One of the most important Jewish mystical thinkers of the last few
centuries was the Polish Kabbalist Rabbi Schnuer Zalman (17471813),
a follower, a generation removed, of the 
Baal Shem Tov
and founder of the Chabad
(named after the first letter of the three "intellectual" sefirot
Hokhmah, Binah, and Daat) or Lubavitcher
(after the town of Lubavitch in Poland where it originated) sect of
Hassidism.
His most important work is a long treatise known as the Tanya ("That
which has been revealed"), full of religious, Kabbalistic, and psychological
material.
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Rabbi Zalman presents a simpler cosmology than that of Kabbalists
like
Cordovero and Luria,
uniting the world of
Atzilut with the
En Sof, and identifying
the physical reality with the World of
Asiyah.
In fact, the world of Atzilut is described in a manner very much like the
Nirguna Brahman of 
Indian Monism.
It is
"...beyond the intelligence, comprehension and understanding of a created intellect, because the chohmah, binah, and da'at [the higher three Sefirot; the Divine Intellect] of the blessed En Sof are united with it therein in perfect unity, a profound and wonderful unity which infinitely excels, in degree and form, that which is found in the world of Beriah..." [Tanya p.191].
The world of
Yetzirah meanwhile
is the region of angels, which, Rabbi Zalman writes
"...have no freedom of choice, and their fear and love (of God) are their natural instincts...Therefore the quality of the tzaddikim [Righteous holy men] is superior to theirs, for the abode of the souls of the righteous is in the world of Beriah, whereas the abode of the angels is in the world of Yetzirah. [Tanya p.187].
Rabbi Zalman developed a sophisticated psychology. He taught that
human nature is twofold. Man consists of a Divine soul, or nefesh
elokit, which is a spark from God above, from the Divine Mind or Supreme
Wisdom (Hokhmah Ila'ah), and the inferior or Animal soul, Nefesh
behamit, which is derived from the lower cosmic nature or husks"
(klippot) and
is the source of base "animal" passions such as anger, pride, lust, frivolity,
boasting, idle talk, sloth, and melancholy.
The Divine soul is modelled after the arrangement of the
Sefirot or Divine
attributes. Just as the Sefirot are divided into three higher and
seven lower, so the Soul is divided into two categories, Intellect (sekhel)
and Emotion (middot). The Intellect is itself threefold,
consisting of Hokhmah
(Wisdom),
Binah
(Understanding), and Daat
(Knowledge).
Rabbi Zalman associates the "Animal" soul with the left side of the
heart, the emotions with the right side of the heart, and the intellect
as with modern materialism and holism with the brain [Tanya
p.31]; thus suggesting a somatic psychology. But he does not develop
a theory of psychic centres (chakras)
like Tantra
postulated.
In many ways, R. Zalman's psychology can be compared to Plato's
and his successors', although there is obviously no causal relation between
the two. The nous or "rational soul" can be equated with the
sekhel or intellect, although the former is not subdivided
like the latter; the thymos with the
middot or emotions,
and the epithymia or "irrational soul" or physical desires
with the the Lower or "Animal" soul. And whilst Plato did not conceive
the epithymia as negative, later the Hermeticist, Neoplatonists,
and Christian
mystics spoke of the "passions" or "the irrational soul"
in a very negative manner, seeing them as obstacles to the spiritual path.
Indeed, with Zalman we have a profound psychology, but a psychology
which was never able to break free of its religioussectarian milieu.
Thus, Hassidic psychology always remained inextricably interwoven with
religious doctrine.
The psychoanalyst David Bakan argues that Freud was influenced, perhaps indirectly, by Kabbalah. Although Bakan does not seem to mention hassidic thought, there does seem to be a parallel here. R. Zalman's concept of tension and battle between the intellectual "Divine Soul" and the instinctual "Animal Soul", and the need to subjugate the latter to the former, strongly recalls Freud's antagonism of Ego and Id, or Conscious and Unconscious, and the idea of the Ego as making Conscious what was previously Unconscious.
Nowadays, the Lubavicher sect Rabbi Zalman founded constitute the largest surviving sect of Hassidism. They are very piously religious, and have their headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, where they make up a strong and very traditionalist ethnic subcommunity, and constitute an important sect of orthodox Judaism.
The
Purpose of the Chassidic Rebbe
Chassidism
and Chassidic Thought - a list of resources. Comprehensive.
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page uploaded 28 May 1998