ABSTRACT
Roback, among the earlier analysts and commentators, suggested that the habit of causal analysis is especially congenial to the Jewish mind, and that some aspects of Freud’s work—the stress laid on male and female and the exploitation of all sorts of symbols to suit a particular conjecture—have their counterparts in Cabbalistic writings. The Jungian or traditionalist background will be taken first, as being, in Western Europe, the older of the two. Exceptions naturally existed—greed and ambition do not suddenly come into being a few centuries further on; we may recall, for instance, some of the abbots of large monasteries, with their general-like marshalling of manpower and resources, and no doubt a strong element of authoritarianism. Two characteristic medieval activities, fighting and building, both of which involved the large-scale movement of personnel and raw materials, could not be carried on without more ready money and a more complex financial organization.
