In a new book, two brilliant clinical psychologists contrast the classical Greek view in psychology and psychiatry with the Judaic-Biblical approach.
By RAYMOND S. SOLOMONBiblical Psychotherapy: Reclaiming Scriptural Narratives for Positive Psychology and Suicide Prevention Kalman J. Kaplan and Paul Cantz Lexington Books 240 pages; $70(photo credit: Courtesy)In the book, Biblical Psychotherapy: Reclaiming Scriptural Narratives for Positive Psychology and Suicide Prevention, psychologists Kalman J. Kaplan and Paul Cantz compare the classical Greek with the Jewish view of life, psychology, human beings, and medicine. In the Judaic conception doctors exists to take care people and their health. In the Judaic view, as expressed by Kaplan and Cantz, doctors and other health practitioners are God’s chosen guardians of their patients. This approach, the authors argue, unlike the Greek view of patient care, which sees the doctor fighting each disease separately. The Biblical approach to medicine, it is not a disease by disease battle. A Biblically based psychology has a similar view to the Biblical view of medicine. This has a very big impact on suicide prevention. Kaplan’s views are so Judaic that he especially quotes Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, saying “LaChaim, LaChaim, to life.” This does not mean an abandonment of scientific objectivity. Both of the authors are brilliant scientists. To quote sociologist C. Wright Mills, “I have tried to be objective. I do not claim to be detached.”This book is very much for professionals, including medical doctors--especially psychiatrists. It is also for psychologist, social workers, other psychotherapists, nurses, and all those working the in metal health field.Sigmund Freud, as a brilliant young neurologist, who was very concerned with his patients, and working closely with Dr. Josef Breuer, the brilliant neurophysiologist, came across cases which state of the art medicine of his time could not find a physical explanation. Many were women with repressed traumatic memories But Breuer successfully treated Anna O. with a “talking cure.” Breuer and Freud became miracle workers with hypnosis and the new psychoanalysis. Leon Marcus, M.D. said that Psychoanalysis was effective with hysterical patients. But his technique was not fully integrated with Freud’s strong Hebraic background. Freud’s background was so strong in the Bible that he had many dreams about the Biblical Joseph, another interpreter of dreams.Freud was very Jewish, yet he was anti-religious. He considered religion to be a substitute for neurosis. Kaplan has pointed out that most patients in the United States seeking psychological counseling or therapy have religious beliefs, while most psychotherapists in the United States are not religious. Many are strong atheists. This is part of the heritage and influence of Freudianism. The techniques of classical Psychoanalysis seem to have its origins in hypnosis.Knowledge of the Bible is very important for dealing with patients with religious feelings if they are Jews or Christians; as knowledge of the Koran would be important to treating Muslim patients. Kaplan and historian Matthew Schwartz have written Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Sourcebook. It is a shorter book than the present one, but one very useful for therapists and especially the general public. Biblical Psychotherapy: Reclaiming Scriptural Narratives for Positive Psychology and Suicide Prevention by Kalman J. Kaplan and Paul Cantz is more for professionals, although laypeople can find this book informative and useful. However, reading this book is not a substitute for professional psychotherapy. Knowledge and techniques gained from this book will save human lives, and enhance the quality of life for many others.The authors dedicated their book to the memory of psychiatrist Erich Wellisch who the authors consider to be the father of Biblical psychology—what S. Morrison called “a new psychotherapy using ancient wisdom.” The authors say Dr. Wellisch is an “unsung visionary” and they expressed sorrow that he died before the publication of his book Isaac and Oedipus in 1954. Dr. Wellisch was “Medical Director of Grayford Child Guidance Clinic in England.” Kaplan and Cantz are also pioneers in this area.Both of the authors have impressive professional backgrounds and academic achievements. Kalman Kaplan is an expert on Schizophrenia. The main focus of Biblical Psychotherapy: Reclaiming Scriptural Narratives for Positive Psychology and Suicide Prevention is suicide prevention, as the sub-title indicates. There is an increase in the number of suicides in the United States. That gives the need to use this book a new urgency. Often suicide is committed by a person lacking supportive people around him, or her. The need for supportive people is also true for non-suicidal people suffering from depression and other emotional problems.Jewish sensitivity is illustrated by how many Rabbis comforted Holocaust survivors and Jews in hiding from the Nazis. The Unheeded Cry by Abraham Fuchs describes the great mental torture Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl experienced after the Holocaust.Rabbi Weissmandl was the greatest Holocaust rescue activist and hero. After the Holocaust, he and his Yeshiva students immigrated to the United States. He first opened his Yeshiva in Somerville, New Jersey. Many times his students heard him crying. In 1947 he was not even able to celebrate the Passover with his students. Fuchs explains that “After Passover, the Rebbe of Satmar was invited to the Yeshiva to give regular classes for seven weeks until after the Shavu’ot festival.” Discussions between the Satmar Rebbe (Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum) and Rabbi Weissmandl about World War Two, the Holocaust, the loss of Rabbi Weissmandl’s family, friends, and of so many Jewish people in the Holocaust, and the discussions of Torah topics, had a very therapeutic affect on Rabbi Weissmandl and “his pain became more internalized and he showed it less outwardly.” Rabbi Weissmandl’s ability to move his Yeshiva to Mount Kisco, Westchester, which was named The Yeshiva Farm Settlement, create an attached farming community, conduct a publishing and printing enterprise, to remarry and raise a new family, to continue his research on old Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, and to write the books Min HaMetzar, Torath Chemed, and Ha-Yeshiva ve-ha-Yishuv was largely the result of the psychological support and help of the Satmar Rebbe.
