gave rise to an acute sexual consciousness but inclined him towards an in-depth investigation of the hidden. This combination of Scorpio Malkhut, Geminian Yesod and Taurean Tiferet is the essence of Freud’s vision and preoccupations. Because he had such a temperament and was born at a specific time, he was in the right place to carry out his investigations and present his conclusions. These have evolved over the years, in conjunction with those who followed him, into a general plan of the unconscious which still varies in detail according to each school.

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