Standing in Two Worlds with Doctor Sam Juni

Inyanei Nefoshos-Rav Shmuel Skaist-From Rosh Yeshiva to Credentialed Addiction Therapist

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 11:36:07 GMT

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Stark Honesty-The initial artifice of courtship must give way to revealing the warts of personality-with Rabbi Shmuel Skaist LPC, CSAT

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 03:20:11 GMT

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Episode 80:
Lack of Transparency in Marriage & Its Repercussions

Rabbis Skaist and Kivelevitz join Prof. Juni in a brainstorming panel discussion about a common source of marital difficulties in traditional orthodox religious culture. R. Kivelevitz describes the initial contrived dating experience as one in which each partner presents deceptively as perfect and in line with prescribed ideals. The discussants agree that this mode is a
harbinger of consistent misrepresentations in the future of resulting relationships.

R. Skaist notes that the reality of the culture is such that
initial transparency during dating would inevitably lead the other partner to abort the relationship before it develops. He deplores that mentors in the system explicitly advise those dating to avoid sharing information that might lower their image. Moreover, there is no timeline for the introduction of
transparency into the budding relationship at all.

Sharing his experience as a mentor and Dayan (member of a religious court), R. Kivelevitz reports that this situation is a major contributor to sexual and intimacy difficulties in marriages. It is further exacerbated by the dissonance between the self-professed lofty (and unrealistic) views espoused during
the dating experiences and the reality that most orthodox couples violate the official proscriptions against intimacy during their dating experience to some degree.

Markedly, these couples often proceed into a marriage where the discrepancy between ideals and behavior is never discussed.

Dr. Juni suggests that many of these difficulties could be avoided if educators and mentors in the system advise transparency during the dating process with the explicit messages that… a) no one’s reality matches the ideal
(i.e., everyone has several skeletons in his/her closet); and b) lack of transparency is bound to harm (and possibly explode) any long-term relationship. Thus, it is not a question of “whether”your prospective partner has weaknesses or liabilities (just as you do), but rather “what” those liabilities are.

Juni stresses that the Yeshiva culture does not share the Western mental health attitude which values transparency in relationships. Specifically, It is OK to live a positively motivated lie if you can pull it off – be it the fact that you are on certain medications, you watch pornography occasionally, you
engage in illegal betting occasionally, or that you have an arrest record.

R. Skaist discusses the dynamics of Betrayal Trauma which occurs when one discovers deception that has been perpetrated by a spouse. Noting that this
is seen as a clinical lack of integrity and a devaluation of the other, he stresses that such betrayal is classified as a form of abuse by martial experts.

Drawing on his experience with troubled couples, R. Kivelevitz adds that the “perpetrators” of such abuse are often unaware that their past has been problematic, and are surprised when it begins to cause marital strife.

What constitutes marital abuse? Juni insists that any consensual behavior is not considered abusive regardless of the values that may be violated. However,difficulties with this criterion, as applied to the orthodox Jewish culture, are
raised by the discussants. R. Kivelevitz notes Halachic prescriptions and proscriptions in the areas of sexuality as examples. R. Skaist notes that the culture explicitly calls for the wife’s submission to the husband’s proclivities.
R. Kivelevitz also points to “soft coercion” tactics (e.g. manipulation, incessant pleading, inducing guilt trips, etc.) as gray areas in defining abuse.

R. Soloveitchik’s treatise on Halachic Courage is discussed, as R. Kivelevitz applies that idea as giving priority to halachic obligations over emotional needs. R. Skaist argues that while such a notion may exist as an ideal one may personally strive towards, one who “demands” such a sacrifice
from a spouse is definitely committing abuse.

Based on his experiences with couples suing for divorce, R. Kivelevitz notes that, even on a personal level,
striving toward such lofty ideals if one is not at such a sublime spiritual level (which includes almost all folks) typically engenders significant psychiatric damage to an individual.

Taking up the issue of whether abusers can change, R. Kivelevitz raises
the notions of Teshuva (repentance) while R. Skaist points to significant behavioral changes evidenced by recovering addicts. Dr. Juni, however, insists on drawing the line between character flaws that pertain to oneself (which may
be ameliorated by psychological/psychiatric intervention) vs. flaws in interpersonal relations which are predicated by a functional lack of integrity of the other.
He is adamant that abusers will continue to abuse – even if the abuse frequency is moderated by genuine guilt, repentance, and various medical or counseling interventions.

R. Skaist points out that in Yeshiva culture spouses are often loathe to dissolve abusive relationships for social and religious reasons. The discussants agree that interventions to mitigate abuse are warranted in such cases – even if abuse may not be eliminated entirely. It is clear, however, that transparency is the key to the relative success of such efforts. Indeed, R. Kivelevitz reports that “confessions” by one spouse about his/her handicaps often prompt reciprocal “confessions’ from the other spouse as well.
When this occurs, mental health professionals may then attempt to work with the couple to shift into a relationship mode predicated on the notion that neither spouse
is perfect, as they help the couple explore a viable living arrangement where the hurt is minimized and positive experiences are enhanced.

Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchak Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiurim in Tshuvos and Poskim and Gaonic Literature.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

The Hostage's Permanent Psychological Damage Explained

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 24 May 2024 17:44:51 GMT

Please click on this link to contribute whatever
you can to keep this podcast on the air:

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A niche has been carved out that resonates with many on the wide spectrum of Observant Jews. This explains why we continually rank high in independent on-line lists of top Yeshiva podcasts.

Rehabilitation Challenges of Gaza Hostages and Traumatized Battle Veterans

Trauma shakes up the personality and,sometimes, the very essence of its victims. Interpersonal trauma, moreover,often harms the capacity for healthy social and personal relationships which persists long after the traumatic episode.

Prof. Juni explains the dynamics of these lasting effects of trauma by noting that the life of an infant is usually construed by the growing child as a very threatening existence fraught with colossal danger, interspersed by facets of ultimate pleasure and safety/security. This fixes the infant into a chronic state of anxiety where the stakes are most extreme. The concomitant behavioral stance of the child devolves into a fight vs. flight modality, as the other is perceived dichotomously as devoted friends vs. ferocious foe, demon vs. and saint vs.devil/angel.

As the child develops, behaviors,stances, and attitudes moderate. Gray usurps black vs. white polarities, and extremist percepts are defensively repressed as they recede into the unconscious -- to find expression only in the dreams of older children and adults. Alas, subsequent trauma has the capacity to disrupt the mature defensive ego structure and often results in regression into the original terror-filled world of danger and extreme dichotomy. Juni likens the rehabilitated traumatized soldier or hostage to a recovered alcoholic who might slip right back to full-blown alcoholism – even many years later -- if his/her defensive wall is breached when forced to have “just one drink.”

Hostages who experience threat and abuse in close quarters with perpetrators have been noted to exhibit the Stockholm Syndrome. Dr. Juni delineates the hallmarks of this syndrome which prompt some
victims to “side with their captors.” Such dynamics may include identification with the aggressor and acceptance of abuse as justified. Juni agrees with Rabbi Kivelevitz that such a stance may sometimes be psychologically rooted in an effort to minimize the perceived threat one experiences. It is clear that this syndrome will make it difficult for a hostage to adjust functionally to social and family functioning.

Rabbi Kivelevitz points out a number of parallels between the reactions of soldiers and hostages to those of holocaust victims (who went on to be prominent political leaders, clergy, and visionaries), arguing that such observed resilience should be expected among traumatized soldiers and hostages. Dr. Juni, while agreeing with the parallel, nonetheless insists that despite the potential for adequate functioning among these groups, there is an underlying intrinsic damage to personality and ego
structure which remains as a weak link which may unravel in stressful contexts.

Drawing from his clinical work with spousal abuse, Juni shares an additional dynamic specifically relevant to hostages who were forced into sexual intimacy with their captors. In situations of conflation between extreme threat and sexuality, there is apparently a
breakdown of specificity in interpersonal relationship functioning which
results in a positive attachment to the perpetrator. This accounts for the marked difficulty of abused domestic partners to leave their abusers, just as it results in positive affinity of abused hostages toward their traumatizers.
Rabbi Kivelevitz points to the Biblical story of Dinah, whom the Midrash describes as adamantly professing her “love” of her abuser, Shechem. Juni mentions a cultural parallel in contemporary Arab culture, citing a recent court case in an Afghani court where an abuse victim sued that her rapist be forced to marry her.

Juni discusses a novel manifestation of the Stockholm syndrome he has observed, where family members of killed hostages have become proponents of the perspective of the Hamas perpetrators.
Dynamically, this can be construed as a defensive effort to “make sense” of the specter of senseless atrocities which confronts them.

Rabbi Kivelevitz argues that Israelis have existed with an undercurrent of national trauma ever since the nation was founded and still have among the highest “happiness index” ratings worldwide.
As such, they should be most primed to assimilate and rehabilitate traumatized soldiers and repatriated hostages. Juni agrees that this resilience – which is a defensive manifestation of splitting (a psychological adaptation which enables positive functioning despite strong negative and threatening factors) –is indeed an adaptive facet of Israeli function which augers well for the rehabilitation of these individuals.

Juni asserts that the Trauma Rehabilitation Mental Health structure is in place in Israel, and should be able to handle the expected influx of patients/clients. He notes that a concerted effort will be required to counter the Israeli zip-your-lip mentality which militates against victims’ admitting their fears and vulnerabilities.

Touching upon the respective mentalities of Israelis and Hamas, both discussants agree that a primary difference exists between the Israeli’s devout allegiance to the worth of each individual and the
Hamas stance which ignores the individual in the service of its cause. Alas, the Israeli stance is well understood by the adversaries, allowing them to use it to Israel’s disadvantage in their terrorism and hostage taking ventures.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Treating Types of War Induced Trauma

Avramel Kivelevitz — Sun, 12 Nov 2023 20:04:54 GMT

The Psychiatric Trauma Effects of War ; Coping Styles of Different Israeli Cohorts

Prof. Juni delineates the internal defensive coping approaches available to Israeli Jews.

Confronted by profound threat to their safety – especially as it may contrast with the safety of Jews in other countries – they basically have three options: 1) To convince themselves thatJews in other countries are not any safer, pointing to antisemitism, reported events threatening protests and/or theorizing about imminent catastrophes in the diaspora; 2) To convince themselves that they are actually safe, relying on various spins about the situation; 3) Resorting to identification with the greater Israeli Jewish population, nationalism, and Zionism,arguing that Jews are safest in our own country where we can defend ourselves – often coupled with religious conviction that G-d has our back.

Dr. Juni explains how prolonged tension and repeated trauma can lead to total personality breakdown. Painting the entire world black and dangerous can have debilitating consequences on the ego, well-being, and relationship capacity. In terms of theological effects,Juni adds that people under prolonged stress will start doubting their basic beliefs and commitments – a reaction which makes them feel guilty and disoriented. He points out,however, that such reactions are a very normal part of a positive adjustment which usually passes and often results in a commitment to values which is stronger that it was before the crisis.

Juni presents three distinct groups who show different anxiety reaction patterns to the current war and traumatic events: Native Israelis, Dual citizens, and 2 nd -generation Holocaust survivors. Native Israelis are not here by choice and have no escape options – and are forced to“face the music.” Dual citizens – especially those who chose to stay – are apt to start second-guessing their decisions and their resolve, and might feel guilty for endangering their loved ones for an ideal as they second-guess their beliefs and resolve.

Second generation Holocaust Survivors may well become convinced that their “never Again” mantra was a sham as they identify with their parents and feel they are re-living the Holocaust they thought they had left behind in past history. More poignantly, these survivors may vilify themselves for betraying their children whom they raised in Israel with the implicit promise that they will be protected from a repetition of anything resembling the Holocaust. For each cluster, Juni outlines the phenomenology of their reactions, the logic and pseudo-logic they engage in, their attitudes,and the stances that help them cope, as well as the effects of their beliefs, their self-image, their fears, and their harrowing anticipations.

In terms of intervention, Juni stresses that the main first-line option for these anxiety reactions is psychotropic medication – specifically anxiolytics. What we are dealing with is a chemical/physiological reaction to trauma (anxiety). There is no feasibility of using psychological therapies for people who are in panic mode. Behavioral therapies and talk therapies are often helpful as well, but only after the acute reactions are first brought under control medically.

In conclusion, Rabbi Kivelevitz relates his recent experiences in Israel. Having met a number of terror victims’ families, he saw firsthand the amazing bravery of spirit and national identification among various sectors of the population which brought out the best in Israelis.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

"Yesh מ׳ז׳ל׳ BiYisroel"-Speaking frankly about teenage male sexuality in the Frum World-Responses to Doctor Shloime Zimmerman's From Boys to Men-with Rabbi Shmuel Skaist LPC, CSAT-c

Avramel Kivelevitz — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 19:04:57 GMT

This episode has serious Adult Content

Episode 75: The Sexual Miseducation of Religious Adolescents

Spurred by Dr. Shloimie Zimmerman’s recent book titled

“From Boys to Men,” Rabbi Kivelevitz chairs this panel

discussion with Pro. Juni and Rabbi Shmuel Skaist who is a

noted educator, mentor, and psychotherapist specializing in

sexual addictions. Dr. Zimmerman’s underlying premise, which

the panelists fully endorse, is that adolescents will persist in

some sexual behaviors (especially masturbation) regardless of

any educational efforts. R. Kivelevitz applauds the book as a

valiant effort to deal with the “guilt spirals” which youngsters

experience around masturbation, especially as the book could

potentially result in a backlash from the organized religious

educational establishment. Prof. Juni notes that such reactions

have been commonplace toward researchers who broached

sexual taboos even in academia (e.g., the Kinsey Reports).

