THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 52 Friday, June 13, 1975 In Defense of Philip Roth? A Review BY PETER A. MARTIN The question mark in the title of this review was an afterthought. My original feeling in reading Philip Roth's first book of non-fic- tion (after the eight books of fiction on which his reputa- tion is based) was to feel sorry for him and to defend his right to be the Philip Roth he wishes to be and not the "Mr. Roth" his critics expect him to be. Only as I was formulating my thoughts about his pre- dicament did I realize that his defense might better be served by yet another irra- tional attack upon him that in its one-sidedness would be just what some critics have accused Philip Roth of being — anti-Semitic. Perhaps it would be kin- der to Roth for me to vigor- ously attack this book. Then he could label my book re- view as more of the bizarre projections of others to which he has been subjected and respond as the innocent victim; putting him in the traditional position of the Jew. In this way, his attack- ers make a "good" Jew out of Roth. My defense of his rights might stimulate further attacks against him and thus be labeled "with friends like this, who needs enemies?" It was this realization that led me to add the question mark to the title. At a recent session of the National Conference on the Jewish Family, sponsored by the Women's League for Conservative Judaism and the United Synagogue of America, author Charles Angoff denounced Jewish writers of fiction "who are either ignorant of Jewish life, filled with shame or even self-hatred, or write out of sheer malice." Angoff said he was refer- ring to some of the most commercially successful Jewish writers, "such as Saul Bellow, Bernard Mala- , mud and, of course, Philip Roth." He said they had demon- strated "the least authentic- ity" in their portrayals of American Jewish life. He was critical of Jewish writ- ers who treat Jews and the Jewish family "in shabby fashion" and who seem to delight in villifying "the Jewish mother," who has sacrificed so gallantly throughout this century to keep her family together and who has "contributed such a glorious chapter to American JeWish -life I believe the above is I is free of them. Does this make him anti-Semitic? another of this genre of missing-the-point criti- cism of creative writers; of telling them what they "should" write instead of recognizing that they are driven from within to write . . . what they "must" write. Editor's Note: Dr. Peter Martin, the reviewer of Philip Roth's latest book "Reading Myself and Oth- ers" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), is nationally prominent in the science of psychiatry. President- elect of the American Col- lege of Psychiatrists, he has gained national recog- nition as an author of ma- jor works on psychiatry. His reviews of books have appeared in earlier issues of The Jewish News. - Philip Roth is a creative writer when he writes what he "must" write and should be judged on this basis. At those times when he or any other writer writes what he "should" (for example, in or- der to sell books) he be- comes a hack writer and is creatively irrelevant. I noted this point in my review pub- lished in The Jewish News of his novel, "The Breast." If the psychoanalytic "wound" theory of creativ- ity is correct, the creative writer writes because he must. It is his way of at- tempting to heal his wound and free himself of pain. The wound and the pain is largely unconscious, par- tially preconscious and sometimes conscious to the author. The creative writer plunges into the uncon- scious more readily than do his readers or his critics. Stated in Roth's words, this book of reflections reveal to him his continuing preoccu- pation with the relationship between the written and the unwritten world (within himself). The wound from which Roth suffers is a common one; common to Jew and Gentile alike, common to creative writer and non- creative writer alike. It is the wound resulting from the fight for individual rights as opposed to the demands of the civilization in which the individual lives. The wound results from the fight between salvaging the right to one's self, to one's needs, to one's plea- sures, to one's sense of power as opposed by the civ- ilizing, restricting, impot- ence-producing efforts of one's parents, one's culture and one's society. Most peo- ple are not as sensitive, not as wounded in this struggle for survival of the self as creative writers. We owe a debt to those creative people who do not withdraw autistically but who artistically communi- cate