The Spinoza Problem (33 page)

“And what of your cousin Jacob?”

“He has moved back to Rotterdam, and I rarely see him.”

“And the important question:
are you content
, Franco?”

“Yes, but a melancholy sort of contentment. Knowing you has shown me another facet of life, a life of the mind that I do not fully experience. I am greatly comforted to know that you will be there and continue to share your explorations with me. My world is smaller, and I can already see its future contours. My mother and sister have selected my wife, a girl of sixteen from our village in Portugal, and we shall marry in a few weeks. I approve of the selection—she is comely, pleasant, and brings a smile to my face. She will make a good wife.”

“Will you be able to talk to her of all your interests?”

“I believe so. She, too, is starved for knowledge. Like most girls from our village, she doesn’t even know how to read. I have begun her education.”

“Not too much education, I hope. There may be danger in that. But, tell me, is there talk of me in the community?”

“Until this incident, I have heard none. It’s as though the community were ordered not only to avoid you but also not to speak your name. I don’t hear it uttered, though of course I know nothing about what is said behind closed doors. Perhaps it is only my imagination, but I do believe your spirit floats about the community and influences much. For example, our Hebrew training sessions are extraordinarily intense and permit no questioning whatsoever. It’s as though the rabbis were making certain that another Spinoza will never be born.”

Bento bowed his head.

“Perhaps I should not have said that, Bento. I was unkind.”

“You can be unkind only by shielding me from the truth.”

A gentle knock at the door and then Clara Maria’s voice: “Bento.”

Bento opened the door.

“Bento, I must go out soon. How much longer will your friend stay?”

Bento glanced questioningly at Franco, who whispered that he had to leave shortly, for he had no good reason to be absent from work. Bento replied, “Clara Maria, give us just a few more minutes, please.”

“I’ll be waiting in the music room.” Clara Maria closed the door softly.

“Who is she, Bento?”

“The schoolmaster’s daughter and my teacher. She’s teaches me Latin and Greek also.”

“Your
teacher
? Impossible. How old is she?

“About sixteen. She started teaching me at thirteen. She is a prodigy. Quite unlike any other girl.”

“She seems to regard you with love and tenderness.”

“Yes, that is so, and I reciprocate those sentiments but . . .” Bento hesitated; he was not accustomed to share his innermost feelings. “But today she has much aggravated my distress by showing even more tenderness toward my friend and classmate.”

“Ah, jealousy. That can indeed be painful. I am so sorry, Bento. But last time did you not speak to me of embracing a life of solitude and forsaking the idea of a mate? You seemed so committed or perhaps
resigned
to a life alone.”

“Committed
and
resigned. I am absolutely committed to a life of the mind and know I can never take on the responsibility of a family. And I also know that it is impossible legally to marry either Christian or Jew. And Clara Maria is Catholic. A superstitious Catholic at that.”

“So you have difficulty giving up that which you really don’t want and cannot have?”

“Right! I like the way you drill directly to the heart of my absurdity.”

“And you say you love her? And your good friend whom she favors?”

“I had love for him as well, until today. He helped me move after the
cherem
; he saved my life last night. He is a good man. And planning to be a physician.”

“But you want her to desire you rather than him, even though you know that would make all three of you unhappy. “

“Yes, that is true.”

“And the greater the desire she has for you, the greater will be her despair at not having you.”

“Yes, that is undeniable.”

“But you love her, and you desire her happiness. And if she is in pain, you too will suffer?”

“Yes, yes, and yes. Everything you say is correct.”

“And one last question. You say she is a superstitious Catholic? And Catholics adore ritual and miracles. How then does she relate to your ideas of God as Nature, to your rejection of ritual and superstition?”

“I would never speak of those views with her.”

“Because she will reject them and perhaps reject you as well?”

Bento nodded. “Every word you say is true, Franco. I have strived so hard, given up so much to be free, and now I’ve given up my freedom and become enthralled by Clara Maria. When I think of her, I am quite incapable of thinking of other loftier thoughts. In this matter it is obvious that I am not my own master but am enslaved by passion. Though reason shows me what is better, I am forced to follow what is worse.”

“It’s a very old story, Bento. We have always been enslaved by love. How shall you liberate yourself?”

“I can be free only if I absolutely sever my connections to sensual pleasure, wealth, and fame. If I do not heed reason, I will remain a slave to passion.”

“Yet, Bento,” said Franco, standing and preparing to depart, “we know that reason is no match for passion.”

“Yes. Only a stronger emotion can conquer an emotion. My task is clear: I must learn to turn reason into a passion.”

“
To turn reason into a passion
,” whispered Franco as they walked toward the music room, where Clara Maria waited. “A stupendous task. When next we meet I hope to hear of your progress.”

Dr. Karl Abraham read the letter and handed it back to Friedrich. “And how do you plan to respond?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to use my supervisory hour today to discuss it. You remember him? I described my talk with him some months ago.”

