Creativity And Sexuality: A Kabbalistic PerspectiveJudaism openly recognizes, as an integral part of human nature, the enigmatic relationship between yetzer, or physical desire, and yetzirah, or spiritual creativity. Creativity and Sexuality, written as a fictional dialogue, clearly delineates the psychic interdependence of these two drives, as well as the integration of the concepts as they are defined by both Jewish mysticism and modern psychology. Mordechai Rotenberg is interested in the impact of religion on the psychology of everyday life. He was prompted to write Creativity and Sexuality by the popularity of writings that explore Jewish texts on the subject of sexuality from a historical or literary point of view, but that do not hesitate to include psychological evaluations based on popular secondary psychological concepts. This work seeks to provide an accurate psychological analysis of sexuality and spirituality from a Jewish mystical perspective. As such, it both reconstructs the interdisciplinary bridge between Judaism and psychology and deconstructs some exegetical traditions. The goal is to present new paradigmatic options, which may help modern society struggle more efficiently with its sexuality. Ultimately, the author sees physical desire and spiritual creativity as a regulative continuum. People learn how to spend the tremendous power of energy that the sexual yetzer produces not only on physical sex, but on the spiritual yetzirah. In an introduction written especially for this new edition, the author explains the continuing relevance of Creativity and Sexuality, and the ongoing relationship between sexual desire and a healthy spiritual self-fulfillment. This volume will be of interest to students of Judaism, psychology, mysticism, and sexuality. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 28
... Theory of “ Vaginal Envy ” 139 The " Jewish Mother " and " Creative Neurosis " 143 7 The " Yetzer " in the Socio - psychological Therapy Room 157 Clinical Training 165 Contraction and Impotency 166 Patriarchism as Imperialistic ...
... theory and protagonists of the latter might be offended by the very attempt to " desecrate " religious texts by interpreting holy norms and metaphors into the secular language of psychology . I hope , though , that the genuine Talmudic ...
... theories by incorporating popular secondary psychological concepts into their analysis . This tacit trend of " psychologizing " historically researched texts stands , nonetheless , in diametric opposition to the competent rigorousness ...
... theories is magnified when research evolves around such a major psycho - physiological category as sexuality . To use only one example : a famous kabbalistic parable related by the Besht ( the founder of the eighteenth - century hasidic ...
... theory of sexuality constitutes practically a biological reformulation of the Jewish yetzer . While the implications of Freud's reformulations of the old Jewish yetzer paradigm in the biological terms of the libido theory will be ex ...
Contents
Creation and Procreation | 1 |
Contraction and Emanation as Reading and Writing | 21 |
The Yetzer and Romantic Imagination | 49 |
Manic Disorder versus Creative Ecstasy | 62 |
Romantic Flirting versus Sexual Harassment | 79 |
Harassing the Flirter | 89 |
Ecstatic Prophecy and Imagination | 105 |
The YetzerYetzira Genre and the Musar Movement | 121 |
The Theory of Vaginal Envy | 139 |
The Yetzer in the Sociopsychological Therapy Room | 157 |
Bibliography | 171 |
Kierkegaards Seduction Style 86 | 179 |