the pains of their strug- gle. Instead of recognition, we often give further pain to those who need approval so desperately by becoming non-comprehending critics. Roth's critics accuse him of self-loathing and hatred of self in his work. This may be present in the work of the creative writer, but that is not the purpose of his work. The purpose is to free him- self of self-loathing. It is an effort to save himself, his right to re- spect himself (his desires, his wishes, his Id) which his family and culture ask him to deny. If he succeeds in his efforts he will not have to hate himself. If he succumbs to the external demands, Ire- may lie with self-loathing. PHILIP ROTH In his work, Roth shows his stiff-necked, tyranical need for "independence". He fights to free himself from his parents (and their guilt- inducing love), to separate, to individuate and thus to transcend his parents. Is this fierce, unhappy struggle for his beliefs so evil? Is it so unlike the his- tory of the Jews in their adherence to their beliefs for which the Gentile world has repeatedly criticized them? And as is happening again in the current Mideast situation! Freud respected and ap- preciated creative writers. When asked what he thought of psychoanalysis, he modestly said, "Oh well, creative writers knaw all about it." He was aware of their capacity to dip into the unconscious and reveal as- pects of human nature hid- den to those who avoid the pain of exposing the inner turmoil for the inspection of others. Poor Portnoy, merely a figment of Roth's imagina- tion, struggles to free him- self from his impotence with Jewish mother-fig- ures by exhibiting sexual powers with the forbidden "shiksa." Writers like Roth are not the cause of the problem through their writing. They contribute to a deeper un- derstanding of the problem. For this they deserve more thanks than criticism. Creative writers, and Roth in this instance, are much like Joseph of biblical fame. What was there in Jo- seph that provoked jealousy, rivalry, and envy from his own family? Joseph was a good Jewish boy. But he was an ambi- tious boy, even an arrogant one-in his dreams. He made the mistake of telling his dreams to his family. (Note: This is also what creative writers do, often with the same consequences.) In his dreams, Joseph wished to do so well, that they would all bow down to him. Even his ambitious father, Jacob (Israel), who in his arrogance fought God and in his dreams climbed the ladder to the Heavens, could not stand the arrog- ance of his son Joseph. In Joseph's dreams of wanting to rise so high that his father, mothe.r,apd : brothers would bOW1:16.kh lb him, he transcends his parents and Does Roth's artistic use of his experience in a Jew- ish family and culture make him anti-Semitic? To be true to his own needs, he must in some ways betray his family. In every Jew there is such a recurrent internal strug- gle. At times the self-seek- ing portion of himself wins dominance over the alle- giance to his group or ori- gin. The man who loves Juda- ism must at times painfully put the group's survival above his self-interests. Geniuses like Freud and Marx were not able to do this or perhaps, we should say, chose not to do so. Whether it is more heroic to put one's self-interests above the group's despite the pressures of guilt, shame, and ostracism or more heroic to submerge one's vanity for the sake of the greater good of the group is the story of many persons' lives and many great novels. But this is also the strug- gle of all individuals within a structured society. Too much dominance by the group can destroy the indi- vidual. Too much individual freedom can destroy a so- ciety. Maintaining homeostasis is the struggle in everyone's life. Creative writers main- tain their homeostasis by successful writing. To quote Roth: "Fiction is not written to affirm the principles and beliefs that everybody seems to hold, nor does it seek to guarantee the ap- propriateness of our feel- ings. The world of fiction, in fact, frees us from the circumscriptions that so- ciety places upon feelings; one of the greatnesses of art is that it allows both the writer and the reader to respond to experience in ways not always available in day-to-day conduct; or, if they are available, or they are possible, or man- ageable, or legal, or advis- able, or even necessary to the business of living. "We may not even know that we have such a range of feeling and responses until we have come into contact with the work of fiction. This does not mean that ei- ther the reader or writer no longer brings any judge- ment