ABSTRACT
Wellisch, a British psychiatrist and psychotherapist, maintained that Freud’s “Oedipus complex” portrayed an incomplete, underdeveloped and hopelessly Greek picture of mental health. To compensate for this perceived deficit in psychological theory, Wellisch focused on the story of the Akedah as the quintessential example of oedipal mastery. Wellisch argued that parent-child dynamics were biblically codified in the covenantal resolution of the Akedah narrative, that they are characterised by the wholesale abandonment of paternal aggression and possessiveness, which are replaced by a peaceful, unambivalent bond of love and trust. Kalman Kaplan and his associates have generated a renewed interest in a non-theological Bible-based metapsychology and placed the Akedah motif as the cornerstone of their conceptual efforts. For children, by identifying with the “lad” Isaac who narrowly escapes being murdered by his father, the Akedah functions as a simple fairy tale that communicates a fantastical escape from filicidal rage.
