You shall be as gods by Erich Fromm

(,Jonathan Cape, 25s.)

Psychiatrists in this secular age are

often expected to carry out functions that were at one time the prerogative of priests. Few psychiatrists, however, have any sense of continuity between the religious testaments and present- day statements on human personal- ity. The schism is only partly due to the need for specialisation of know- ledge, and even as late as the twelfth century Moses Maimonides, living in

Spain and writing in Arabic, was phy- sician, philosopher, mathematician, and biblical commentator. The ghettos in Central Europe, in

contrast, were created in a culture

which separated and persecuted dif-

ferent religions, and in which scien-

tific knowledge could be religious heresy. The scholars within the Jewish

ghettos largely accepted their im-

prisonment and restricted themselves to the never ending study of the Tal- mudic complications of religious, legal, and secular knowledge. All parts of

this miscellaneous heritage were

treated with the same reverence. The removal of external restrictions

coincided with the scientific resurgence of the 19th century, and many Jews, liberated from the physical ghetto, were also eager to free themselves from the shackles of archaic religious teaching. It is not strange that Freud, in his formulation of revolutionary theories about the sources of human

thought, feeling, and behaviour, should have chosen classical Greek

myths as his conceptual models in pre- ference to the nuclear situations in the

stories of the Bible. It has needed another generation of

analysts to be able to reintegrate biblical and mediaeval writings with

contemporary themes. Erich Fromm is a psychoanalyst

steeped in the literature of the Old Testament and the Talmud, and this

books deals with the development of religion as part of the history of the development of man. The concept of God gradually changed from that of

an absolute and arbitrary ruler to one

who creates rules based on the ideals

of justice. God Himself becomes

bound by the rules that He creates

and He makes covenants with man

which are reciprocally binding.

The author quotes Maimonides

who was able to remove all human

attributes?even human ideals?from

the Deity and arrive at the conclusion that God can have no positive attri-

butes whatever. The culmination of Maimonides' ideas is in the profound truism that 'the Bible is written in

the language of man'. Primitive ideas

remain, and there are many who 'de- clare the unity with their lips, and

assume plurality in their thoughts'. Fromm refers to the responsibility

that comes from man's knowledge of

good and evil inherent in the story of the Garden of Eden. There is no

going back. In the history of Abra-

ham, the command to leave his coun-

try precedes the promise that God makes to him and 'the condition for

human evolution is the cutting of the

primary ties that bind man to his land, to his kindred, and to his father and

mother. Freedom is based on the

achievement of liberating oneself from the primary ties that give secur-

ity, yet cripple man'. This separation is the penalty for becoming 'as gods'. There is a beautiful story of some

rabbis disputing an interpretation of

the Law. The climax came when one

contestant called upon Heaven to give a sign to prove him right. The sign came in a heavenly voice, but his

opponent rose and exclaimed 'It is

not in heaven!' The story goes on to

say that God in Heaven laughed with

joy and said 'My sons have defeated me'. The meaning of this story is that writings in human language are a

human responsibility, but the point can be taken further into modern life when we recognise the power that men have now to change the future of their own race. It is the very same theme that Edmund Leach took up in

the recent Reith lectures when he

pointed out that man must take the

consequence of his powers.

Fromm is the modern equivalent of the ancient scholar who could en-

compass ideas from different fields of

thought. His references to psycho- analysis in this book are few, but the method of approach is that of the

psychoanalyst. The present is under- stood in relation to the past, and our

understanding of history is enriched by the application of contemporary ideas.

The aim of psychoanalysis, which is to enlarge personal responsibility

-?

for one's fate, is implicit in every- thing that Fromm writes.

J. H. Kahn