Juni’s main critique of the book highlights its narrowness of

focus. His specific points are: 1) Masturbation should not be

stressed to the exclusion of other challenges of adolescent

sexuality (e.g., pornography); 2) The book should not be

limited to boys while excluding girls; 3) The issue of

homosexuality cannot be ignored; 4) The book should not have

been addressed to parents / educators; rather it would best be

addressed to adolescents; 5) Since the intent is to minimize

tension and maladjustment of adolescents, the main focus

should be on sexual development issues rather than Halachic

challenges. Expanding on the latter point, Juni notes the

emotional difficulties around sexual development among

religious youth does NOT revolve around the violation of

religious percepts. Rather, they are driven by erroneous

assumptions by the young person that s/he is different from

his/her peers and that there is something wrong with her/him

– which is often verbalized as “I must be crazy.” These issues

are identical to those of irreligious youth. Thus, claims Juni, all

that is needed here is a very precise message which stresses

statistical normality rather than Halachic percepts. That

message – The behaviors you engage in related to sexual

curiosity -- including masturbation, sexual exploration with

others, and porn watching -- are behaviors which ALL of your

peers (including your religious peers) engage in very

frequently. That message would dispel the erroneous

assumptions which drive the guilt spiral and emotional

pathology among youngsters, even when they are taught that

these behaviors violate Halacha.

R. Skaist argues forcefully that what is needed to deal with the

decompensatory results of miseducation is a concerted effort

to teach what is normal, rather than being limited to teaching

what behaviors are not desirable. Adolescents need to know

that sexuality should be part of a general emotionally positive

relationship with another individual which includes much more

than physical interaction. R. Skaist also deplores the

differential tracks in sex education of boys vs. girls, which then

potentially portends relationship problem in marital couples.

Juni amplifies this position by noting that members of each

gender often end up with a negative perception of their

spouses as they conflate their negative views of sexuality with

their partners.

R. Kivelevitz explores the Halachic stance toward masturbation

with Dr. Juni and R. Skaist. Apparently, some authorities view

the ban on masturbation as applying solely to cases where it is

used as a method of birth prevention by a married couple.

Knowing that some authorities are not categorically opposed

to masturbation may suffice to minimize the overwhelming

guilt which some religious adolescents experience.

R. Kivelevitz raises the issue of pornography viewing. R. Skaist

dispels some erroneous ideas of how explicit sexual material

might be used in psychotherapy. He argues that the real

danger of pornography is that it leaves viewers with false ideas

and unrealistic perceptions of what sexuality entails, with the

chief deficit being that it eschews the crucial interpersonal

component in an emotional relationship. Taking this a step

further, Prof. Juni argues that the accurate depiction of

sexuality does NOT constitute pornography unless it enhances

sexual depersonalization, one-sidedness, or abuse.

Since both of the panel’s experts agree that misinformation is

behind sexual maladjustment which occurs during

adolescence, R. Kivelevitz raises the argument used by some

that co-education minimizes distortions about the other

gender and enhances cross-gender relationship capacity at this

crucial developmental stage. While the panelists agreed that

youngsters raised in co-ed environments have a better sense

of the other gender at an earlier age, these youngsters are still

described as subject to the vagaries of misinformation. As R.

Skaist puts it, “they still have problems, although the problems

may be different ones.”

R. Kivelevitz concludes from Dr. Zimmerman’s approach that it

would make sense for Yeshivos to offer greater variety in

activities, sports, and leisure to distract youngsters from sexual

preoccupation. While agreeing that such a variety would be

beneficial to all, the panelists argue that “distractions” from

sexuality are not psychologically effective or feasible, and

certainly would not address the problem at hand. Rather,

proper education – especially one that counters

misconceptions and harmful notions – is the key to proper

adjustment.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Hitlerian Hilarity-Comments on Mel Brooks' 1983 film-To Be or Not to Be

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 14:06:29 GMT

Episode 76: Antisemitism, Humor, and the Holocaust:
Lubitsch Vs. Brooks

(Except for the introductory initial analysis of
Shakespeare’s Shylock in the combined contexts of Antisemitism, Feminism, and the Jewish Humor Genre, this podcast will be of interest primarily to movie buffs who have seen the Ernst Lubitsch Classic comedy “To Be or Not To Be” starring Jack Benny, as well as Mel Brooks’ remake.)

A lively debate is presented featuring two enthusiastic Rabbinic movie aficionados– Rabbi Joseph Kolakowski and Rabbi Avramel Kivelevitz – along with Yacov
Freedman, Senior Podcast Producer at Turner Classic Movies -- as they contrast critically the cinematic virtues of the two comedy productions of To Be or Not
to Be: the 1942 original directed by Ernst Lubitsch, co-starring Jack Benny with Carole Lombard and the
1983 version produced by Mel Brooks, co-starring
Brooks and Anne Bancroft.

R. Kivelevitz introduces the screenplay as a daring approach to the Holocaust, the Nazis, Jewish persecution, and antisemitism.
Before the movie buffs go at each other, Prof. Juni structures the session by demarcating the salient psychosocial factors which render Mel Brooks’ humorous treatment of a garb-bag of sensitive issues problematic.

Juni’s first focus is on Shylock’s famous soliloquy: “Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?
If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”

Basing himself on Harold
Bloom’s (1998) “Shakespeare: The Invention Of The Human,” Juni argues that, given Shakespeare’s
antisemitic credentials, Shylock is intended to be played as an out-of-line villain and not as a sympathetic advocate for human rights. As such, Shylock is a money grubbing human caricature, who has grown too big for his britches – upon whom Shakespeare (on behalf of Christianity) then wreaks revenge that dwarfs the misery heaped upon
Tevye the Milkman by the Gentile world.

Juni then draws parallels to the depiction of Negro slaves as sub-human in the classics, and to the contemporary vilification of Women’s suffrage advocates.

Another theme highlighted by Juni is the devaluation of women portrayed so boldly by Brooks’ casting of Anne Bancroft, his primary co-star, as a loose women
with marginal values. Indeed, Brooks comes close to objectifying her as an object akin to that of Ann Dawson’s role in King Kong.

The major flashpoint for Juni,however, is Brooks’ use of humor in dealing with Nazi atrocities – specifically,
as he transforms evil inro buffoonery (continuing his approach from “The Producers”).
Based on his extensive research on humor, Juni argues that the intent of humor is to
tone down disapproval, instead of explicitly expressing unbridled frontal aggression. Reflecting the stance of a number of critics of Holocaust Humor,
Juni argues that Brooks diminishes the atrocity of the Holocaust by portraying it as part of a cinematic farce. The Nazis and their heinous collaborators do not
deserve the “kid gloves” finesse of humor, they should be subjected to the scorn they deserve.

Shadow of Lincoln-Putin as Patriot?-Your Perspective has been Programmed

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 15:33:48 GMT

Putin as Lincoln or Korach? A Case of Cross-Cultural Bias & Prejudice

Prof. Juni brings a fresh, though disorienting, skepticism about “self-evident” perspectives on good vs. evil, proposing that our world views are totally blinded by our own ideology. Our international prism thus lacks any relationship to reality. Dr. Juni advances his provocative point of view,based on interpersonal psychology, that our perceptions and judgments are secondary to our needs and agenda. Is Putin a patriot or a villain? Juniargues that our individual perspectives – whether you live in New York or in Moscow – have been programmed by sociocultural factors and lack objectivity.

While most of us have some humility to question our own egoistic needs, culture maintains the virgin holy grail of self-righteous ethnocentricity –where we are absolutely correct and all else is dead wrong. What will it take for all of us to appreciate narratives that differ from ours?

To hundreds of millions, Putin and Lincoln are Patriots. Both were presidents of colonial powers. Both defended their amalgamated states against secession. Both engaged in warfare and justified killings based on nationalist values. And both were vilified by those who saw things differently.

R. Kivelevitz points out that propaganda and associated media have done near-perfect jobs brainwashing constituents into respective official ideologies. Taking the Western position, he points out that Ukraine is an independent country – in contrast to the Southern States who were part of the United States.On the other hand, Juni points out that the USSR federation was not as conceptually distinct as one might believe from the organizational structure of the USA, and the secession of the southern states was not that different than the disbandment of the USSR. Moreover, hundreds of millions of the world’s population argue – with supporting documentation -- that the disbandment of the USSR was explicitly conditioned on continued collaboration between the republics and promises to never join anti-Soviet alliances (e.g., NATO). The betrayal by Ukraine and its severance of alliance with the republics can be seen as legitimate rationale of military action against them – especially since Ukraine arguably consists of millions of ethnic Russians who would rather be under Soviet rule. How different is this divide from the American North-South divide in the 1860’s?

Donning his Civil War Historian aficionado hat, R. Kivelevitz notes the uneven appreciation by Americans – and even among Republicans -- of Lincoln. While historian Harry Jaffa portrays Lincoln as the sagacious ultimate noble human being, he was decried by many as an unscrupulous dictator and tyrant who wantonly suspended habeas corpus, illegally invoked the War Powers Act, and usurped private property by freeing slaves.

R.Kivelevitz notes that many Northern Republicans did not oppose slavery,and that Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was not motivated by moral values. Rather, it was a tactical move aimed at eliminating the slaves as a free labor reservoir for the Southern war effort by prompting slaves to be uncooperative or to escape – let along not enlisting as Confederate troops –and perhaps creating a pro-Union Fifth Column in the South.

Yes. Atrocities are being committed, just as they were committed by all combatant nations. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings certainly were colossal events which are nonetheless seen as justified by many.

R. Kivelevitz drew the parallel between Korach and Putin, citing various rabbinic sources (including Zohar) which feature silver linings about Korach and his constituents. Noting that history is written by the winners, Juni muses, “What would the Chumash look like if Korach had prevailed?”

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Important "Women" in our lives-Siri and Alexa

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 16:38:41 GMT

Alexa, and Friends as Ladies in Waiting Created by Men: Implications & Fallout

The common assignation of the feminine gender to these entities which essentially manage the households of so many is the take-off point of a socio-cultural discussion of the history of gender choices for various family roles.

Recounting that war directives to fighter pilots as well as propaganda (Tokyo Rose) usually made use of a female
radio broadcaster addressing soldiers, R. Kivelevitz notes the sexist aspects of some of the implicit stereotypes and the feminist reactions to them.

Prof. Juni outlines the developmental logic of stereotyping women as nurturing and forgiving while men are typically placed into authoritative capable, and punishing roles, noting the consistency of this role division in Victorian and Protestant literature.

Expanding the analysis to GPS and Smart Homes, R. Kivelevitz notes there has been feminist pushbacks which have tried to promote gender-neutral personas in the voice apps -- even as some have advanced a tone of impersonality to enhance an authoritative tone -- but that these efforts have not gained traction.

R. Kivelevitz outlines a number of negative repercussions of these Ladies in Waiting, ranging from invasion of privacy, to incursions on personal autonomy and agency on one’s own life-space,to loss of personal boundaries, to rendering people into lazy beings to the atrophy of initiative / creativity to a diminution of veritable interpersonal interactions/ relationships.

He also notes the harmful effects engendered by consumers abusing these “assistants” as a means of expressing harmful antisocial motifs which they would otherwise self-censor. Dr. Juni takes an opposite approach from a psychodynamic lens, seeing such “negative interactions” as a form of psychodrama where people can vent their frustrations in a relatively acceptable venue.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Recounting that war directives to fighter pilots as well as propaganda (Tokyo Rose) usually made use of a femaleradio broadcaster addressing soldiers, R. Kivelevitz notes the sexist aspects of some of the implicit stereotypes and the feminist reactions to them.

Prof. Juni outlines the developmental logic of stereotyping women as nurturing and forgiving while men are typicallyplaced into authoritative capable, and punishing roles, noting the consistency of this role division in Victorian and Protestant literature.

He also notes the harmful effects engendered by consumersabusing these “assistants” as a means of expressingharmful antisocial motifs which they would otherwise self-censor. Dr. Juni takes an opposite approach from a psychodynamic lens, seeing such “negative interactions” as a form of psychodrama where people can vent their frustrations in a relatively acceptable venue.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Witness or Footnote-What Senior Citizens attendance at Young Persons' Weddings Signifies

Avramel Kivelevitz — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 03:35:40 GMT

Recognizing that there are no events without conflicting facets, R. Kivelevitz anchors the analysis of the emotional impact of the family wedding by zeroing in on the experiences of the “older generation” at the celebration. Belying the overt joy, he argues, there is an undercurrent of “the passing of the torch” with a sense that life is passing these folks by in favor of the new generation. Though not evident in the parents of the new couple because of their immediate involvement in the nuts and bolts of the event, these feelings are more palpable for the older generation.

Prof. Juni, concurring with this stance, points out its particular salience for families of immigrants and Holocaust survivors who were self-established and then witness their children's and grandchildren’s marriages. Inasmuch as these “youngsters” had it much easier than they did and some were handed their lives “on silver platters” some disparagement and resentment is inevitable.

Conversely, R. Kivelevitz points out that the presence of the older generation at these celebrations is not truly necessary from the younger generation’s perspective. Other than perfunctory respect and adulations, the party would pretty much be just as celebratory without them. As such, the event is merely an opportunity to memorialize then into the wedding album which will outlive them in the family folklore.

Dr. Juni points out that the Western youth-centered cultural perspective actually promotes the perspective that – instead of children thriving by standing on the shoulders of our parents – they actually progress by stepping on their head as they reject their values and minimize their relevance.

R. Kivelevitz points out a revealing contrast between traditional weddings, where the bridal couple are the stars of the day, to the weddings in Chassidic courts where the main attraction is the Rebbe who is “marrying off” his descendants and the bridal couple is perfunctory at best.

