A Jewish Spiritual Perspective on Psychopathology and Psychotherapy: A Clinician's View

This paper will present a Jewish Spiritual Perspective on clinical work by examining key underlying values and attitudes in Judaism that relate to human behavior, mental health and illness. Common symptom presentations and family issues that have roots in culture will be explored. Contemporary and ancient spiritual coping tools will be suggested for use in clinical work and personal growth.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed:
Gaillard, Christian. Le Musée Imaginaire de Carl Gustav Jung.
Young-Eisendrath, Polly & Dawson, Terence (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Jung.
Stevens, Anthony. Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind.
Stein, Murray. Transformation: Emergence of the Self.
Stein, Murray. Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction.
Christopher, Shelley (ed.). Contemporary Perspectives on Psychotherapy and Homosexualities.
Marlan, Stanton (ed.). Fire in the Stone: The Alchemy of Desire.     

Journal reviews

Articles reviewed: Astor, James: ‘Some Jungian and Freudian perspectives on the Oedipus myth and beyond’. Colman Warren: ‘That within which passes show: Hamlet and the unknowable Self’. Halberstadt-Freud H. C: ‘Electra versus Oedipus à Femininity reconsidered’. Kulish, Nancy & Holtzman, Deanna: ‘Persephone, the loss of virginity and the female Oedipus complex’ Hopkins, Linda B: ‘D. W. Winnicott's analysis of Masud Khan: a preliminary study of failures of object usage’. Miletic, Michael (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Miletic, Michael J. (ed.): ‘Perspectives on the analyst's self-disclosure during psychoanalysis’. Ornstein, Anna: ‘The fate of narcissistic rage in psychotherapy’. Solomon, Hester McFarland: ‘Love, Paradox of Self and Other’. Stack, Carolyn: ‘The analyst's new clothes: the impact of the therapist's unconscious conflicts on the treatment process’. Von Der Tann, Matthias: ‘Was lesen Jungianer in Berlin für das Examen?’–‘What do Jungians in Berlin read for their final paper?’     

Education in the Jewish State

This essay argues that schooling in Israel is tied too closely to ideology. This results in an indoctrinary orientation that contributes to divisiveness and imperils Israeli democracy. After reviewing and critiquing the roots of this orientation, I advance an alternative that understands education as an agent of the good rather than ideology. Israeli schooling requires a vision of goodness broad enough to encompass competing conceptions of Jewish life espoused by the majority as well as non-Jewish orientations affirmed by various minorities. Such a vision can be grounded, I contend, in a democratic Jewish theology that emphasizes God as teacher rather than tyrant.     

Racial Diversity in U.S. Congregations, 1998–2019

Racially diverse congregations have become an important part of the American religious landscape. We use data from the National Congregations Study (NCS), notably including data from the fourth wave, collected in 2018–2019, to examine 20 years of racial diversity in congregations. We find that racial diversity within congregations has increased substantially between 1998 and 2019. There are more congregations in which no one racial or ethnic group comprises more than 80 percent of the people, congregations’ average diversity level has increased, and the percentage of all-white congregations has declined. Nearly a quarter of evangelical churches now have no one ethnic group constituting more than 80 percent of the people, a rate comparable to what we observe among Catholic churches. Moreover, congregations that meet this 80-percent threshold are more likely to be led by black clergy in 2019 than they were in 1998. We end with a note of caution about concluding that diverse congregations necessarily promote racial justice.     

中国传统和谐思想解读

中国传统和谐思想极为丰富,涉及到了民本执政理念、经济定国战略、公平分配定律、社会救助体系、民主决策模式、中庸领导方法、和平邦交策略等。这些思想是指导中国古代社会建设的理论精华。认真发掘研究和继承这些宝贵文化遗产,对于加强社会主义和谐社会建设,仍具有积极意义。     

Balancing Justice and Mercy

The concept of forgiveness is analyzed as a moral gesture toward the offender designed to help restore that individual's moral standing. Jewish sources on the conditions under which forgiveness is obligatory are explored and two contrasting positions are presented: one in which the obligation to forgive is conditional on the repentance of the offender and another in which people are required to forgive unconditionally. These two positions are shown to represent different ways of framing the offending behavior that rest, in turn, on different ways of balancing the need for justice and for mercy respectively. In the final analysis, Judaism's two contrasting attitudes toward forgiveness are rooted in different theological assumptions and different ways of construing the very goals of the moral life. The author points out the merits and shortcomings of both positions and concludes with the suggestion that the two complement each other in important ways.     

More Than Mazel? Luck and Agency in Surviving the Holocaust

The canonical explanation for how Jews survived during the Holocaust involves some form of luck. To explore and deepen an understanding of episodic moments of luck, this article presents and discusses survivor Jerry Rawicki's close calls with death during the Holocaust. The first author examines Jerry's perspective as a survivor and her own perspective as a collaborative witness to his stories, as well as how these stories fit together within the broader literature about luck and survival. She suggests possible consequences of regarding luck as the sole explanation of survival and contends that agency and luck can go hand in hand even under oppressive structural conditions, such as the Holocaust. She concludes by reflecting on why Jerry and she might understand survival differently and on the importance of considering both positions in compassionate collaborative research.