Introduction—Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed as a Medieval Precursor to Freud's Interpretation of Dreams

An overview of this book: how Freud and Maimonides share fundamental ideas about the mental mechanisms of the need to conceal and also to reveal meaningful secrets. Furthermore, both Freud and Maimonides describe similar mental mechanisms of both concealment and revelation. Both strongly prefer that such work be done in dialogue (not in writing). I introduce Strauss's concepts of exoteric and esoteric narratives and Josef Stern on parable. I compare these to Auerbach's concepts of foreground versus background as he contrasts the Bible and Homer.