Pushing the duality of the wedding experience to a tangential area, R. Kivelevitz explores religio-cultural options as he tries to come to grips with the Chasidic tradition where the bride and groom hold hands as they parade publicly from the wedding canopy – a behavior which defies Chasidic mores and even Halacha.

R. Kivelevitz challenges Juni to explain the extravagances of the typical Jewish wedding which often drive the parents into significant debt. Juni notes that – in psychoanalytic theory extreme emotion-related behavior usually indicates the presence of an underlying discordant emotion which is being repressed (as per the defense mechanism dynamics of Reaction Formation). Thus, the extreme message that “I am so happy that this is happening” is intended as a counterweight to the nascent despair of being left behind in the dust.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Psycho Drama-Theater as a Medium of Self Awareness

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 07:44:23 GMT

The discussion begins with a review of a recent production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” by a Modern Orthodox Jewish cast and crew at the Jerusalem Theater. Prof. Juni had organized a sizable group of friends and colleagues who attended the play and then participated in a focus group with the producer, crew, and key actors. The discussion is enriched by R. Kivelevitz’s encyclopedic mastery of the world of cinema and theater and its history.

The discussants compare and contrast the dynamics of the intended message (if any) which is evident in Method Acting vs. those one observes in such popular critically acclaimed fare as The Marvelous Miss Maisel and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Juni argues that – in the latter – Larry David actually manages to bring Method Acting to a new high as he merely assigns specific roles and scenarios allowing each actor to improvise their lines while the camera rolls.

R. Kivelevitz manages to maneuver Juni into sharingsome of his personal experiences as a “ham actor” in a number of performances –and to relate them to his current psychoanalytic perspective.

The main focus of the discussion between Juni and Rabbi Kivelevitz was on the pros and cons of Method Acting, with particular attention to its potential as a means to insight and self-discovery. Whereas the Stanislavsky approach was designed with attention to the psyche of the actors, Juni is a proponent of using theater as a vicarious therapeutic emotional experience for the audience. Elaborating on his approach, Juni grounds hisposition on several postulates:

A. Freud’s idea of Polymorphous Perversitywhich asserts that we all have unresolved conflicts in every feasible conflictarea;

B. Jacob Moreno’s hypotheses that actionengenders latent underlying emotions;

C. Cognitive Dissonance Theory which claimsthat feelings will be created artificially when one behaves in a dramatic manner.

Juni combines these diverse ideas as he argues that theateraudience members will inevitably be “dawn into” identifying with the protagonists if they leave themselves open to the experience. R. Kivelevitz points out that classic authors of fiction capitalize on this very orientation as well asin the construction and wording of their narratives.

Juni extolls the psychological virtues of Method Acting (in contrast to the Classical Shakespearean Style which stresses context and the Objective Approach).

R. Kivelevitz introduces the “Jewish connection”into the discussion by pointing to Stella Adler’s adaptation of Method Actingand its pivotal role in shaping Yiddish American Theater. He also engages Juni as they critique the confabulation of modern theater and the worldview of Orthodox Judaism – as the pair explore the dissonance that may be experienced by Modern Orthodox directors, actors, and audiences which elicits visceral responses to their presentations.

R.Kivelevitz concludes by lauding a novel contemporary approach in self-discovery known as Improv Therapy, relating its rationale to a number of the points and dynamics raised in the discussion.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

The thermo-therapeutic -dynamic of Jewish Stand-up Humor

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 17:52:23 GMT

How Contemporary Ethnic Stand-Up has Dragged Jewish Humor into the Gutter

We are witness to the recent appearance of Jewish stand-up comedians who – though allegedly grounded in PC/Woke equality and diversity principles – serve up anti-Jewish humor to appreciative wide audiences. The discussion begins with a focus on Ari Shaffir’s latest performance labeled “Jew” as a springboard for an overall analysis and debate of Jewish humor, branching out to Ethnic Humor and Self-Deprecating Humor, to the very essence of Humor Theory per se. Insofar as self-directed humor often serves as a disguised mode of criticism in context where explicit criticism is taboo, the discussants explore alternate recourses to questioning which might be available to youngsters and adults who are on the verge of breaking out of the constraints of stifling religious cultures.

Prof. Juni notes Shaffir’s methodology of Ecumenical Religio-Washing where repetitions of one anti-Catholic byte are interspersed throughout the diatribe in an attempt to temper the pointed anti-Jewish message of the presentation. Tellingly, Ari is “wise” enough not to incorporate any anti-Black (or much of anti-any-other-group) tidbits in his titillating racist, misogynist, antisemitic potpourri.

Rabbi Kivelevitz cites a number of classic comedians of the last two decades, as he argues that the Woke-sanctioned license to criticize Jews exists because they have been designated by the new demi-god of Intersectionality as part of the White Power-Structure, and thus excluded from the privileged PC diversity category which exempts some – and only some -- “minority” groups from criticism or critique.

Juni outlines the academic understanding of self-directed humor, highlighting several key elements:

a. The anti-Jew joke delivered by the Jew is intended to give the messages: Those people are not me at all, as evidenced by the fact that I am putting” them” down.

b. Here I am making fun of myself, so there is nothing more you can possibly say to denigrate me.

c. Since I am now in charge of hitting myself on the head, I can moderate just I hard I do it – and I’ll make sure it hurts me less than if you would hit me.

d. This is my “joking” way of criticizing the Jewish (or Orthodox, traditional, etc.) establishment with minimal retribution – being that it’s supposedly just being said in jest.

Zeroing in on the last element, Juni deplores the code of silence which characterizes much of traditional religious culture which forces many young people to abandon the system altogether – if they don’t have alternate venting options (such as humor). Prof. Juni elaborates that while behavioral codes are necessarily and even desirable in society, thought policing is the bane of healthy development. R. Kivelevitz emphatically disagrees with Juni’s stance, as he references a number of commentators who openly question some of the very same “absurdities” that Shaffir lambasts in his diatribes, which clearly indicates that challenging and questioning are parts of the standard discourse in traditional Jewish thought.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Plastering the Departed Person's Name on a Plaza won't Prolong Anything

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 23:34:30 GMT

The Memorial as a False Idol

The institution of naming streets and erecting buildings to honor heroes and others is scrutinized from sociological, psychological, and existential perspectives. As a parallel motif,the recent woke-grounded phenomenon of tearing down monuments and un-naming streets and endeavors is similarly analyzed. With some debate and qualifications,both discussants agree the intent in these namings is to keep the hero’s ideals alive for a long time, allowing him/her to exist even after death.

Prof. Juni argues that the extant dynamic here is anxiety about death and the dread of mortality. Psychiatrically,this effort would definitely be classified as delusional, but its pathology is mitigated by the fact that the tendency is so widespread across cultures.

Annotating his rebuttal from highlights from famous films and literary work, R. Kivelevitz presents his position that the primary impetus for these memorial efforts is the striving of family members to keep alive the memory of a loved one. Thus, it is the survivors’ discomfort with the curtailed existence of their loved one which is central here rather than the yearnings of the deceased as such.

Juni goes on to elaborate that any human activity is inherently insignificant unless it is anchored in a transcendent belief system that features more than the physical world. He argues that the drive to produce or to achieve any laudable goals is merely a sublimated neurotic effort to deal with death anxiety while being anchored in the recognition of existential meaninglessness.

Taking the political perspective of street naming -- particularly in Israel, Juni interprets the ubiquitous phenomenon as an aspect of colonization – i.e., affixing an indigenous Israeli stamp throughout the Jewish state. He sees this effort as a form of colonization via re-naming.

R. Kivelevitz concludes by recounting some of his own transcendent experiences in connection with memorials to sages and his Rabbinic mentors long departed, whose significance Juni politely follows with demurrals.

Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online):

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us atravkiv@gmail.com

What FaceTime Has Wrought

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:09:24 GMT

Distance Communication: Ultimate Facilitator of Knowledge or Bane of Intimacy?

R. Kivelevitz traces the social ramifications of distance communication – from the advent of letter writing to the world of modern electronics – in terms of interpersonal connectedness and the gradual eradication of privacy and personal space. Whereas face-to-face interactions are multi-sensory, letter writing provided communication that was limited to written words and content.Telephone added auditory context to words.

Juni stresses that intimacy is emotional and essentially bereft of context or informational exchange per se. He cites the halachic ritual of consoling the bereaved (Nichum Aveilim) where verbal communication is not essential and is even restricted. He harkens to the psychoanalytic perspective of relationships and interactional intimacy, citing the Freudian maxim that all relationships are not intrinsically determined by any personal characteristics of the other person or social context. Instead,they are mere efforts to re-enact the primal early relationships with one’s parents and entail a yearning to correct retroactively residual stressors from frustrating childhood relationships. The actual value of communication is therefore minimal, and any intimacy between adults is not genuine as it is merely a forced substitute for the now-bereft childhood closeness towards parents. Relationships that focus on sexuality, shared values, “love,” or enjoyment of life (for example) are thus psychodynamically superficial. As such, the only meaningful aspect of interpersonal interaction is the content of information-linked messages; emotional and relational issues are not genuinely linked to the present and thus functionally irrelevant to communication per se.

Juni contrasts the Freudian stance with that of Object Relations Theory (the branch of Psychoanalysis currently in vogue) which posits that the need for intimate relationships is hard-wired into the human psyche. This renders relationships as intrinsic to human existence – on par with food,sexuality, and avoidance of anxiety. From this perspective, the elimination of relational contexts engendered by distance communication represents a frontal attack against the very essence of relationships and rips into the fabric of social humanity.

Rabbi Kivelevitz offers a unique argument that the elimination of sensory input in communication other than words actually enhances the import of any message, insofar as all corollary nuances (e.g., seeing the communicator and physical context) distract the listener from the essence of the message. He points to the popularity of podcasts as evidence of his perspective, also noting that letter writing was often preferred to personal meetings in the middle ages – particularly in the world of Halachic responsa -- precisely for this reason. Kivelevitz expands his argument by evoking the current aesthetic perspective in the world of literature and the arts—namely that creations by authors and artisans are intended to be perceived differentially by different “consumers” and that there is no “real”or “valid” meaning to any product. Kivelevitz concretizes his perspective by pointing to the richness of traditional radio dramas of the mid-1900s, which were much richer in their import than any televised dramas – precisely because listeners constructed the visual imagery in their own minds based on their environmental context or worldviews.

Juni builds upon this approach, by forcing in the Freudian view

that such personal constructions in fact allow the listener to superimpose potent aspects of any drama on their own unresolved conflict icons of childhood frustrations they carry in their souls.

Of cultural relevance, Rabbi Kivelevitz focuses attention on halachic responsa of yesteryear debating whether prolonged intense communication by mail exchange constitutes “knowing” the other person and meets the halachic criteria of being in true contact.

Both discussants deplore the pervasive aspect of distance communication and the psychologically maladaptive FOMO Syndrome (fear of missing out) which render it virtually impossibleto disconnect from others at will. Internet holidays, widely prescribed by mental health practitioners,are rarely adopted by the population at large. Juni and Kivelevitz spend some time focusing specificallon the halachic quandary of many orthodox Jews – especially adolescents and young adults) who find themselves “compelled” to stay connected on Shabbat and religious holidays.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research.Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic,and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative andclinical populations.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online):

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression,Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash,Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur inTshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is aMaggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayanwith the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us atravkiv@gmail.com

"Ani Lidodi Vidodi Li"- Contrasting and Conflating human and Divine concepts of Intimacy

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 05:50:09 GMT

R. Kivelevitz begins by analyzing the superficial features of the formalities which trivialize true love and intimacy, and decries how these special days are often exploited by those merely seeking fleeting encounters. On the other hand, Prof. Juni argues in favor of programmed “closeness rituals” as he points out that the beauty of meaningful relationships is often lost in the routine of daily activities.

The essence and function of intimacy and close relationships are analyzed from the perspectives of social Marxism and family economics. Basic theoretical divides are elaborated by the discussants: From the Freudian notion that all relationships are merely means to self-serving ends – to the stance of Ego Psychology which maintains that intimacy and love are basic human needs in of themselves – to Existentialist Humanism which view life without meaningful relationships as inherently empty. R. Kivelevitz extends the analysis to man’s relationship to Hashem, citing primal Kabalistic sources which conflate human intimacy themes with the sublime – which Juni interprets as sublimation from the psychoanalytic perspective. Dr. Juni finds a parallel in the Mormon approach to religious experience, citing studies from Brigham Young University about the experience of personal relationships to G-d.

Juni stresses the function of routines which express verbally and demonstratively the positivity between individuals, stressing that leaving these feelings in the implicit realm is a disservice to all and diminished the quality of relationships across the board.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online):

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression,Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash,Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur inTshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is aMaggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayanwith the Beth Din of America.

The Overturning of Roe V.Wade-Exposing Raw Nerves and Exploring the Unique Mindset of the Pregnant Woman

Avramel Kivelevitz — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 17:24:29 GMT

R. Kivelevitz frames the discussion in dual directions: What is the mindset of a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, and how has this issue become so firmly identified as one of right vs. wrong which is evoking anger and even violence on both sides?

Prof. Juni uses the contrast between the fallout of this issue in the United States vs. Israel to inform a major social-political underlying dynamic. The Israeli Haredi establishment are not crusading against abortion because they are not fervently concerned about the moral character of Israel outside of their narrow society. This contrasts with many Christians and Evangelicals who identify strongly as Americans and are willing to fight for American moral standards.

Both discussants agree that abortion is an issue which is much more salient to women than to men. At the same time, the concurrent hormonal features of pregnancy heighten the emotional components of the dilemma of the unwanted pregnancy and inject the quandary with subjectivity. Juni argues, however, that emotionality is a bone fide basis for decision making which is no less valid than rationality.

