| Moses and Monotheism | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Sigmund Freud |
| Original title | Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion |
| Genre(s) | Psychology |
| Publication date | 1939 |
| ISBN | 978-0394700144 |
Moses and Monotheism, 1939 by Sigmund Freud, ISBN 978-0394700144 (originally appearing in German in 1937 as: Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion) is a book where Freud hypothesizes that Moses was not Jewish, but actually born into Ancient Egyptian nobility and was perhaps a follower of Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian monotheist, or perhaps Akhenaten himself. The book consists of three parts and is an extension of Freud's work on psychoanalytic theory as a means of generating hypotheses about historical events. Freud had similarly employed psychoanalytic theory to history in his much earlier work, Totem and Taboo. As well as in his ever-expanding library on the subject, Freud's interest in Egypt manifested itself in an impressive collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts. A selection of the smaller bronzes were permanently on display on his desk both in Vienna and London.
In Moses and Monotheism, Freud contradicts the Biblical story of Moses with his own retelling of events claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom during an unstable period in Egyptian history after Akhenaten and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion and later combined with another monotheistic tribe in Midian based on a volcanic God. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels regretted their action thus forming the concept of the Messiah as a hope for the return of Moses as the Saviour of the Israelites. Freud said that the guilt from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the Jews to religion to make them feel better.