In this pioneering work, the author challenges the popular view of Freud as an entirely secular intellectual, schooled in modern culture rather than Jewish traditions. Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition is based on the premise that Freudian psychoanalytic theory is largely rooted in the Jewish religion, particularly the mysticism of the kabbala. In a fascinating interpretation of the blend of personality and cultural history, it employs the father of psychology's own distinction between being a Jew and the acceptance of Jewish doctrine to demonstrate the effect of Jewish mysticism in the formation of his technical genius.