What is seen as confounding the debate and uproar here is the confluence of emotional subjectivity with the rational aspects of morality and legality. The “right to choose” is merely one facet of the debate, as it stands alongside a number of distinct moral, religious, and ethical issues. “Right for me” is seen as an oxymoron, since right is objective value and not a personal value. Politically, the right to choose has been drawn into the construct of Intersectionality, where so-called minority rights of various stripes have all been conflated into one general hodgepodge of political advocacy which bridges unrelated moral and social realities. Thus, we see here a demonization of the Supreme Court justices, even as individual activists on either side of the divide are vilified as deficient human beings with perverted values.

From a clinical perspective, Juni argues that any decision about abortion – whether pro or con – by a woman will always result in bouts of second thoughts, regrets, and guilt since decisions always feature ambivalence to some extent. He stresses that these dissonant feelings must be dealt with at the psychological level to avoid subsequent maladjustment and pathology.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online):

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression,Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal ofNervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash,Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur inTshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is aMaggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayanwith the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us atravkiv@gmail.com

"Get to the Point, Already!"- Unraveling Stuttering and other disfluencies and The Prejudices that Surrounds them

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 01:46:03 GMT

Prof. Juni begins by charting humanity’s ignominious tradition of attributing malice onto those of us whose maladies we fail to understand. Even after prejudice toward the physically disabled began to wane, this ignoble tendency remained steadfast when we confronted illnesses with no blatant physical cause, and especially when we saw people behaving “irrationality. Moored in the legends of the archetypal Eve whose defiance of G-d’s anti-apple injunction was “necessarily” caused by an unholy alliance with the evil snake, we consequently burned “nefarious” witches, performed gruesome exorcisms on hapless victims who “obviously” consorted (implicitly or explicitly) with the devil, shamed those of “poor moral character,” lambasted depressives, disparaged the anxious, and humiliated non-achievers as lazy-good-for-nothings.

Juni contextualizes this phenomenon, arguing that “blaming the victim” has been the prevalent response to injustice for millennia across all cultures. This stance serves a defensive psychological function: if we were to accept the presence of unexplained causes of maladies which are beyond the control of victims, then it would engender massive anxiety among all of us lest we, too, might become victims. Far better to see victims as sinners, incompetents, or of “bad character” – thus assuring ourselves immunity from such travails.

Focusing on stammering and stuttering, the discussant agree that verbal dysfluency evinces an inhibition of verbal expression which the speaker desperately attempts to battle. Juni elaborates traditional Freudian theory which anchors such dysfluencies in symbolic expressions of underlying sexual and aggressive inhibitive responses. The notion here is that the ego is inhibiting free verbal expression to avoid the likelihood that inappropriate sexual and aggressive content would burst forth from the repressed unconscious of individuals who suffered childhood traumatic experiences. Modern day psychoneurologists have succeeded, for the most part, in discrediting these hypothesized dynamics, pointing to spurious neurological inhibitions and recursive activation loops as the likely underlying causes.

Rabbi Kivelevitz highlights the significant self-esteem and self-efficacy deficits which become intrinsic in individuals with speech dysfluency, referencing both prominent historical figures (such as Joe Biden and King Arthur) as well as examples from his own constituents whom he counsels. Capitalizing on cultural humor as the gateway to prejudice, Juni illustrates the pejorative demeaning stereotypes of dysfluent individuals which pervade the biases of even the kindest and interpersonally sensitive among us. R. Kivelevitz stresses that notwithstanding the current medical understanding of dysfluency as a physiological and conditioned behavioral disorder, counseling is an absolute requirement for sufferers of this malady due to pervasive social censure and self-debasing tendencies.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online): Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

After Uvalde-Making Sense of the Horror- Plumbing the Psychoses of School Shooters

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 02:00:41 GMT

A repeat of a program from last December

The social and psychological determinants of apparently senseless killings are analyzed. The basic attributions to the availability of guns, violence in the media, and radical ideology are critically evaluated. Prof. Juni argues against the grouping of lone mass shooters (who have keen psychiatric disturbances related to their own traumatic histories) with religious terrorists (who do not necessarily manifest clear personal disorders). Prevention strategies and education of gatekeepers are debated. Dr. Juni points out that many of these individuals suffer from atrocious parenting histories, suggesting that secondary prevention efforts might be more effective in counseling individuals before they become parents – and perhaps guiding many of them to eschew raising children altogether.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Streaming Overdoses and Social Media Depression

Avramel Kivelevitz — Thu, 12 May 2022 02:01:05 GMT

Drawing on Rabbi Kivelevitz’s extensive pastoral mentoring experience and Prof. Juni’s clinical and research findings, the discussants annotate how electronic media has insidiously been chipping away at the foundations of healthy interpersonal relationships and adaptive self-representations. These have especially as these have stymied healthy psychological development of adolescents. Initially, the telephone – and then radio entertainment and television -- fostered increased passivity. Then, as we went from email to instant messaging, the notions of downtime, leisurely conversations, curling up with a book, living-in-the-world, and even taking time to ponder were steadily banished to the realm of the boring. These have been replaced by ever-metastasizing short-term bucket-lists powered by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) fueled by fictitious friendships and goals. Unrealistic ideals and norms aggressively usurped all aspects of personal values and social life. Presently, virtual reality is deteriorating the foundations of mental health -- especially among adolescents -- as relentless online schedules foster additive patterns, fatigue-based depression, and emotional exhaustion.

Prof. Juni couches this tsunami in terms of Object Relations Theory which posits that meaningful interpersonal relationships entail a basic human need. The patterns described above have thus been tearing at the very essence of the human experience, and their psychiatric repercussions are of no surprise to Mental Health professionals.

Kivelevitz extends the analysis to the specific acculturation of the Haredi world to this new reality, outlining the substantial changes manifest among both the leadership and the lay community.

As for stemming the tide in general, and specific family reparative strategies, Dr. Juni insists that the horse has left the barn and envisions no reasonable corrective strategies. The discussants do, however, explore some options which may blunt its repercussions in terms of self-concept and family relationships.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Understanding Cross Cultural Pesach Season Cleaning Obsessions and Seder Psychoses

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 17:58:52 GMT

The annual pre-Passover hullabaloo is marked in Jewish families by its frenzy, its pressure-cooker atmosphere, and predictable squabbles with family members. In different sectors, these include standard issues which arise in families during Spring Cleaning across all cultures. But there are also distinct Passover-related conflicts relating to the divergence of male and female attitudes toward ritual cleaning standards, menus, Seder attendance, participation in the Seder ceremonies, sharing responsibilities, and feelings unappreciated – among others.

As Rabbi Kivelevitz highlights aspects of this period which seem related to larger psychological and religious references to dirt and obsessive compulsive patterns, Prof. Juni couches these features in terms of their symbolic ”purging dirt” representations of self-abnegation stemming from guilt over sin and indiscretion. With the truism that Passover and Yom Kippur are the two quintessential holidays of the year for Jews of all stripes and denominations, both discussants zero in on parallels between the yearly chametz cleaning ritual and the yearly sin cleansing which characterizes Yom Kippur.

From a psychoanalytic religio-cultural lens based on the conceptualization of Hans Sachs, Dr. Juni introduces the construct of the unconscious of a group which construes the meaning of a cultural keystone based on the overall motif of a culture regardless of how particular individuals deal with it. Suggestions are offered by the discussants on more adaptive approaches to the entire behavioral quagmire of Passover and how to make the holiday more meaningful and less stressful for the family.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

"...Vies Sigmundasa!" A Freudian take on Haman and Achashveirosh

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 05:01:23 GMT

With just a tad of frivolity, Rabbi Kivelevitz and Prof. Juni conduct joint armchair psychoanalysis of the Purim narrative. With Kivelevitz highlighting the textual nuances in the primary scenes, Dr. Juni presents the serious pathology of narcissism as a character disorder of both Achashverosh and Haman, while Kivelevitz hones in on impulse control issues of the protagonists. Juni explains the irrational, grandiose, and self-defeating behaviors by pointing out that the pursuit of narcissistic self-aggrandizement is nothing more than a desperate effort to avoid repetitions of early traumatic disappointment, hurt, and embarrassment. Taking the socio-cultural perspectives, Kivelevitz shows how personal pathology finds expression in hedonistic excess, racist stereotyping, and attempted genocide.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Stranger Pain-Behind the Religious Political Battle over Conversions in Israel lies important psychological understanding of the candidate's motivation

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 18:52:28 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz explores the current contentious situation concerning conversions which has engulfed the Rabbinate, the Israeli political establishment, and the leading organizations of Jewish denominations abroad. He presents the Halachic perspective of the controversy. Prof. Juni comments on the sociological corollaries of the conflict, as he introduces a host of psychological/psychiatric truisms and folklore attributions concerning converts. The discussants then differentiate among types of conversion based on individual motivations and socio-cultural characteristics.Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

The Neurotic Minefields of a Second Marriage

Avramel Kivelevitz — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 19:29:44 GMT

Prof. Juni begins with the assertion that first marriages and subsequent ones are equally legitimate efforts, and that their rationales are identical. Rabbi Kivelevitz notes loneliness and the need for companionship as a major theme in remarriages. Juni counters that limiting certain motifs (e.g., love, sexuality, bashert / soul-mates) solely to the first relationship is erroneous and deceptive. The discussants outline inevitable emotional tensions and practical hurdles in second relationships. Kivelevitz highlights challenges these are most troublesome in reconstituted families with younger children.

Financial issues often are seen as engendering suspicion and mistrust in all relationships, and these are particularly exacerbated in remarriages where there are adult children in the picture. Guilt and betrayal are major factors of distress which appear if the previous spouse is deceased, but much less prevalent following divorces. Responding to the question whether people should remarry or merely share each other's company in a constant manner, Juni opines that there are clear pro and con reasons for both options in every situation, and that there are always distinct positive and negative repercussions inherent in any relationship.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Cramming for the Hebrew Test-The Psycho-Social Ramifications of Living in a Compressed Urbanized Country

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 15:30:45 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz begins the podcast by charting out the social and psychological challenges of in transitioning from the privacy of an individual home (with your own backyard) in a culture which values individuality to a sardine-like existence in a multiple dwelling within a cultures where everyone’s nose is in your business.

Prof. Juni explores an important cornerstone of Child Development Theory which entails the process of identity formation. At the most basic level, we are dealing with Ego Boundaries – namely, where does my body and my essence end -- in the context of other beings and even the physical environment. The infant begins as an inextricable part of mother, and it takes many years to differentiate from caregivers and the physical environment. This process is known as identity formation. As our lives evolve or change, we continuously jettison (project) certain aspects of ourselves while we incorporate (introject) elements of the outside into our very beings and make them part of who we see ourselves to be.

Moving to an environment where practically all of your neighbors share your religion, national identity, values, and paramount concerns lends itself to an expansion of ego boundaries. In parallel, moving into a condominium complex where you share facilities and infrastructure redefines how you construe “your turf.” Moreover, forced daily interaction with neighbors close off some learned options of privacy. All of these factors inevitable result in a change of identity. To a certain extent, one becomes incapable of seeing oneself as separate from surrounding and people with whom so much is shared. The psychological and social challenges of such a transition are highlighted.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Cleaning up Walderworld- Responding to New Rabbinic Guidelines for Preventing Molestation and Abuse

Avramel Kivelevitz — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 18:24:35 GMT

The preventative prescriptions recently promoted by Rabbi Ron Eisenman (Passaic NJ) and Rabbi Moshe Meiselman (Jerusalem) in reaction to recent revelations of profound abuse and examined and analyzed. The list ranges from limitations on interactions with babysitters -- to referring clients to psychotherapists of the other sex – to giving parents open access to the children’s therapy sessions – to advising parents how to counsel children about abuse. These recommendations are evaluated and critiqued in detail by the panel. An overall problem with all of them is that they clearly have no scientific basis and are apparently cobbled together from the personal experiences of these Rabbis and anecdotal data which passes as evidence. Moreover, the panel took exception to various aspects, scenarios, and potential perpetrators of abuse which these prescriptions are apparently unaware of – including some which are more common than the narrow therapy and babysitting focus.

Rabbi Skaist and Prof. Juni point out that the lack of credentialing and proper training of clergy, so-called “therapists” and teachers – and the unwarranted granting of the professional mantle to Rabbis, teachers, coaches, and advisors of all sorts – is the major source of the outrageous abuse torrent of late. Expounding on the crucial need for supervision of those who wield interpersonal power, two distinct causes of malpractice are elaborated. One entails countertransference; simply defined, this is a very common unconscious interpersonal tendency among us all to imbue interactions with personal motifs and to distort relationships based on their own frustrated needs in their personal life (or history). Generally unknown to the potential perpetrator, these motifs are likely to be discovered in supervision which would then prompt the well-intentioned therapist to avoid his/her interference in the helping relationship. The other source of malpractice is the powerful individual who is consciously bent on inappropriate behavior, albeit with some (tenuous) rationale. In such cases, supervision is certain to expose the inappropriateness head on. Rabbi Skaist goes beyond the advantages of supervision, stressing that therapists, who are themselves therapy clients as well, are least likely to interact with their clients in any manner which is not designed to be helpful.

The blanket lack of recognition of the importance of confidentiality in therapeutic and counseling relationships in the proposed guidelines is critiqued by the panel in detail. Non-confidentiality is sure to render helping interactions effete and useless.

The discussants are very critical of the notion of setting up parents as “the” gatekeepers against abuse. Besides the lack of training of most parents and the prevalent lack of basic parenting skills across the board, many parents are described as actually enabling and abetting abuse – albeit often unknowingly. The lack of making professional advice and referral a key aspect of abuse prevention is seen as a glaring absence in the Rabbinic guidelines.

