Philip Roth, 1962, photographer - Carl Mydans

“Portnoy’s Complaint: Portnoy’s Complaint n.[after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel says: ‘Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient’s “morality,” however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.’ (Spielvogel, O. “The Puzzled Penis,”Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.”

After reading this for the first time… being raised by a similar Jewish mother and grandmother (who would’ve been Portnoy’s mother’s age) and having had several unsuccessful relationships while believing myself superior than everyone else … well, this book hit home, like I’m sure it did to many of my fellow atheist Jews over the years since this book’s publication.