When Pope Francis Saw A Jewish Psychologist
Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis August 31, 2017
Pope Francis once underwent psychoanalysis with a Jewish analyst, according to a new book-length interview of the pontiff conducted by a French academic.
Francis said that he saw the psychoanalyst weekly for about six months when he was 42 years old.
It’s unclear why the pope specified the analyst’s religion. The full English-language text of the anecdote is not yet available.
Francis went to see the psychoanalyst “to clarify certain things,” he said. Francis said that analyst was “a very good person who helped me very much.”
If the pope’s memory is correct, he would have seen the analyst in the late 1970s. He was at the time a senior Jesuit priest living in Argentina.
The book, published in France as “Politique et société,” consists of an unedited interview between Francis and Dominique Wolton, a prominent French sociologist.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at nathankazis@forward.com or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
