Collective Birth Trauma in the Ancient Biblical History of Israel

This article attempts to apply Rank’s concept of individual birth trauma
to the history of ancient Israel as depicted in the Bible. The birth of the Jewish people
as reviewed in the relevant Biblical texts demonstrates recurrent and significant
traumata at individual, family, and large-scale collective levels, indicating that the
early Israelites did experience collective birth trauma. Ramifications of this for a
greater understanding of the Bible and of Jewish history and cultural practices are
explored. The potential need and possibility of clinical treatment of collective trauma
is also discussed.
KEY WORDS: Birth trauma, Otto Rank, psychological trauma, collective trauma,
separation, PTSD, collective memory, primal therapy, Bible, Israel