ABSTRACT
For many centuries Maimonidean rationalism represented only one end of the spectrum of Jewish response to mental health. Jung tells the story of a young Jewish woman, suffering from acute anxiety attacks, who came to him for a consultation. Modern Anglo–Jewish life contains some self-evident truths. From the ultra-Orthodox enclaves to the most assimilated suburban or rural milieux, all sections of Anglo-Jewry are subject to these pressures. Non-Jews continually refer to the warmth and closeness of Jewish family life. Male Anglo-Jewry is frightened of the power of women. But for religious and cultural and historical reasons, male fear of the creative and destructive potential of women has specific resonances in a Jewish context. Attempts to blot out the anguish in the souls of Anglo-Jewish families can take many forms. Contemporary psychological ailments and disease among Jews need to be viewed against the backdrop of those particular collective pressures which individual Jews experience–sometimes consciously, though mainly unconsciously–within modern society.
