ABSTRACT
Ezekiel has traditionally been thought of as a prophet, one who experienced his radical message as of crucial significance to the religious and political life of the community in which he lived, and whose writings had a transforming influence on Jewish society. In this paper, however, I wish to consider instead the ways in which the exile of part of the Jewish nation to Babylon in the 6th century bc provided Ezekiel with a metaphor for schizoid processes within the psyche. Ezekiel himself was among those sent to Babylon, and this bitter experience seems to have helped to clarify and structure his awareness of his inner world in a remarkably developed way. I also intend to focus on the intra-psychic processes symbolized by his visions and prophecies, those internal experiences which determined the poetic content of his work; experiences which inspired great poets many centuries after he lived and can still evoke a profound response today.
