A Psychoanalytic History of the Jews is an interdisciplinary rewriting and reinterpretation of four thousand years of Jewish history. It integrates insights from history, archaeology, biblical scholarship, anthropology, sociology and Jewish studies with those of psychoanalysis to achieve a deep understanding of Jewish history. The main thrust of this work is the application of psychoanalytic insight to Jewish history.

This includes the evolution of the Hebrew religion as a projective response to the inner conflicts produced by the human family; the sociopsychological development of the Israelite kingdoms in Canaan; the fascinating duality of Jewish life in the "Diaspora"; and the emotional ties of the Jews to their idealized motherland from the Babylonian exile to modern political Zionism.