Herzl, King of the Jews

In this psychobiography, Avner Falk attempts to cast new light, through psychoanalytic probing, on the life and spirit of Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism. The author argues that Herzl's espousal of political Zionism reflected his attempts to resolve his own personal conflicts.

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The life of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of political Zionism, was brief, fascinating, dramatic and tragic. Herzl lived only 44 years, most of which he spent desperately trying to become a famous playwright; yet at the age of 35 he became obsessed with the Zionist Idea, and soon became the charismatic political leader of Zionist Jewry, revered and idolized by many, vilified and excommunicated by many others. In this psychoanalytic biography, Avner Falk attempts to cast new light, through deep psychoanalytic probing, on the life and spirit of Theodor Herzl. Falk's thesis asserts that Herzl's espousal of political Zionism, as well as the various other 'solutions' to the Jewish Question such as duelling and conversion, were desperate attempts to resolve the basic personal conflict of his entire life. He yearned for fusion with his early mother and had a compelling need for a separate self and therefore displaced his personal feelings to geopolitical entities, Europe symbolizing his mother and the Jews of the state symbolizing Herzl himself.