“The publisher of
The Protocols of Zion
? How could I forget him?”

“I haven’t seen Herr Rosenberg since then. Just some letters. But here’s yesterday’s copy of his paper, the
Völkischer Beobachter
. Just look at this headline:

Glancing at the headline, Dr. Abraham shook his head in disgust and asked, “And
The Protocols
—have you read it?”

“Only extracts and a few discussions that label it a fraud.”

“An obvious fraud, but a dangerous one. And I have no doubt that your patient, Rosenberg, knew that. Reliable Jewish scholars in my community tell me that the Protocols were concocted by a disreputable Russian writer, Serge Nilus, who wished to persuade the tsar that the Jews were trying to dominate Russia. After reading
The Protocols
, the tsar ordered a series of bloody pogroms.”

“So,” Friedrich said, “my question is how can I do therapy with a patient who commits such vile acts? I know he is dangerous. How do I handle my countertransference?”

“I prefer to think of countertransference as the therapist’s neurotic response to the patient. In this case, your feelings have a rational basis. The proper question becomes, ‘How do you work with someone who is, by any objective standard, a repulsive, malignant person capable of much destruction?’”

Friedrich considered his supervisor’s words. “Repulsive, malignant. Strong words.”

“You’re right, Dr. Pfister—those were my terms, not yours, and I believe you’re alluding, quite correctly, to another issue—the countertransference of the
supervisor
—which may interfere with my ability to teach you. Being a Jew makes it impossible for me personally to treat this lethal, anti-Semitic individual, but let’s see if perhaps I can still be of use as a supervisor. Tell me more about your feelings toward him.”

“Though I’m not Jewish, I’m personally offended by his anti-Semitism. After all, the people I am closest to here are almost all Jews—my analyst, you, and most of the faculty of the institute.” Friedrich picked up Alfred’s letter. “Look. He writes proudly of his career advancements, expecting me to be pleased. Instead I feel increasingly offended and frightened for you, for all civilized Germans. I think he’s evil. And his idol, this Hitler, may be the devil incarnate.”

“That’s one part. Yet there is another part of you that wants to continue seeing him. Why?”

“It’s what we discussed before—my intellectual interest in analyzing someone whose past I shared. I’ve known his brother all my life; I knew Alfred as a young child.”

“But Dr. Pfister, it’s obvious that you’ll never be able to analyze him. The distance alone makes that impossible. At best you’ll see him only for a few scattered sessions and never be able to do deep archaeological work on his past.”

“Right. I have to let that idea go. There must be other reasons.”

“I remember your telling me about your sense of an annihilated past. There is only your good friend, the brother. I’ve forgotten his name—”

“Eugen.”

“Yes, there remains only Eugen Rosenberg and to a much lesser extent, in that you were never close to him, Eugen’s younger brother, Alfred. Your parents are dead, no siblings, you have no other contacts with your early life—neither persons nor places. It seems to me that you’re trying to deny aging or transience by searching for something imperishable. You’re dealing with that, I hope, in your personal analysis?”

“Not yet. But your comments are helpful. I cannot stop time by clinging to Eugen or Alfred. Yes, Dr. Abraham, you’re making it clear that seeing Alfred does nothing for my inner conflicts.”

“That is so important, Dr. Pfister, I will repeat it.
Seeing Alfred Rosenberg can do nothing for your inner conflicts.
The place for that is in your own analysis. Right?”

Friedrich nodded, resigned.

“So I ask again—why do you want to see him?”

“I’m unsure. I agree that he is a dangerous man, a man who spreads hatred. Yet I still think of him as the little boy next door rather than a man who is evil. I consider him misguided, not demonic. He truly believes that racial nonsense, and his thoughts and actions follow in a perfectly consistent manner from Houston Stewart Chamberlain’s premises. I don’t believe he is a psychopath, a sadist, or a violent person. He’s rather timid in fact, almost cowardly and insecure. He relates poorly to others, and is entirely given over to the hope of love from his leader, Hitler. But still, he seems aware of his limitations and surprisingly ready to do some therapeutic work.”

“So, then, your goals in therapy are . . .”

“Perhaps I’m being naïve, but isn’t it true that if I can change him into a more moral person, then he’ll do less mischief in the world? That has got to be better than doing nothing. Perhaps I can even help him address the power and the irrationality of his anti-Semitism.”

“Ah, if you could successfully analyze anti-Semitism, you’d get the Nobel prize that has, so far, eluded Freud’s grasp. You have ideas about how to approach that?”

“Not yet—it’s off in the distance, and certainly it’s
my
goal, not the patient’s goal.”

“And his goal? What does he want?”

“His explicit goal is to relate more effectively to Hitler and other party members. I would have to smuggle in anything loftier than that.”