ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature of the soul from the perspective of Hassidism and the Jewish mystical tradition because they are the roots from which Sigmund Freud and so many of his followers emerged. The negative qualities of the animal soul are called "the other side" and are closely identified with the evil inclination. The soul vitalizes the self. Meanwhile the self provides a skin for the soul. The division of soul armoring into impermeable, semi-permeable, and porous states is roughly comparable to Freud's topographical theory of the mind, where the psychic divisions are unconscious, preconscious, and conscious. Man's Godly soul is that aspect of himself that lies beyond his biological or narcissistic needs. The Godly soul, the nefesh elokit itself has a complex structure and can act as a hologram, where a part equals the whole. Hassidic thought postulates two kinds of conflicting souls, an "animal soul" and a "Godly soul".
