HASIDIC CONTRACTION: A MODEL FOR INTERHEMISPHERIC DIALOGUE

Abstract. Neuroclinical studies have claimed that the right side of the brain is associated with mystic orientation and sensual-affective functioning and that the brain's left side is related to logical-analytic thinking. From observations of conversion processes among repenters and cult recruitees, it is hypothesized that a drastic switchover between mythic and analytic life orientations, via a dialectic replacement of the previous code, may result in a psychopathological disorientation. Based on the Hasidic-Cabalic notion of mutual "contraction," a dialogical model of interhemi-spheric balancing, which a priori trains people to interpret reality through simultaneous rational Talmudism and Cabalic mysticism, is introduced.