Rabbi Skaist argues that the degree of abuse which is assumed to exist in psychotherapy situations(in the above-noted proclamations) is incorrect and not at all data-based. Taking off from Dr. Juni’s summary of the recommendations as “throwing out the baby with the bathwater,” Rabbi Kivelevitz argues that the knee-jerk reaction to impose limitations on therapeutic and household interactions may well be fostered by the current covid-powered and negative-media-based zeitgeist of mistrust which has pervaded society as a whole.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Mind of a Monster-Chaim Walder's Suicide Note Submitted to a Forensic Psychologist

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 18:50:37 GMT

Based on the assumption of guilt indicated by the many accusations of victims and the presumption that the handwritten suicide note is legitimate, Prof. Juni presents a psychological analysis of the perpetrator in an elaborated context of psychopathy, character disorder, and psychiatric disturbance that characterize suicidal individuals. (Each of these concepts is explained in laymen’s terms to accommodate our wide audience.) The seemingly indiscriminate spectrum of Walder’s victims – from boys to girls to adults –has crucial diagnostic implications. We are not dealing here with problem of impulse dysregulation (i.e., a sexual acting-out disorder). Instead, the perpetrator suffered from a severe underlying developmental fixation. This means that he was in the grip of profound pre-sexual childhood issues which became mired in aggressive outbursts, and that his offenses were precipitated by unresolved inner hounding related to interpersonal dependency and dominance.

The irrational and disturbed thought processes inherent in suicidal patients are annotated in the specifics of the note. These are contrasted from rational suicides – such as terminal illness patients, existential philosophers who eschew life, and incarcerated individuals (or prisoners of war) who decline to face horrific living conditions.

Juni points out his rejection of Thanatos Theory, arguing that suicide is most reasonably conceptualized as guilt-based. Along this approach, Juni also considers an alternative hypothesis that Walder was a true psychopath and that his suicide note was merely another of his manipulations to secure a source of sympathy and income for his family.

Rabbi Kivelevitz presents the profiles of a number of scholars and artists who manifested significant flaws, pushing the question of whether Walder’s shortcomings must not necessarily doom his significant corpus of work which has been hailed by educators and Developmental professionals. Not taking a definitive stance, Juni equivocates as he stresses that it is difficult to ascertain whether Walder’s perversity is imbued in his work, arguing that it would all hinge of whether we are dealing here with psychopathy or a more profound psychiatric disorder.

______________

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchak Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

The Witness is Excused-Mourning the Last Holocaust Survivors

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 07:18:32 GMT

The perspective of Second Generation Survivors on the crucial testimony of the Holocaust generation is outlined, along with the unverbalized taboos (sacred cows) about the victims. R. Kivelevitz points out that personal histories are crucial to survivors and their families despite the subjective nature of anecdotal narratives, arguing that anecdotes are ideal in allowing the catharsis of painful experiences. Taking the position of witness psychology, Prof. Juni describes the creative, fill-in-the-blanks process which characterize all retrospective memories as he presents the contemporary forensic maxims which eschew the reliability of the testimony of witnesses to crime. Based in his clinical work with trauma patients, Dr. Juni is emphatic that the accuracy of victim testimony in traumatic contexts is close to zero. R. Kivelevitz adds that all of the Holocaust survivors who had remained alive in the last decade were probably limited in what they could recall correctly since they were quite young during the war years. Juni argues that the only reliable Holocaust data are those collected during the war by government agencies – especially those by the actual perpetrators, while also lending credence to hard data collected by individual researchers and organizations active during the Holocaust. R. Kivelevitz suggests that the testimony of survivors who were hidden, and therefore subjected to less traumatic experiences than those interred, may be more accurate than those who were in camps.

Prof. Juni takes a very skeptical position about the testimonies concerning righteous gentiles, by questioning the accuracy of such categorizations. He argues that many of these “righteous” gentiles we hardly motivated by true positive values. Juni also believes that the celebration of the humane acts of these individuals threatens to obfuscate the reality that most of the European gentile populace gladly participated in informing on hidden Jews and ensured their horrible plight. Reacting to this broad negative brushstroke which paints humanity so negatively, R. Kivelevitz exception to Juni’s position, arguing that the callous behavior of some represents an aberration of the basic prosocial nature of human beings rather than defining the nature of people across the board.

Juni elaborates the crucial relevance of survivor guilt to the experience of holocaust survivors. Victims usually felt complicit when they survive traumatic events. Excepting the minority of incidents of actual collaboration, this guilt is often anchored in beliefs among victims who attempted to ingratiate themselves with their tormentors and tried to evoke their sympathy instead of standing up in defiance and pride regardless of the consequences. In this vein, Juni explains that survival guilt distortion of memories as a defensive adaptation which helps victims avoid their self-accusatory inner demons.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Bundle of Nerves-The Effects of Weather and Climate on Mental Health

Avramel Kivelevitz — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 04:18:45 GMT

Three weather and climate factors which are often correlated to emotional difficulties are outlined by Prof. Juni, as he elaborates the diagnostic category of Seasonal Affective Disorders. The most prominent factor relates to diminished exposure to natural light, specifically as it sometimes engenders anomalies in the circadian rhythm. The primary psychiatric fallout from disturbance in circadian rhythm is clinical depression. In the forensic literature, extreme temperatures have also been documented to reduce personal and emotional resilience – especially under stress conditions. The latter is mostly manifest in the increase of violent crimes during hot heather in urban centers. The third determinant of weather/climate related emotional disorders is more indirect, as inclement weather decreases the amount of time that people spend outside the house – and this could lead to feelings of isolation which can exacerbate extant emotional difficulties in individuals who need a significant level of interpersonal contact for them to function adaptively. However, R. Kivelevitz points out correctly that interpersonal isolation may also be a welcome relief for individuals who suffer from social anxiety. The Rabbi also points out that the third isolation factor was induced globally by the Covid pandemic. Dr. Juni confirms that he has noticed a rise in isolation-related psychiatric episodes among patients in the last two years.

Prof. Juni steered the discussion to the negative associations people often have to weather extremes. Freezing cold or hot weather can be viewed rationally as threatening and even dangerous by people for practical reasons (e.g., hypothermia, heat exhaustion, frostbite, dehydration). R. Kivelevitz speculates that the significant migration of folks to areas of warm weather may relate to the [perceived psychological threat from weather extremes. Referring to his move to Israel, Juni adds that there is an additional sense of security where weather is consistent within seasons, so there are few unknowns about unexpected rain or sudden changes.

The dark of night often is associated with isolation and the unavailability of outside help. Juni points out that there are also irrational associations with more personalized threats which harken back to frightening associations of childhood which are symbolized by an inclement outside environment. More insidious along this vein, Juni argues that the “dead of night” often resonates with a fear which is common in primitive cultures and is ever present in early childhood. Nighttime was traditionally the time when actual danger of robbers and highwaymen loomed everywhere. But there is also a theme is of the unnatural, macabre, and unknown/unspeakable. The winter season, with its longer nights, evokes these deep-seated associations and terror, and it is not surprising, psychiatric symptoms are therefore exacerbated.

As a counterpoint, R. Kivelevitz presents the Talmudic perspective of seeing the long nights as a gift to humanity to allow undistracted study time. Juni opines that such a stance may well be counter-phobic, evoking the danger-tinged enjoyment of a cozy fire while the “weather outside is frightful” and some may courageously proclaim, “Let is snow.”

______

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Plumbing the Psychoses of School Shooters ,Political Assassins-Suicide Bombers. and Serial Killers

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 08:17:08 GMT

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Putting Yosef and Pharoh on the Couch- Freudian Dream Analysis applied to Genesis

Avramel Kivelevitz — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 05:49:38 GMT

This episode is strikingly different than others in the series in that it represents an effort to understand the perspective of a scriptural narrative known to traditional Jews from their childhood by a system inimical to Jewish thought and tradition. It is stressed that this perspective is not representative of the view of IDT, of The Yeshiva of Newark, or of Dr. Juni. Designed to present solely the Freudian perspective, it does not inform the “Standing between Two Worlds” motif of the series. Nonetheless, this episode highlights the challenge faced by Traditional Jewish Scientists who have allegiance to a system which – if accepted in totality – is antithetical to their very own religious weltanschauung. Hence, the role-play format of this episode, in contrast to the standard interview/discussion of the series. With Rabbi Kivelevitz taking the fantasied role of Joseph, the two butlers, and Pharaoh, respectively, Prof. Juni (in the role of a Freudian analyst who stands solidly in one world only) finds themes of familial, self-referenced, and interpersonal conflicts which might shed light on the source of the dream content. Prof. Juni stresses that such themes are part and parcel of the unconscious life of every single child, and their derivative content is commonly found in all dreams and fantasies, but that they only find expression in actual behavior among disturbed individuals. The challenge for religious traditionalists, as Juni sees it, is to determine which aspects of such a position can be accepted as unconscious motifs without undermining our shared belief in the sublime prophetic nature of prophetic personalities and biblical narrative.

Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph DovSoloveitchick.

Professor Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox JewishScientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research.Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic,and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on apsycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection fromnormative and clinical populations.

Professor Juni created and directed the NYUGraduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in StressfulEnvironments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic andmental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in theArab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles; many are available online:

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma;International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease;International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of AbnormalPsychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychologyand Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology andJudaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journalof Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitzserves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listener around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Unspeakable acts and Unspoken Collateral Damage-The Psychological Fallout from the Walder Case

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 17:03:49 GMT

Reacting to the increased incidence of molestation scandals, the discussants focus on the fate of his/her family and community who inevitably become salient targets of negative repercussions. While the backlash against the host community and stigmatization of the family is not intrinsically justifiable, Dr. Juni notes that those close to abusers often are aware of travesties long before they become public – and therefore are not blameless. Juni delineates the scope of issues engendered by the exposure of the molester. Community and religious leadership is often viewed as complicit if they rally to the molester’s defense or reflexively cite the “presumption of innocence” mantra. Rabbi Kivelevitz shared reactions of some of his constituents and mentees who despaired and were prompted to abandon religious life when they viewed the reaction to abuse as deficient and inappropriate. These ramifications are explored by the discussants and seen as systematic and intractable. A separate analysis is directed to the poignant dilemma of the abuser’s family members insofar as their personal relationships with the perpetrator are affected. Juni highlights particularly molesters who also apparently manifest positive and leadership functions in society (e.g., Rabbi, author, teacher, medical professional), arguing that there are two prominent types. The more egregious is the veritable psychopaths who pursue their positive social/religious function merely as a subterfuge – and often as a nefarious effort -- designed solely to gain access to potential victims. Juni opines that such individuals, in fact, have very shallow interest in anything other than their perversions. Indeed, such individuals can be said to have minimal emotional investment or positive feeling toward their own family members. On the other hand, there is the molester who truly strives toward (and achieves) positive relationships and prosocial goals in his/her career and daily life, albeit with the significant caveat of lapses in values and behavior. In the latter case, it is reasonable for family members to maintain their (qualified) personal regard toward the perpetrator, provided they do not whitewash the egregious nature of their loved one’s pathology and the harm caused. As incongruous as it may seem, it is feasible to recognize and appreciate positive achievements and the abuser’s contributions even while condemning the problematic lapses. Juni argues, further, that there is little justification to “cancel” positive contribution or creations of such individuals to their profession, their community, and society. Recognizing such individuals as manifesting positive and productive aspects along with the harm they caused is the realistic approach as Juni sees it.

Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph DovSoloveitchick.

Professor Juni created and directed the NYUGraduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in StressfulEnvironments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic andmental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in theArab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.

Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles; many are available online:

Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma;International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease;International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of AbnormalPsychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychologyand Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology andJudaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journalof Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitzserves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listener around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Jingling the Chanukah Guilt-Comfort Food & Self-Calming Habits: Are They Really Bad for You?

