02/11/2026
The Covenant, Freud’s “Devouring Mother,” and the Danger of Unconditional Love as taught by Dennis Prager and Dr. Jordan Peterson. Last week I had the honor to meet Dennis Prager’s son David, pictured here. Dennis Praeger’s book, “The 9 Questions People Ask About Judaism,” profoundly changed the intellectual and spiritual course of my life. We pray for Mr. Prager and hope he makes a full recovery. In Exodus 19:5, The Almighty says, “If you will obey my voice indeed and keep all my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people.” A contractual, rather than standard-less relationship. Freud’s archetypal “Devouring Mother” has unlimited love, compassion, and generosity. To her 25 year old son still living at home she says, “I love you just the way you are. I think you’re perfect!” And! “Look at me! Look how much love I have.” But as Dr. Peterson observes this poor woman has no standards so it’s not clear it’s love that she has. She is Freud’s feared, life crushing, Devouring, Oedipal Mother, who showers love and compassion without preconditions, while simultaneously trying to intervene and remove or prevent every negative emotion. She must remove the possibility of failure, anxiety, dissapointment and pain from her child’s life, preventing short term pain, but preventing growth, maturity resilience, grit, and fortitude. She might even chastise her children when they fail to appreciate “all that I’ve done for you” and “all I have sacrificed for you!” Peterson reminds us that Sigmund Freud said that the greatest danger to the abiding spirit of mankind is the devouring element of blind compassion. A contractual relationship with standards, better in Exodus, between the Jewish People and The Almighty, and better for your relationships, than unconditional love.
