Pin the tale on the donkey

The publication of RSE gives analysts an occasion to return to Freud, with opportunities for remembering, repeating and working through. This paper returns to a fascinating symptom in Notes on a Case of Obsessional Neurosis and explores connections that are in plain sight but tend to be overlooked. In particular, it returns to the figure of Balaam and his Donkey in the Hebrew Bible. Issues include the fading of common knowledge, indifference, forgetting, envy and even cancelation at the level of cultural experience.