Avramel Kivelevitz — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 02:00:43 GMT

With
the Channukah season replete with latkes and chocolates on the horizon, Rabbi
Kivelevitz focuses on the snacking response to overcome unpleasantries. He
questions if there is an implicit maladjustment in such behavior. Responding
with an emphatic “No,” Doctor Juni elaborates the warning signals of excess and
pathology of behaviors which are typically in the normal realm. Referencing
Psychosexual Developmental Theory, Juni explores the common go-to repertoires
which we all use in stressful situations. Highlighting illustrative examples of
unusual coping strategies, Kivelevitz proposes that problematic parenting
styles may promote psychopathology in interpersonal relationships, anxiety
management, and self-concept among teens and young adults. As Kivelevitz
suggests that these pathologies, respectively, may be attributed directly to
undue parental strictness and exaggerations, Juni points out that excessive
indulgencies in early childhood (e.g. around feeding and toilet training -- –
and more so in the area of sexuality) often yield negative development
repercussions which are just as damaging as those of over-control.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research
psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original
research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously
with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his
theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under
Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov
Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish
Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.
Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD
programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research.
Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic,
and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a
psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent
expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing
parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from
normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed the NYU
Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful
Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and
mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the
Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while
exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.
Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed
over 120 articles; many are available online: Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma;
International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease;
International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; J

Journal of Abnormal
Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology
and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and
Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal
of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz
serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners
around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav
Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as
well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at
ravkiv@gmail.com

Point Blank Alec Baldwin!-Featuring Sam Juni as the Psychologist and Avraham Kivelevitz as the Rabbi

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 16:50:27 GMT

PTSD reactions by those who kill others, albeit inadvertently, are as debilitating as post-traumatic symptoms which befall victims of extreme trauma. Professor Juni analyses the very basic psychological and developmental origins of guilt and discomfort which non-psychopaths inevitably experience when they feel responsible for the death of another person. Rabbi KIvelelevitz expands the discussion into the existential and theological domains. Special attention is focused on Natural Developmental Morality Theory formulated by Dr. Lawrence Goldberg, particularly in elucidating the illogical stance of atheist secular humanists who are, nonetheless, staunch proponents of morality and human rights. Countering Juni’s stance that guilt engendered by taking the taking of a life is essentially non-ameliorable, Kivelevitz cites religious dicta, Biblical rituals, and narratives which are designed precisely to assuage the guilt of such individuals when they are inadvertently responsible for accidental deaths.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles; many are available online: Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; J

Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Members of Curious Yoel-Behind the Outrage of Teen Marriages-Special Guest Rav Nosson Nota Glick

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 06:20:45 GMT

The causes of the recent organized efforts promoting teen marriages in the Chassidic community are analyzed from different perspectives, Prof. Juni juxtaposes these arrangements to those in specific Islamic countries and cults, arguing that many of the travesties in arranged marriages of minors are to be found in Shidduch matches of young adults as well. Developmental, religious, and cultural features on intimate relationships, marriage, and sexuality are charted out by the discussants. Rabbi Glueck presents the Kabbalistic and Chassidic perspective on marriage and sexuality, while Rabbi Kivelevitz partials out the Halakhic factors from the mix. Based on his consults with Chassidic patients and religious gatekeepers, Dr. Juni shares revealing rationales which drive overall suppression of sexuality in these communities. He argues that they are antithetical to the mental health and relationship capacity potential of youth who are raised within this system and forced to live within such constraints. Glueck elaborates the classic non-draconian Breslov orientation toward sexuality, as he shows how it has been misrepresented by fringe groups. Possible ameliorative efforts to possible deleterious dynamics are explored by Glueck and Kivelevitz.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles; many are available online: Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Beneficial Diminution-Vacation from work and relationships

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 17:14:56 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz begins by outlining cultural differences between the United States, Europe, and Israel regarding vacation policies for workers, maternity leave, and the afternoon siesta. The question is whether vacations and breaks are good for people and for the jobs they perform. Doctor Juni sees this question as dependent on how we see the role of work. He presents the prevalent tenets of Vocational Psychology, as formulated by Donald Super, which posits that work is an intrinsic aspect of human existence and self-esteem. This view is seen as consistent with descriptions in various cultures and settings, we are useless work is considered torturous. However, Juni summarized empirical studies indicating that although the physical health of workers is enhanced by vacations, positive psychological effects are fleeting in nature. Thus, if work is intrinsic to human functioning, then a break might be considered as negative, while a break is definitely positive if work is considered merely as a burden or a necessary evil – since it allows folks to engage on more important and “real” life experiences.

Kivelevitz expands the discussion from work to relationships, where he poses the question whether breaks from relationships might be helpful to the relationships. Juni points out that even within couples who get along well, there is usually no more than 20% compatibility across various interests and commitments. Indeed, it is the very differences between partners that enrich the enjoyment of marital relationship. It is a fact that there is more to any person than spousal joint life. Having an “island” where one can relate to issues that are not shared with a partner may thus provide a safety valve while enabling the experience of a fuller spectrum of life.

The discussants veer into the scandalous suggestions by some modern pundits who champion extra-marital relationships as a means of strengthening marriages. Juni opines that while such affairs may result in increased longevity of marriages (since there are built-in options for straying and fulfilling fantasied alternatives), the quality of the marital relationship definitely deteriorates as a result, especially in view of inevitable feelings of betrayal and profound guilt. Kivelevitz points out that a number of psychologists see much of the finer aspects human endeavors as being due to the very containment of maladaptive fantasies or “acting out” – motivations which are then sublimated toward goals which enrich individuals as well as general society.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Concentrated Effort-The Struggle to Stay Focused over the Long Yom Kippur Service

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 05:29:49 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz and Professor Juni analyze and critique a number of factors which lead many of us to become distracted during prayers. Dr. Juni explains that each person has physiologically optimal position on the dimension of input stimulation for perceptual and cognitive processing. This dimension ranges from some who need relative quiet to concentrate to those who can ONLY concentrate in the presence of significant additional sensory input (e.g. spinners, noise, swaying, swaying, music). Many with ADD fall into the latter half of this dimension. Every person has his own level of stimulation he or she needs to function. Shul, especially during the holidays, may not fir the bill. It may be too huge of a space, too crowded, too quiet, too loud, too eerie, too strange (especially when mouthing strange sentences in a not-so-familiar language). Small wonder that many become distracted. to some degree but not excessive for each person.

Psychodynamically, however, Juni points out that boredom is a cover-up word for defensive avoidal of thoughts and fears that we usually sweep under the rug. High Holiday prayers, in particular, arouse issues of our mortality, personal weakness, our role as helpless victims. More insidiously, it forces some to face their doubts in the area of faith in G-d and commitment to religion, and – in some – resentment toward G-d. Triggering the pseudo-mode of “boredom” give us the excuse to escape this crucible.

Kivelevitz points out that there is a paradoxical aspect to the confessional of the High Holidays which are often rendered in a song which sounds almost triumphant and happy. He references Rabbinic authorities who address the fact that some mis-guided folks are actually paradoxically proud as they confess in bursts of unjustified hubris regarding their apparent piety. These commentators urge congregations not to dwell on the past and essentially speed through the confessional at what they considered a healthy pace. The problem, as they see it, is that when we have a list of sins that we recite pro forma, we tend not to realize that there are major dimensions and divisions among these sins instead of seeing them as one menu of equal transgressions.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Rosh HaShana Mindset-No excuses on Judgement Day-Why we continue to act in ways that we know will have negative repercussions

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 16:01:39 GMT

This episode begins with Doctor Juni outlining his work with
psychiatric criminal populations and his efforts exploring their personal perspective about their
behavior.

By in large ,most of these people realized that they were acting in a harmful
manner that would yield negative consequences. Juni relates this to actions and decisions of world leaders,
including the last two US presidents.

To properly grasp why this phenomena persists ,Dr. Juni
points to two ingrained dynamics which originate in early child development
during a period where the child has little understanding of reality testing.
The first is a tendency to feel omnipotent and being convinced that one is
unable to do wrong. The second, in contrast, is a mode of self-flagellation
which entails a conviction that one is “bad”– –a perspective which engenders a
self a sense of futility and helplessness. Juni stresses that the latter is
always accompanied by a conviction that one “deserves” punishment, and that
this holds true even in adults who are overtly atheist or do not subscribe to
any particular system of right and wrong. The doctor stresses that it is
important here to understand that the ego administers a number of ambivalent
motives which are contradictory to each other

Taking a more behavioral stance, Rabbi Kivelevitz suggests
that people may be motivated by the “comfortable old shoe“ phenomenon where
they revert to behavior they are used to simply because they are familiar with
it -- even if they know it is harmful.

When pushed to formulate a strategy of what someone can do
to counter such nonfunctional behavior patterns. Juni suggests that by simply
understanding that one has a number of beneficial and harmful contradictory dynamics
which exist side-by-side -- – – that alone can give some people some mastery
over unacceptable impulses.

Kivelevitz presents a prospective espoused by my Maimonides
which is consistent with Aristotelian philosophy, Franz Rosenzweig’s approach
to personality, and the teachings of Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler. The approach
entails being aware of harmful instincts and coming up with strategies to
oppose them consciously.

Dr. Juni ventures to present his own personal perspective
(not at all related to his professional perspective) that there is a specific
moral component (as posited by Kohlberg) which may well include inborn
tendencies towards good and evil ,possibly along the lines of Yetzer Tov and
Yetzer Harah (good and evil inclinations). Juni stresses that despite his
absolute conviction about the truth of traditional Psychoanalytic Gospel of
unconscious repressed formative dynamics as the major determinants of adult
behavior, one need not rule out inborn moral components. Expanding on this idea
in light of the approaching high holidays, Kivelevitz elaborates the
understanding of the transcendental aspect of the soul which, according to
Jewish tradition, is accessible by human beings who seek to better themselves.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Twisted or Enlightened- Definitions of Courage-Has Simone Biles' Withdrawal From Olympic Competition Been a Boon for Mental Health Appreciation?

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 18:52:55 GMT

As sports was the starting point of the conversation, Doctor Juni is spurred to outline the attitude toward sport competition which prevailed within the insular culture of his youth,where the notion of the body as a temple was viewed as a heretical feature of a Hellenic society , the antithesis of scholarship (in general) and Talmudic scholarship (specifically).

Rabbi Kivelevitz remarks that the supportive reaction to Simone Biles bowing out of the Olympic competition is an unusual phenomenon in the world of sports and its pundits. A bending-over-backwards forgiving perspective excusing an idealized icon, a larger-than-life hero, from owning up to our expectations,allowing people to put their mental health ahead of societal goals and prescriptions.

Juni and Kivelevitz explore the implications of this paradigm shift in the attitudes of American society which has been rooted in the Protestant work ethic, especially as it pertains to sports heroes who symbolize the idealized identity of many Americans. The discussants snip at the grey divides between personal irresponsibility, social obligations, personal freedom of action, and dealing valiantly with challenges and hardships, addressing the question whether Western society has gone soft on the pursuit of social and common goals.

Doctor Juni wonders whether this reaction heralds a stance which encourages our youth never to leave their comfort zones. Juni cites a recent report that 25% of the U.S. population is characterized by manifesting physical or psychiatric disabilities. The numbers suggest that the Mental Health red flag is now hoisted beyond debilitating disruptions to include what we in the past regarded as minor discomforts.

Juni alternatively suggests that individuals functionally indentured to serve societal goals represents an inherent violation of human freedom and dignity that builds monstrously on the notion that many goals that average persons are comitted to are not really theirs, merely reflections of what others foisted upon them.

The contextualization of Simone’s history within the multi-year deplorable molestation scandal of Dr. Nassar, the Women’s Olympic Team Physician, is analyzed. Prof. Juni explained that psychological/mental abuse is in fact a systematic feature of military indoctrination, designed to get recruits to block out and suppress any personal concerns as they keep their total attention on the singular goal of following orders. Based on Dr. Nassar’s psychopathic profile, the doctor conjectures that Nassar’s distorted rationalizations for his sexual abuses may have included a supposed effort to get his athletes to undergo psychiatric splitting as a self-protective effort against the abuse traumas which would then dovetail with a suspension of any personal, self-care concerns – all toward the goal of getting these hapless women to become singularly devoted to their Olympic goals. Juni suggests that this approach is poignantly reflected in the popular country song by Shel Silverstein (popularized by Johnny Cash) titled A Boy Named Sue, which recounts the travails of a derelict-absent father who gives his son a feminine name so that he learn to fight and stand up for himself from the very start, which will ensure that he prevail under adversity.

As a corollary to this approach as it may relate to the traditional Talmudic perspective on Child Development and Educational Programming, Kivelevitz posits that the prevalent effort among contemporary Jewish educators to track bright Yeshiva students into intense Talmudic scholarship tracks abrogates their normal psychological development and results often in personal dissonance which dogs them throughout life.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Factitious Disorders-Is the meshulach perennially at your door appealing for their child suffering from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy?

Avramel Kivelevitz — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 16:22:03 GMT

As the more colorful of Factitious Disorders, Munchausen’s Disease by Proxy is analyzed as a condition which entails difficulties in reality testing by patients who see themselves as trying to achieve good health by denying their underlying motivations and their harmful behavior, Prof. Juni explains that Munchausen family members also have a severe overidentification problem as they subsume the life of the sick family member into their identity and choose to live out their own emotionality of sickness through the sick experience of their loved ones. Dr. Juni cautions that Factitious Disorders can be a default diagnosis affixed by medical professionals who choose to blame the patient family for syndromes which are clinically inconsistent with pathological profiles. The similarities between such diagnoses and those of malingering (where the patients simply misrepresent themselves as ill in order to achieve secondary gain) are explained. The discussants explore the possibilities that many chronic help seekers may be part of this cohort, as Dr. Juni explains that the underlying character disorder renders these patients resistant to intervention and treatment.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Spirit of Wiedergutmachung -Why many have difficulty apologizing and asking for absolution-and why others find it impossible to accept and forgive

Avramel Kivelevitz — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 15:35:30 GMT

Spirit of Wiedergutmachung -Why many have difficulty apologizing and asking for absolution-and why others find it impossible to accept and forgive

Prof. Juni argues that apologizing is an elusive social phenomenon. Unless one was not aware of certain facts or consequences, it is likely that they would repeat the offensive behavior under similar circumstances. Thus, apologies typically indicate -- at most – sorrow that the victim suffered, but not regret about the offensive act. Reluctance to apologize is therefore quite truthful. R. Kivelevitz points out that there is a religious component to apology – namely a request that the victim absolve the perpetrator of divine punishment, but this, too, is not an apology per se. The discussants also explore the psychological impediments to apologizing and examine issues of dependency or being at the mercy of the victim. From the perspective of the victim, it is appropriate to view a refusal to accept an apology as a manifestation of retributive power over the aggressor. Here, too, Dr. Juni sees the acceptance of an apology as often entailing disingenuousness, since it would be untruthful for most victims to proclaim that they are no longer hurt by significant offenses – though, from a religious perspective, they can truly agree to exempt a perpetrator from divine retribution. It does seem ,opines the doctor,that the entire social phenomenon of apologizing is rather unelaborated, and represents a perfunctory rather than meaningful social transaction.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Resisting Possession-The deep roots of obsessive collecting- hoarding-and holding on to toxic friendships

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 02:02:01 GMT

"Things will straighten themselves out" From whence does this disastrous "Yehiyeh Tov" attitude derive?