to bear upon human action. `U.S. Should Leave Assembly If Israel is Ousted from UN' WASHINGTON (JTA) — Daniel P. Moynihan, the U.S. Ambassador-designate to the United Nations, said that the U.S. should pro- claim "now" that it will not stand for "eve.n the effort" to expel Israel from the UN General Assembly. Testifying before the Sen- ate Foreign Relations Com- mittee which is holding hearings on his nomination, the former U.S. Ambassa- dor to India and former pol- itical science professor at. Harvard said he agreed with the views expressed before the committee a month ago by Arthur J. Goldberg. Moynihan noted that the representatives of some 77 non-aligned and Third World countries had met in Havana in March and will meet again in Lima in August. He said it would be too late for the U.S. to take action in September with these representatives since by then the instruc- tions from their govern- ments will have been solid- ified. The non-aligned countries have called for a special ses- sion of the General Assem- bly in September to discuss economic problems. Moynihan pointed out that Israel cannot be ex- pelled from the UN as a whole because the Security Council must decide that, implying a U.S. veto of such an act. But he emphasized that even the effort to expel Is- rael "would be a cata- strophic action." He de- scribed such an act as Meanwhile, Goldberg told the Presidents Confer- ence of Major American Jewish Organizations that he told President Ford that in case of the ejection of Is- rael from the UN the U.S. should withdraw from the General Assembly, but re- main on the Security Council with its veto. He also said that Secre- tary of State Kissinger characterized his suggestion as "too early" and "overkill." Kissinger said Friday that the United States "strongly opposes" expul- Sfoh ofahy country from the United Nations General Assembly, but said the Ad- ministration has "not de- cided on specific steps" should the Arab bloc and its supporters seek to oust Is- rael from the Assembly in September. Senate Extends Ford's Power to Continue Credits to Israel WASHINGTON (JTA) — By better than a three-to- one margin, the Senate ap- proved last week continua- tion for two years of standby authority for the President to extend military credits and guarantees for Israel to purchase American equipment. The vote for passage was 68-22 after a move to table the legislation was defeated 32-59. The authorization, first introduced by Sen. Henry M. Jackson (D-Wash.) in 1970 and continued bienni- ally since, was sponsored by Jackson and Sens. James Buckley (R-C-N.Y.), Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.), Clifford Case (R-N.J.) and Harrison Williams (D-N.J.I. "Rather we judge at a dif- ferent level of our being, for not only are we judging with the aid of new feelings, but without the necessity to act upon judgment. The opposition was led by Sen. John Stennis (D- Miss.) head of the Senate Armed Services Commit- tee, who contended that the authorization was not within the jurisdictional limits of the Defense Pro- curement Bill. "Ceasing for awhile to be upright citizens, we drop into another layer of con- sciousness. And this expan- sion of moral consciousness, this exploration of moral fantasy, is of considerable ‘ a-1 o e to - rnan and to so- ciety." He was supported by Sens. Barry Goldwater (R- Ariz. ), James Abourezk, (D- S.D.) and Sam Nunn (D- Ga.). It was reported here that. President Ford, in briefing Congressional lead- ers on his talks with Egyp- tian and Israeli leaders, op- - DANIEL MOYNIHAN "madness" and "contrary to the spirit and the letter" of the UN Charter. posed the measure. The authorization which extends through December 1977, enables the President to grant financial assistance to Israel as may be neces- sary. It contains no dollar ceiling. Its purpose is to allow credit to be extended in the event the formal foreign aid legislation gets bogged down in the legislative proc- ess leaving'the President without authority to aid Is- rael. Physicians Set Annual Assem, BROOKLINE, Mass. — The 25th annual assembly of the American Physicians Fellowship, Inc. for the Is- rael Medical Association will be held 8:30 p.m. Mon- day at the Chalfonte-Had- don Hall in Atlantic City. The assembly is being held in conjunction with the American Medical Associa- tion convention week. Dr. Shaul Feldman of Je- rusalem, chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Israel Medical Association, will speak on "Israel as a Medical Center." Violinist Debra Biderman of the New Jersey Sym- phony Orchestra will pre- sent a musical program.