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More personal motives also compelled Loewenstein to write Christians and Jews. [[Born]] in [[Russia]], he was a [[citizen]] of several nations before, having settled in France and [[identified]] himself entirely with the [[French]], he suddenly found himself scorned and rejected by his adopted country because he was [[Jewish]]. He believed that [[psychoanalysis]] could contribute to some better [[understanding]] of anti-Semitic attitudes and might even offer a solution.
Loewenstein began by reviewing the known causes of [[anti-Semitism]], citing various works and historical documentation. He then offered examples from his [[experience]] as an [[analyst]]; he believed that [[therapy]] represented "a [[good]] opportunity for a kind of experimental study in the incipient and [[developmental]] [[stages]] of [[Anti-semitism|anti-Semitism]]" (p. 30). Citing Leon Pinsker, the Russian physician and [[author]] of Auto-Emancipation (1882 [1916]), Loewenstein discussed "judeophobia" as a type of demonophobia, a near-[[psychosis]] that incorporates [[feelings]] of [[fear]], [[hatred]], and disgust. Certain forms of anti-Semitism [[represent]] aspects of [[paranoia]], such as xenophobia, revulsion over circumcision, and [[projection]] of [[self]]-hatred, while [[other]] characteristics, such as [[religious]] [[intolerance]] and [[economic]] [[rivalry]], have an opportunistic appeal.
Loewenstein's hypothesis, based on Gustave Le Bon's [[theory]] of collective psychology, is that anti-Semitic tendencies, [[latent]] in individuals, suddenly metamorphose in groups into violent attitudes that spread like an epidemic. [[Hitler]]'s anti-Semitic laws and his [[persecution]] of Jews, for example, enabled latent anti-Semitism in [[individual]] Germans to [[manifest]] itself. The underlying mechanisms rely on [[irrational]] and absurd medieval beliefs, such as the putatively peculiar anatomy of the Jew (a hidden tail, menstrual periods in males) and his supposedly demonic [[character]] (engagement in [[ritual]] [[murder]], [[sexual]] perversions), as well as modern beliefs (Jewish culpability in starting wars, international financial cabals, Jewish-Masonic conspiracies). Loewenstein also suggested [[another]], more [[oedipal]] level to anti-Semitism, as reflected in [[Freud]]'s [[Moses]] and [[Monotheism]], viewing the [[struggle]] of the early Christians, with their hatred of the old [[religion]], as a means of avoiding the "[[return]] of the [[repressed]]"—the [[recollection]] of their own [[revolt]] against imposed religion. Finally, Loewenstein questions whether the Jews do not themselves aid in perpetuating anti-Semitic reactions, in a chapter titled "On 'Jewish' Character Traits and [[Social]] [[Structure]]."