Avramel Kivelevitz — Mon, 24 May 2021 22:15:31 GMT

An unrealistic optimistic stance is a common response to challenges and crises. R. Kivelevitz points to the general Israeli reaction to recent group accident tragedies among Israeli Haredim and the odd oblivious reaction in the victims’ cohorts. Prof. Juni adds to the mix the Israeli pattern of reckless driving and the fact that many are unfazed by the chronic threat from Gaza. He outlines the classic developmental understanding of positivity in people as based on the childhood experience of the omnipotent father who can do anything. As the child matures and realizes that he or she is not under comprehensive protection, this attitude of absolute trust in powerful others continues even when there are no concrete powerful others around. Indeed, Dr. Juni points out that this attitude becomes amalgamated into a religious perspective that G-d is in absolute control of everything around us. Rabbi K. points out that classic Theological thinkers in Judaism actually see childhood omnipotent beliefs as the basis of orthodox Jewish theology. The discussants explore other understandings of reckless practices among many cultures. One idea advanced is that in pre-scientific times, people have no idea of physical causality, and therefore evinced a general model of unrealistic positivity – – which was then incorporated into general culture and religion. In other strains of thought among certain groups, is that belief in good outcomes somehow causes those very outcomes, a notion evident in the “Think well, and it shall be good” bumper stickers throughout religious communities. A theological train of thought is explored based on religious belief in Divine micromanagement which can be seen either as absolute trust that G-d will bring only positivity, but it is also expressed as fatalism in some, implying that we might as well not do anything because we cannot change anything. Finally, the historical origins of Jewish life for hundreds of years is discussed, noting that the only possible defense Jews had in their experience with countless uncontrollable programs was the defense of denial, and that this stance has continued even when denial became necessary and non-functional. R. Kivelevitz concludes that constant focus on possible dangers and disasters would be paralyzing and incapacitating, so that some degree of optimism and ignoring potential dangers is crucial for “normal“ living, and that we must balance caution with optimism (even if the optimism is sometimes unwarranted) in order to maintain our daily lives. In this vein, certain risks are warranted and even required so that individuals and societies can exist and thrive.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Staying up all night this Shavuos? Understand what you'll be missing- Psychological Purpose of Dreams

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 11 May 2021 16:32:40 GMT

Sleep deprivation is marked by its physiological repercussions and its negative effects on cognitive and psychological functioning. Stressing that dreaming is essentially entails a detour from reality testing as one dives into fantasy, Prof. Juni limits his comments to the latter as he discusses the psychoanalytic formulation of the purpose of dreams. He argues that dreaming is a regression to an irrational world of early childhood which almost resembles psychotic thinking. Adults are socialized to censor primitive basic thoughts and emotions. The dream process allows adults to revert to their natural basic primitive functioning mode each night for a limited time, with the understanding that they can then return to adult style functioning by repressing the details of that journey. The inability to remember dream contents is affected by repression. R. Kivelevitz pointed out that people vary -- from having no access to their dreams at all, to those who are very distressed and haunted by dreams that they remember vividly. Juni explained that neither of those extremes are typical of individuals with solid mental health, as they obviously are either totally divorced from their basic needs and motivations or totally undefended from primitive rationality, respectively. Regarding individuals who crave sleep constantly and would run off to bed at any time if only feasible, Juni describes them as manifesting an intense need to regress and avoid reality.… Kivelevitz raises the issue of prevalent sleep deprivation modes which can be seen in avid students, scholars, or hobby enthusiasts. Juni responds by urging individuals to listen to their body about sleep needs, arguing that sleep deprivation must have negative affect on the sophistication of thoughts. Juni and Kivelevitz both deplore the traditional practice in hospitals where interns are forced to function for many hours without sleep.… In responding to a challenge from Kivelevitz, Juni admits that majority of his colleagues do not view dream content as significant, since the mental health field no longer hardly considers dynamics, dealing instead with problematical symptoms at the pragmatic level. Juni sees this as a continuation of the millennia-long evolution of the mind body problem, sadly noting that the body is winning out over the mind throughout the medical and psychiatric domains.… Returning to the main focus of the discussion, Kivelevitz laments the zombie-like state of many folks who push themselves to attend lectures and classes on Shavuot Eve, seeing this as part and parcel of the shallowness of which is promoted in some contemporary religious circles. Juni takes the position that there is a benefit to pushing yourself occasionally beyond your body’s comfort zones in the service of being part of a larger group experience, especially if it offers a religious/social mode of group identification.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Report from Israel after the Deaths in Meron- Making Peace within ourselves : The psychological underpinnings of our desire to visit hallowed gravesites

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 04 May 2021 18:18:45 GMT

Can Israel move beyond the Sephardi-Ashkenazi divide?

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:10:01 GMT

The discrimination against Sefaradi Jews in Israeli history is outlined and is seen as pervasive in politics, academia, employment, Yeshivos, and in the Rabbinic power structure. On the other hand, RabbiKivelevitz points out that blending of cultures in general -- including Ashkenazi adoptions of Sefaradi traditions -- does exist in liturgy, holiday celebrations (especially Lag Ba’omer, the entertainment field, Shabbat Zmiros and in the culinary/diet domain. Proffesor Juni sees a parallel between current discrimination against Blacks in the USA and the plight of the Israeli Sefaradim. Psychologically, Juni sees Sefaradim having a social inferiority complex toward Ashkenazim, particularly in terms of their lack of intellectual critical thinking as defined by Western criteria. This comes to fore especially in Rabbinic scholarship, where Ashkenazi halachic decisors are seen as more sophisticated in this respect.

Kivelevitz points out that racial intermarriage has been a major catalyst toward improved race relations in America, a pattern that is being replicated in Ashkenazi-Sefaradi intermarriages in Israel. It is noted that Sefaradim are seen as more committed to the country and to the Zionist ideal, in contrast to cynical Western-style attitudes among many Ashkenazi Israelis. While discrimination is presented as rampant in the Charedi world, significant strides in equality are to seen as due to the public education system and army experience, where the two cultures get to know each other in the context of true friendship, social interactions, and cooperative efforts.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Scars and Scabs-Yom HaZikoron continuously reveals the massive rift in Israeli Society and divisions between all mankind

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 17:39:07 GMT

The understandable reaction of families who lost a loved one are analyzed from a psychoanalytic perspective from the lens of Survivor Guilt. Drawing from his studies with families of Holocaust victims, Profesor Juni presents the dynamics of coping mechanisms, which usually results in attributing blame to others, to oneself, to God, or to the victim. Guilt is seen as intrinsically ties to such coping.

Rabbi Kivelevitz challenges this view, suggesting that mourning does not seem to entail guilt as a rule. The discussants then tackle the mutual hostility evident between families who have lost loved ones serving in the IDF and the Haredim or Arabs who do not serve. Juni sees much of the hostilities as engendered by guilt which is projected unto the “other,” explaining that the other is a necessary target which helps us adjust to tragedy and difficulties.

Kivelevitz then infers from this formulation that efforts to bridge the divide via rational discourse would then be doomed to failure. Juni then proceeds to apply his psycho-economic perspective of Survivor Guilt (based on Freidman’s Depletion Guilt and Baumeister’s Inequity Guilt theories) to make sense of the reactions of survivors toward families of victims. Based on an initial attitude of finite resources, people unknowingly maintain this attitude inappropriately toward random and unexplainable mishaps, unconsciously expecting that misfortunes are finite in number; this means that when others suffer tragedies, they will then be spared from misfortunes. In essence, this results in an unconscious perception of relief and gain from other’s tragedies. Inevitably, this elicits guilt, which then may lead to displacing the guilt and transforming it into strife and antipathy.

Kivelevitz capitalizes on this perspective to explain the strained dynamics which mourners often sense when some visitors arrive to Shiva to console them – especially when they visitors hardly know the mourners.

The episode ends noting that the divisions within our community are determined by insidious psychological dynamics which are not likely to disappear anytime soon........

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com

Monagamous Uber Alles Herr Doktor-Psychological Pitfalls of Polygamy and May-December Marriages

Avramel Kivelevitz — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 19:38:09 GMT

Referencing Andrew Solomon’s recent expose in the New Yorker on the challenges to traditional family structure by polygamist and polyamorist lifestyles, Professor Juni and Rabbi Kivelevitz engage a range of social antecedents with a particular focus on Biblical and Rabbinic sources, with a focus on the quality of marital relationships and optimal child development. Juni prefaces his presentation, citing his study of bigamy in the Mormon community – which they refer to as "Biblical Marriage" and his research work with bigamous couples in the Native-American, Bedouin, and Black Hebrew communities. He stresses that the alternative lifestyles often confuse sexual activity with genuine interpersonal relations. While opining that the depiction of bigamy in the Pentateuch seems incidental rather than normative, Juni argues that the Biblical perspective on the institution of marriage is entirely male oriented – which he contrasts emphatically from misogyny. ......... ....Kivelevitz takes exception to this notion, citingBiblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinic texts about bigamy in Jewish tradition . Moving on to the psychological perspective, Juni expounds on the Freudian understanding that marriage is a sublimated expression of the Oedipal-Electra complex which spells out the need to form a new unit of joint identity of two individuals who care for each other deeply. Moreover, as expounded in Object Relations Theory, the need for such intimate dyadic relationships are inborn basic human needs. Alternative marriage options thus defy optimal templates of (what Freud saw as) relational biologically-ingrained evolutionarily-mandated healthy living styles. The discussants explore the implications of this theory on the appropriateness of marital couples whose ages differ significantly. Kivelevitz raises the scientific reservation of Freud’s dismissiveness of alternate marital norms in various cultures and questioned Freud’s objectivity in arriving at his version of the marital imperative, prompting Juni to agree that Freud was ethnocentric and male-biased in his formulations. Despite these biases, Juni asserts that alternate relational styles to monogamous relationships -- especially bigamy and polyandry (its converse) -- pose serious relational problems because of their inherent relationship asymmetry. Such asymmetry inevitably engenders jealousy and mistrust. The kinship of co-wives and the warm family feeling in the Mormon and Black Hebrew cultures is described by Juni as a possible counterpoint to the Freudian perspective, with the caveat that this entails more of a group identification – in contrast to a marital union...... ..... Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

The Pesach Seder Organizes and Defines Family Identity and allows the airing out of Painful Trauma

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:26:36 GMT

Some of our personal identities include much more than ourselves. The concept of family and identity is posited to be inherently founded on common rituals and narratives. Some of these are religious, but many are tinged by personalized events and interpretations of reality and history. Many may even be bizarre, distorted, or untrue. Dr. Juni conceptualizes such artifacts as part of the required social-psychological features of group identity: defining others are outsiders to give one’s own group or family the feeling of being insiders........Rabbi Kivelevitz focuses on the Passover Seder as a family event which combines cultural and family rituals and often serves as the singular yearly event which fosters family connections and identity. Juni concurs, noting that the multi-sensory smorgasbord of food, visual cues, and food all enhance the complex fabric of narrative and identity....... Kivelevitz opines that it may, paradoxically, be functional to limit such events to once yearly, in order to preserve their potency and significance, noting that yearly religious-cultural events serve as time markers for personal and familial watershed transitions. He also notes that it is crucial that each family member—regardless of sophistication, or religious persuasion – is given to the opportunity to verbalize and share the personal meaning the events may hold (or not) for himself or herself. This imbues personal significance to the holiday and its celebration to one and all, even if that relevance may be tangential or antithetical to the cultural intent of the event. In this vein, Kivelevitz engages Juni in a discussion about the relative merits of having different memorial events for momentous markers in religion, culture, or family. Specifically, the discussants consider the debate whether to combine Yom HaShoah with Tish B’Av, or celebrating personal miracles as part of the Passover Seder. Relatedly, the two debate whether it is appropriate to combine discussions of the historical Egyptian exodus with the recent Holocaust experience - -especially for survivors and their families. Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Seuss-More Doctor than you realize-Children's Psychology and Literature Should serve the same need

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 20:21:16 GMT

The episode begins as the discussants share their reactions to the current trend of censorship by the Western Liberal establishment. Proffesor Juni shares the current “They are coming for us” atmosphere pervading the world of academia in the wake of Cancel Culture by the Woke, where the tribunal of hearsay and constructive narrative reigns unchallenged.... ....Juni raises the specter of outright book banning and book burnings which have consistently characterized fascist anti-freedom regimes. He goes on to stress that censoring of unacceptable aspects of literature and art results in distorted caricatures of the real world, with all its has inherent faults and inadequacies , as a fictionalized ideal. As such, he continues, society and children profit from having different works from non-PC authors with alternate perspectives.... .... Rabbi Kivelevitz predicts that progressive values inevitably upgrade, which means that today’s condemners will themselves surely be censored soon by upcoming gatekeepers who will point out the inadequacies of today's flawless idealists..... ..... Juni expounds on the idea that Child Development is a relatively new field In Psychology, since children were viewed merely as miniature adults until recently. Children’s toys are very new social phenomena, as is the idea that children have different needs, mentalities, and thought processes. As such, Fairy Tales were actually brutal stories intended to keep children in line by thinly disguised threats of horrors should they misbehave – much like rumors which were politically stoked among adults by the powers-that-be to keep them under control. Kivelevitz offers remarkable facets of classic fairy tales in the original versions before they were sanitized by Disney and others...... On the psychological level, traditional fairy tale legends are portrayed as relating to hopes, fears, success, and failure in life’s challenges, while more contemporary fantasy books are designed to the mastery of disturbing emotions, to promoting prosocial behavior, to encourage thinking out of the box, and to instill a respect for interpersonal differences.... ....As Juni sees it, Children's Literature should encourage exploration of feelings without fear of censure Kivelevitz concurs and points out that parents may be doing a disservice to their children by reading rigidly a whole as written book to their child, rather than just a small section and getting the child’s reactions and expectations of what might happen, what could happen, and what should happen next. ......... Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Systems Theory Shatters the Idyllic Grandparent Myth