There are many examples of religious Jewish leaders comforting Holocaust survivors. In Israel the Chazon Ish comforted many Holocaust survivors. This included his arranging marriages for orphaned Holocaust survivors. Rabbi Abraham Kalmanowitz brought surviving Yeshiva students who had survived the Holocaust to the United States. The Stropkover Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Halberstam brought serenity, calmed the fears of, and gave spiritual inspiration to Jews in hiding in a bunker in Bratislava, after Rabbi Menachem Mendel Halberstam was able to join them, during the latter days of the Holocaust. This is narrated in The Unheeded Cry by Abraham Fuchs. The bunker was owned by a righteous gentile printer by the name of Natali.There are many Biblical examples of people being comforted in their hours of trouble. Kaplan and Cantz cite the Prophet Elijah being comforted by an angel in an hour of despair. Other incidents of supportive help include: Jonah being guided by God to be happy that Nineveh was not destroyed and that Jonah’s warning resulting in repentance by the people of Nineveh. Jacob is renamed Israel by an angel as Jacob prepare to encounter Esau. Moses who is “show of speech,” is helped by his brother Aaron, whom the Lord tells him will be Moses’s spokesman. After Abram’s rescue of Lot in a war he waged with 318 of the men of Abram’s household, God tells Abram, “Fear not Abram, I am your shield.” Till this day religious Jews in their daily prayer of the Tefilat HaAmidah say, “Blessed are thou Oh Lord Shield of Abraham.” When Jacob leaves Beersheva to go towards Haran, while escaping from Esau, God appears to him in a dream and gives him hope for his future, the future of Jacobs descendants, and the ingathering of his descendants into the Holy Land. After Jacob is falsely told that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal, “all his sons and daughters” tried to comfort him. Ruth does not let Naomi depart for Bethlehem alone, but tells Naomi of the close connection of the two of them; and Naomi is welcomed back when she arrives in Bethlehem. God visits Abraham when he is ill after his circumcision. Great evil is recorded in the Hebrew Bible, and many people have great problems. The Bible deals with the real world. However, good usually triumphs in the Bible, even in the long run – look at the hope for the Messianic era.The authors say that support from others is crucial for a troubled person, and the Hebrew Bible has many examples of this. Kaplan and Cantz make many contrasts of Greek culture as seen in plays, literature, and other writing with Biblical culture including:Both Antigone and Ruth have incestuous family backgrounds. Kaplan and Cantz contrast them. “Antigone hangs herself, rejecting her would be lover.” But “Ruth thrives and becomes the mother of Obed and ancestress of King David and the Davidic line. She integrates Naomi into her family in a beautiful way,” as Ruth was integrated into Bethlehem and Israelite society.The attitudes of Jewish vs. classic Greek motherhood, as human life itself, as viewed by the authors, are compared via Moses and Oedipus. “Oedipus’s mother sends the infant Oedipus away to be exposed to the mountain top and die.” In great contrast, “Moses’ mother sends the infant Moses away to save him from being killed by Pharaoh.”Consideration of others is also important in Judaic sources. In the Babylonian Talmud Rab said, Samson spoke before the Holy One blessed be he and said, “Ruler of the world, remember to my credit that that during the twenty years I judged Israel, I never ordered anyone to carry my staff from one place to another.” (Sotah 10a, Soncino translation of the of the Babylonian Talmud.) In the Midrash it says that when Sarah told Abraham that she wanted to be built up through Hager, that Sarah than told Hager, blessed it was for her (Hager) to be part of such an important holy family. (Midrash Genesis Rabbah, Soncino translation.) Not all people have the same religious beliefs. It would not be good to start preaching religion to a strong atheist. A therapist must have good judgment. She, or he, must know their patients. Jews, Muslims, and Christians have different beliefs, and there are strong differences within Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as there are in other religions. There are even differences among atheists and agnostics. But as Schwartz and Kaplan say in Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Sourcebook, Biblical stories have meaning and can teach lessons that transcend “theological differences.” Part of the proof of this is that although the pioneers who created what is now the State of Israel were not religious they studied the Bible for guidance in history, reviving the Hebrew language for daily use, learning the Hebrew language, geography of the Holy Land, agriculture and military strategy, among other needs. Why not use it to enhance psychotherapy – including psychopharmacology. Biblical Psychotherapy is vitally important in countering the growth of assisted suicides, support for euthanasia, living wills, and other human life threating ideas. This book may bring new hope to many psychotherapists and new help to many patients. Psychoanalysis and other forms of therapy must be integrated with Biblical therapy for many patients. Esther Dolgoff said that although Freud lived in a repressive Austria, his knowledge of ancient Greek and Hebrew civilization helped him no end. But there was too much emphasis on the Greek and not enough on the Hebrew. We need a Biblical Freudianism, and Biblical foundation stories.Raymond S. Solomon has often written under the pen name Reuven Solomon. Among the magazines he has been published in is Journal of Psychology and Judaism. Raymond S. Solomon and Thomas Crater, Jr. have co-authored a small book Biafra to Darfur: Genocide and Revolution in Africa
