Interest in the impact of ethical systems and social or religious ideologies on socio-behavioral patterns is a longstanding theme in social science research. While interest may have begun with Max Weber and his thesis of the relationship between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, it extends far beyond this. Surprisingly, few studies have delved into the socio-behavioral patterns emanating from Jewish ethics. This book, with a new introduction by the author, fills that gap. As Hasidic Psychology makes clear, Jewish ethics are unique in many ways, especially in that...
Interest in the impact of ethical systems and social or religious ideologies on socio-behavioral patterns is a longstanding theme in social science re...
While the term midrash--from the Hebrew darash, searched or interpreted--can refer to both legal and extralegal scriptural exegesis, it most commonly refers to symbolic legends, stories, and parables used to make moral or ethical concepts accessible to the layman. As such, midrash encompasses an open-ended method of exposition that often allows for the coexistence of seemingly contradictory interpretations of holy writ in a kind of dialogue with each other. In Rewriting the Self, Mordechai Rotenberg illustrates how "midrashic" dialogue between a person's past and...
While the term midrash--from the Hebrew darash, searched or interpreted--can refer to both legal and extralegal scriptural exeges...
For Rotenberg, a person's life becomes the "text," subject to being read and interpreted. If that person wishes to change his or her behavior through psychotherapy, then a hermeneutic system must be employed to understand that person's life. However, many systems interpret a person's life according to the particular theory espoused by the therapist. Rotenberg, in contrast, introduces a balanced theory bridging the rational and the irrational. Between Rationality and Irrationality emphasizes that it is more important for a therapist to learn his client's own "language" than to impose his own...
For Rotenberg, a person's life becomes the "text," subject to being read and interpreted. If that person wishes to change his or her behavior through ...
The Calvinist view that man is predestined to be among the elect or the damned has profoundly influenced not only our views of criminals and deviants, but also the theoretical basis of correctional methods and psychotherapeutic techniques. In this provocative and original volume, Mordechai Rotenberg examines the impact of Protestant doctrine on Western theories of deviance. He explores the inherent contradiction between Protestant ethics, with its view of human nature as predestinated, and the -people-changing- sciences. Rotenberg presents empirical studies that show how people's tendency to...
The Calvinist view that man is predestined to be among the elect or the damned has profoundly influenced not only our views of criminals and deviants,...
Judaism openly recognizes, as an integral part of human nature, the enigmatic relationship between yetzer, or physical desire, and yetzirah, or spiritual creativity. Creativity and Sexuality, written as a fi ctional dialogue, clearly delineates the psychic interdependence of these two drives, as well as the integration of the concepts as they are defi ned by both Jewish mysticism and modern psychology.
Judaism openly recognizes, as an integral part of human nature, the enigmatic relationship between yetzer, or physical desire, and yetzirah, or spirit...
"Re-Biographing and Deviance" examines the Jewish Midrashic model for self-renewal through time. In this important new study, author Rotenberg questions how traditional Judaism, with its contradictory notions of teshuvah (repentance) and of remembrance of the past, allows for the contemporary Jew to maintain a healthy cognitive dialogue between past failures and future aspirations. The author illustrates how the Midrashic narrative philosophy entails a psychotherapeutic system for reinterpretation of past sins into positive future-oriented biographies--which in turn provide fuel for Jewish...
"Re-Biographing and Deviance" examines the Jewish Midrashic model for self-renewal through time. In this important new study, author Rotenberg ques...
This book is a study of psychotherapy as a dual or dia-logic discourse between the rational-cognitive and the mystic-schizophrenic worlds. Mordechai Rotenberg introduces the Jewish pluralistic interpretation system (PaRDeS) as a therapeutic bridge between these two worlds--between the rational-cognitive and the irrational-mystic. According to Rotenberg, a psychotherapeutic theory should engulf all aspects of human behavior. A comprehensive theory of psychotherapy must encompass treatment possibilities for rational and irrational behavior manifestations as they are apprehended in their...
This book is a study of psychotherapy as a dual or dia-logic discourse between the rational-cognitive and the mystic-schizophrenic worlds. Mordecha...
