The Spinoza Problem by Irvin D. Yalom

I love this book by my favorite psychoanalyst/author, Irvin Yalom. As he did in his novels, When Nietzsche Wept and The Schopenhauer Cure, Yalom uses his psychoanalytic training and philosophical knowledge to construct a gripping work of historical fiction. He offers plausible theories about the internal lives of the brilliant philosopher Baruch Spinoza and the demented Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. Yalom expertly alternates between the story of Spinoza’s life as an excommunicated Jew from Amsterdam in the 17th century and Rosenberg’s life as a Nazi in 20th century Germany.

In 2007 Yalom visits the Spinoza Museum in Rijnsburg, 45 minutes outside of Amsterdam. He learns that in 1942, Alfred Rosenberg, the prominent anti-Semitic Nazi ideologue, had organized his henchmen to pack all the books from the Spinoza Museum and take them to Germany. The official Nazi Report about the looting states, “The museum contains possible early works of great importance for the exploration of the Spinoza problem.” Yalom asks himself, "Why would one of the strategists of the plot to eradicate the Jewish population in Europe personally travel to Amsterdam to over see the stealing and preserving of Spinoza’s books? Why not simply burn the museum and its contents?"  It turns out that when Rosenberg made anti-Semitic comments in boarding school, the headmaster instructed him to read the German philosopher Goethe’s writings. Goethe admired Spinoza and praised Spinoza in his writings. This does not make sense to Rosenberg. How could his hero, Goethe, admire this Jewish philosopher? It is a question that haunts him.

Spinoza’s orthodox community believed that the Torah was the exact word of God and that science should not be pursued. Spinoza came to believe in a paradigm based on thought, reasoning, science and evidence, not superstition. He was a kind and gentle man, but was still excommunicated from his Jewish community. He left Amsterdam and began a life of reading, writing and contemplation of non-Talmudic authors. As Yalom states, "Spinoza’s ideas paved the way for the Enlightenment." Different from the shallow rote thinking of Rosenberg, Spinoza was curious, analytical and self-reflective. He believed that current thoughts and feelings were most likely shaped by previous experiences. He was a thinker ahead of his time.

By the 1940s, Rosenberg had risen to a high position in the Nazi Party. Yalom includes the venomous lies and disgusting insults written by Rosenberg in his Nazi sponsored newspaper. He then imagines a “therapy” that might explore Rosenberg's petrifying pathology and uncover his obsession with Spinoza and the “Jewish problem.” Yalom suggests that Rosenberg has such an extreme inferiority complex that he develops a compensating “superiority complex." Why the Jewish people are Rosenberg’s particular target is not a point Yalom dwells upon. After all, the odious bigotry of anti-Semitism had permeated many aspects of European culture for centuries. Rosenberg never repented for his involvement in the Final Solution. He was hung at the end of the Nuremberg trials. 

The Spinoza Problem is another superb novel by Irvin Yalom. Integrating history, philosophy and psychology, he takes us on another deep dive into understanding why human beings behave the way they do.