In Seeking Ezekiel, David J. Halperin argues that the biblical
Book of Ezekiel provides substantial information about its author's
psychology and reveals his personality in considerable depth.
Psychoanalytic investigation of the book yields a coherent portrait
of its author: a marvelously gifted yet profoundly disturbed man,
tormented by inner conflicts over his sexual longings and
fears.
Ezekiel, Halperin argues, was dominated by a pathological dread
and loathing of female sexuality. He expresses this emotional
stance in the symbolic language of dreams (his vision of a temple
polluted by idolatry); in a thin disguise of historical allegory
(his obscenely graphic representations of Israel and Jerusalem as
promiscuous wives); and in his self-described behavior at his
wife's death.
Ezekiel also demonstrates a deeply ambivalent attitude toward a
dominant male figure. Normally, he projects the positive elements
of his ambivalence onto his God, its negative elements onto other
males. Yet the reverse can also take place, and this does much to
explain the disturbing cruelty and arbitrariness of Ezekiel's
God.
Any psychological study of a man dead for 2500 years will run
into formidable methodological difficulties. Halperin establishes
the legitimacy of his approach by arguing that it permits the
solution of a wide range of long-recognized textual problems.
The implications of Halperin's study extend far beyond the
boundaries of Biblical scholarship. The sexual pathology that he
attributes to Ezekiel has afflicted humanity for most of its
history, tainting the relations of men and women the world over.
Ezekiel's powerful influence on posterity has done its part in
strengthening the grip of this pathology. By understanding Ezekiel,
people may come to a better understanding of his sickness within
themselves and thus eventually come to find healing.
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