Three texts on the Kabbalah: More,Wachter, Leibniz,and the philosophy of the Hebrews

ABSTRACT

The article reconstructs a brief controversy between H. More, G. W. Leibniz and J. G. Wachter about the Kabbalah, or what they called ‘the philosophy of the Hebrews’. I study in particular the status of the proposition ‘nothing comes out of nothing’ in their exchanges - a proposition they all agreed was a fundamental kabbalist axiom while having differing views as to the prospects of reconciling that position with Christianity. I show how Wachter’s curious Kabbalistico-Spinozism provided the stage for an indirect philosophical encounter between Leibniz and More that highlights not only their respective positions on the Kabbalah, but also suggests some important philosophical agreement between them regarding divine transcendence and the nature of creation.     

Expulsion prevention: Framework for the role of infant and early childhood mental health consultation in addressing implicit biases

Young children of color—especially boys—are at disproportionate risk for suspension and expulsion from early care and education settings. Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) is an approach associated with lower than expected expulsion rates, but the mechanisms through which it may influence preschool expulsion are unknown. This paper reflects on the parallels between IECMHC and interventions created to reduce implicit bias. Based on interviews with leaders in IECMHC practice, implementation, and evaluation, a theoretical framework was created to articulate how IECMHC is hypothesized to affect expulsion by first reducing the influence of implicit bias on disciplinary decisions. Implications for practice and research are provided.     

Age-related differences in the von restorff isolation effect

When one item is made distinct from the other items in a list, memory for the distinctive item is improved, a finding known as the isolation or von Restorff effect (after von Restorff, 1933). Although demonstrated numerous times with younger adults and children, this effect has not been found with older adults (Cimbalo & Brink, 1982). In contrast to the earlier study, we obtained a significant von Restorff effect for both younger and older adults using a physical manipulation of font colour. The effect size for older adults was smaller than that obtained for younger adults, confirming a prediction of Naveh-Benjamin's (2000) associative deficit hypothesis, which attributes age-related differences in memory performance to older adults' reduced ability to form associations. The findings are consistent with related research in which older adults demonstrate similar—but smaller—benefits for distinctive information to those for younger adults.     

The Contribution of Empathy to Ethics

ABSTRACT

Empathy has been taken to play a crucial role in ethics at least since the Scottish Enlightenment. More recently, a revival of moral sentimentalism and empirical research on moral behavior has prompted a renewed interest in empathy and related concepts and on their contribution to moral reasoning and to moral behavior. Furthermore, empathy has recently entered our public discourse as having the power to ameliorate our social and political interactions with others.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which such a role can be actually granted. Before focusing on a positive assessment, I will delve into a few problems our ordinary concept of empathy and our commonsensical way of conceiving its connection to ethics will need to face. Specifically, I will show how an exaggerated reliance on the ordinary concept of empathy could lead to an underestimation of its biases and potential limitations (§ 2), how a naïve conception of its connection to morality can overlook relevant counterexamples (§ 3) and lead to forms of reductionism (§ 4). Overcoming this possible shortsightedness would pave the way for arguing in favor of an important – though not sufficient and possible neither necessary – role for empathy in ethics (§ 5).     

On the Symbiosis of Science and Religion: A Jewish Perspective

Three theses are explored, the first two historical and the third philosophical-theological: (1) throughout most of the history ofWestern civilization, science and religion have been closely connected with each other, and each has benefited from the connection; (2) the belief that science and religion have always been in conflict is not based on the actual history of either set of institutions; and (3) structurally a relationship between the two institutions is in the interest of both. By religion here I mean specifically, but not exclusively, Judaism.     

Dreaming under fire: the psyche in times of continuous stress

Continuous stress and trauma are manifested in dreams, the study of which can expand our knowledge concerning unconscious reactions to trauma and efforts of coping with continuous traumatic situations. In our research we asked people living under continuous threat of rocket attacks to record their dreams and their associations to them during four consecutive weeks. We collected 609 dreams from 44 women and 18 men (age range 14-62). The dreams submitted were analysed according to the Jungian approach in the light of the information and associations presented by the subjects. Full dream series of dreamers from each group were analysed in an attempt to capture the depth-psychological experience of living and dreaming under fire. The most frequent themes found were: ‘concrete vs. symbolic', ‘togetherness', ‘active ego', ‘fear and anxiety', ‘shadow' and ‘personal issue'. The subjects were divided into three age groups. Differences between the occurrences of themes were examined. On the unconscious level our results showed that the adolescents group seemed to be the most vulnerable to the stress situation (preponderance of concrete dreams), the mature adults group was the least influenced by it (preponderance of symbolic dreams and of the ‘personal issue' theme) and the young adults group made the greatest psychological efforts for coping (preponderance of ‘active ego' theme). We noted few anima figures appearing in the men's dreams, while animus figures appeared in the women's dreams. In another study undertaken immediately after one of the recent wars in Gaza we collected dreams of Israelis living in the south of Israel who were under heavy daily rocket attacks, and dreams of Palestinians living in the West Bank. The most significant difference we found between the groups was a preponderance of symbolic dreams among the Palestinians, as opposed to a preponderance of concrete trauma dreams among the Israeli group living on the Gaza border. In both groups we found archetypal symbols of evil. In conclusion, dreams can help us detect emotional distress, even when subjects seem ‘ok'. Early detection and working with dreams can help prevent the severity of delayed PTSD.     

The Crying Clinic: Increasing accessibility to Infant Mental Health services for immigrant parents at risk for peripartum depression

Peripartum depression (PPD) is considered a major public health concern due to its profound impact on families, including infants. In this paper, we report on a pilot initiative designed to reduce barriers and stigma related to the use of traditional infant mental health services for immigrant parents deemed at high risk of PPD. The Crying Clinic (CC) is an innovative walk‐in service offered in a culturally diverse Canadian community to support maternal well‐being and healthy parent–infant relationships. The CC was designed to be a gateway to existing infant mental health services, through its emphasis on accessibility and cultural sensitivity. Support for concrete concerns, such as anxiety about normative infant behaviors like crying, is underscored in this approach to attract vulnerable families who would otherwise not access mental health support. A review of 44 users, utilization, plans for the use of additional services, and client evaluations suggests that the CC accomplished most of its goals. We conclude that gateway service models such as the CC have the potential to enhance traditional infant mental health programs by creatively addressing the challenge of engaging highly vulnerable parents from culturally diverse backgrounds.