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:19:15 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz begins the discussion by observing that the Pandemic has disrupted the life of the extended family, inducing various stresses............ .........Professor Juni, drawing upon General Systems Theory with a particular focus on Triangulation, Alliances, and Coalitions charts out the negative as well as the positive roles grandparents have in families – highlighting specific divisiveness they tend to exacerbate between the spousal couple and in the parent-child relationship. In contrast to the notion that dyadic relationships are the building blocks of interpersonal units, Juni elaborates the primacy of the triangular interplay between three people, stressing that it typically features one positively engaged dyad in a collation against another family member. He uses this model to explain the vilification of the daughter-in-law or son-in-law, and the alliance of the grandparent with the grandchild against the parents. Appealing to the notion of self-propagating triangulation in all relationship clusters, the doctor uses this model to explain intra-clan warfare and conflict in extended families, within Arab tribes, and within Chasidic dynasties. Kivelevitz extends the analysis to examine the impact of aging has on the grandparents and how they can use their family involvement as a source of validation and integrity, especially in cultures where elders are revered. Taking the perspective of Positive Psychology, especially as it dovetails with the writings of Jewish Mussar luminaries, the Rabbi challenges Prof. Juni’s deterministic perspective that truly positive alliances between family members are nonexistent myths and that all relationships must feature significant negative interpersonal strife. While the Rabbi maintains that personal grievances can be overcome and ameliorated in time through efforts at character improvement and empathy, Prof, Juni takes the position that they are never truly corrected and that they are destined to find expression in inter=generational strife and splintering within the extended family structure. Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Blunting Judgment and Banishing Inhibition-Viewing Purim Customs in the twin lights of psychology and sociology

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 21:59:37 GMT

In anticipation of Purim, Doctor Juni and Rabbi Kivelevitz discuss various aspects of the traditional celebration. Juni comments that encouraging inebriation is dangerous on several levels,while Kivelevitz contextualizes the origin of Purim shenanigans – especially drinking with abandon to (עד דלא ידע) -- in the millennia of oppression Jews have suffered, seeing it as a type of safety valve . Abandoning the community's usual grim reality provided a relief to the relentless misery. Juni asserts that moderate social drinking and having a "shot" after a long day is not maladaptive. He outlines the psychology and chemistry of what occurs for one who is liquored up. He presents alcohol as a chemical depressant, taking issue with scriptural references suggesting that drinking makes people happy. Giving anecdotal and clear behavior references, he describes the direct physiological effects , eg:,slowing reaction time, interfering with logical thinking, and disolving inhibition. Kivelevitz comments that many persons seek the disinhibitory effect, since it allows them to express beliefs and emotions they otherwise stifle due to impropriety. Juni elaborates on how having a drink can make individuals more courageous, yet cause irresponsible and reckless actions.The doctor notes how alcohol engenders manic behavior (which can be perceived as “happy”) in equal parts with dangerous aggression. Kivelevitz gives his take on the the institution of the "Purim Rov" in Chassidic circles, who role is to roast and satirize grand leaders of the courts of the devoted.He compares this with the "Purim Shpiels" that were a staple of Yeshiva life in the last century. Both,he insists were subtle methods for airing grievances which can be addressed and corrected after the Holiday. The pair associate general lampooning and comic displacement as a powerful social catalyst,with Juni invoking Dr. Abraham Twersky’s spot on recognition of archtypes represented by the Peanuts characters in the three volumes of self-help the late psychologist authored . Juni wonders about the phenomenon of "Purim Torah", where scholars and students alike seemingly poke fun at the methodology of Talmudic scholarship, and suggests this reveals an underlying dissatisfaction with a process that they have devoted their lives to. Kivelevitz, however, contextualizes this as a way to lovingly embrace a system that at times can lead to absurd conclusions. Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Where Has Communication gone? Understanding Irrational Arguments

Avramel Kivelevitz — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 04:32:39 GMT

There are current raging arguments in Israel about the vagaries of social distancing and the fierce post-election political debates in the USA. The common feature in all of these is a sense that the parties are yelling at each other rather than talking to each other, sharing new information, or exchanging perspectives. R. Kivelevitz structures this phenomenon as an apparent breakdown in communication, using it as a stimulus to examine the psychology and sociology of argumentation in general. Pursuing this end, Prof. Juni brings in findings and concepts from the Arab-Israeli Roundtables he chaired for a decade and from his extensive diagnostics of warring families and clans. Dr. Juni explains the Psychology of Maladaptive Arguments by detailing the concepts of Disqualification (where adversaries focus on each other’s illegitimacy or credibility, rather than on the issues) and Punctuation (disagreements on defining the source or scope of the problem. In such conditions there is no communication, since each combatant is only interested in being heard while there is no pretense of wanting to understand the other’s perspective. Explaining the construct of Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Prof. Juni argued that adversaries often do not argue rationally because most people who adhere to a cause do so because they have been habituated to into a group with behaviors while not really understanding the logic of their beliefs at all. In this context, R. Kivelevitz engages Dr. Juni in the position of the late Chabad Rebbe that doing mitzvoth engenders the igniting of the Neshama of any Jew. R. Kivelevitz raised the possibility of alternative narrative interpretations of a specific situation, analyzing how this may dovetail with – and how it contrasts with – the Talmudic adage of אלו ואלו דברי אלוקים חיים, bringing in interpretations from R. Samson Raphael Hirsch and Sefer Hachinuch. R. Kivelevitz discusses the thesis of Unkeles which verbal communication as a higher level interaction quality of humans. Dr. Juni takes exception to this categorization, claiming that humans tend to use language as a civilized alternative to claiming right by fiat, while the language they use merely belies the irrational quality of their interpersonal behaviors. Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. Below is a partial list of the journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles. Many are available on line Journal of Forensic Psychology Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma. International Review of Victimology The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease International Forum of Psychoanalysis Journal of Personality Assessment Journal of Abnormal Psychology Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology Psychophysiology Psychology and Human Development Journal of Sex Research Journal of Psychology and Judaism Contemporary Family Therapy American Journal on Addictions Journal of Criminal Psychology Mental Health, Religion & Culture As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.com This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Covid-19's Collateral Damage: Aggravated Hypochondria and Fresh Phobias

Avramel Kivelevitz — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:38:37 GMT

Rabbi Kivelevitz cites a study published in Lancet that proves a precipitous increase of anxiety-related symptomatology during the current Covid pandemic. Doctor Juni responds to this with an exposition of dynamics of anxiety disorders, phobias, and hypochondriasis, as well as a sketch of advisable interventions. The Professor explains what psychosomatic medicine was, and explores the chicken-egg issue of the physiology and psychology of mental illness, along with the psychiatric comorbidity of chronic medical conditions. In general, Juni stresses the irrationality of phobias, while asserting that criteria of rationality are intrinsically socially defined by social norms rather than by unassailable reason. As regards basic anxiety, Juni explains this as a physiological condition with clear genetic origins, not a psychological one. Kivelevitz raises the popular psychoanalytic explanations of symbols as keys to comprehend phobias and the Jungian notions of collective unconscious determinants of specific types of fears, which Juni summarily dismisses as debunked legends holding little medical validity. Juni expounds on his biases toward medication and behavioral conditioning to treat anxiety conditions – in contrast to insight-oriented psychotherapy. Citing examples, such as portrayed in the Hitchcock film Marnie, where the notion of mind over emotions is portrayed as a classic triumph over mental illness, Kivelevitz indicates a quite similar stance in the writings of Rav Mordechai Leiner of Ishbitz and Rav Yisroel Salanter. Juni while equivocating somewhat in respect to these highly regarded religious theorists, recasts the quest for a cure as dependent on emotional corrective experiences. He insists that negative emotionality cannot, unfortunately, be countered by logic or any Eureka moment of insight . This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate

Standing in Two Worlds with Doctor Sam Juni

Inyanei Nefoshos-Rav Shmuel Skaist-From Rosh Yeshiva to Credentialed Addiction Therapist

Stark Honesty-The initial artifice of courtship must give way to revealing the warts of personality-with Rabbi Shmuel Skaist LPC, CSAT

The Hostage's Permanent Psychological Damage Explained

Treating Types of War Induced Trauma

"Yesh מ׳ז׳ל׳ BiYisroel"-Speaking frankly about teenage male sexuality in the Frum World-Responses to Doctor Shloime Zimmerman's From Boys to Men-with Rabbi Shmuel Skaist LPC, CSAT-c

Hitlerian Hilarity-Comments on Mel Brooks' 1983 film-To Be or Not to Be

Juni then draws parallels to the depiction of Negro slaves as sub-human in the classics, and to the contemporary vilification of Women’s suffrage advocates.

Another theme highlighted by Juni is the devaluation of women portrayed so boldly by Brooks’ casting of Anne Bancroft, his primary co-star, as a loose womenwith marginal values. Indeed, Brooks comes close to objectifying her as an object akin to that of Ann Dawson’s role in King Kong.

Shadow of Lincoln-Putin as Patriot?-Your Perspective has been Programmed

Important "Women" in our lives-Siri and Alexa

Witness or Footnote-What Senior Citizens attendance at Young Persons' Weddings Signifies

Psycho Drama-Theater as a Medium of Self Awareness

The thermo-therapeutic -dynamic of Jewish Stand-up Humor

Plastering the Departed Person's Name on a Plaza won't Prolong Anything

What FaceTime Has Wrought

"Ani Lidodi Vidodi Li"- Contrasting and Conflating human and Divine concepts of Intimacy

The Overturning of Roe V.Wade-Exposing Raw Nerves and Exploring the Unique Mindset of the Pregnant Woman

"Get to the Point, Already!"- Unraveling Stuttering and other disfluencies and The Prejudices that Surrounds them

After Uvalde-Making Sense of the Horror- Plumbing the Psychoses of School Shooters

Streaming Overdoses and Social Media Depression

Understanding Cross Cultural Pesach Season Cleaning Obsessions and Seder Psychoses

"...Vies Sigmundasa!" A Freudian take on Haman and Achashveirosh

Stranger Pain-Behind the Religious Political Battle over Conversions in Israel lies important psychological understanding of the candidate's motivation

The Neurotic Minefields of a Second Marriage

Cramming for the Hebrew Test-The Psycho-Social Ramifications of Living in a Compressed Urbanized Country

Cleaning up Walderworld- Responding to New Rabbinic Guidelines for Preventing Molestation and Abuse

Mind of a Monster-Chaim Walder's Suicide Note Submitted to a Forensic Psychologist

The Witness is Excused-Mourning the Last Holocaust Survivors

Bundle of Nerves-The Effects of Weather and Climate on Mental Health

Plumbing the Psychoses of School Shooters ,Political Assassins-Suicide Bombers. and Serial Killers

Putting Yosef and Pharoh on the Couch- Freudian Dream Analysis applied to Genesis

Unspeakable acts and Unspoken Collateral Damage-The Psychological Fallout from the Walder Case

Jingling the Chanukah Guilt-Comfort Food & Self-Calming Habits: Are They Really Bad for You?

Point Blank Alec Baldwin!-Featuring Sam Juni as the Psychologist and Avraham Kivelevitz as the Rabbi

Members of Curious Yoel-Behind the Outrage of Teen Marriages-Special Guest Rav Nosson Nota Glick

Beneficial Diminution-Vacation from work and relationships

Concentrated Effort-The Struggle to Stay Focused over the Long Yom Kippur Service

Rosh HaShana Mindset-No excuses on Judgement Day-Why we continue to act in ways that we know will have negative repercussions

Twisted or Enlightened- Definitions of Courage-Has Simone Biles' Withdrawal From Olympic Competition Been a Boon for Mental Health Appreciation?

Factitious Disorders-Is the meshulach perennially at your door appealing for their child suffering from Munchausen's syndrome by proxy?

Spirit of Wiedergutmachung -Why many have difficulty apologizing and asking for absolution-and why others find it impossible to accept and forgive

Resisting Possession-The deep roots of obsessive collecting- hoarding-and holding on to toxic friendships

"Things will straighten themselves out" From whence does this disastrous "Yehiyeh Tov" attitude derive?

Staying up all night this Shavuos? Understand what you'll be missing- Psychological Purpose of Dreams

Report from Israel after the Deaths in Meron- Making Peace within ourselves : The psychological underpinnings of our desire to visit hallowed gravesites

Can Israel move beyond the Sephardi-Ashkenazi divide?

Scars and Scabs-Yom HaZikoron continuously reveals the massive rift in Israeli Society and divisions between all mankind

Monagamous Uber Alles Herr Doktor-Psychological Pitfalls of Polygamy and May-December Marriages

The Pesach Seder Organizes and Defines Family Identity and allows the airing out of Painful Trauma

Seuss-More Doctor than you realize-Children's Psychology and Literature Should serve the same need

Systems Theory Shatters the Idyllic Grandparent Myth

Blunting Judgment and Banishing Inhibition-Viewing Purim Customs in the twin lights of psychology and sociology

Where Has Communication gone? Understanding Irrational Arguments

Covid-19's Collateral Damage: Aggravated Hypochondria and Fresh Phobias

Another theme highlighted by Juni is the devaluation of women portrayed so boldly by Brooks’ casting of Anne Bancroft, his primary co-star, as a loose women
with marginal values. Indeed, Brooks comes close to objectifying her as an object akin to that of Ann Dawson’s role in King Kong.