Margaret Mahler was a great child psychoanalyst. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mahler
In her final years it was said that she went to temple every shabbus. This in Freudian circles was a big no-no, certainly in the group centered around the NY Psychoanalytic Society, the Edah Hacharedis of psychoanalysis. Look at her, they said, a lifetime of teaching and writing on separation-individuation, and here in her old age she gets all soft and woozy.In Chicago, analysts who were students of Kohut read her actions differently.She managed to transform her own inner demons into a creative, meaningful life. If in her old age,childless and alone, she found comfort in a temple service, only a cruel, heartless person would say she needed an opiate, a crutch. The strict atheism of the first two generations of Freudians was so cold, so lacking in empathy, that it provided only an incomplete picture of a good life lived in accordance of reason. Whether religion is a crutch depends very much on the entire life, and how religion was integrated into a larger self narrative.
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Oy vey. I think you just gave Hirhurim an idea for a new post:
'May we use the tool on chol hamoed ?'
Religion is an entire category of human behavior, like language, cooking or politics. Atheism is a religion too.
The Torah is the truth, however.
And JP, you're a real, err, tool.
Comfort would have a better ring to it than comforter
"opiate". KM
And what exactly is it in the hands of one who outwardly practices but inwardly apparently believes nothing?
A hobby.
Margaret Mahler was a great child psychoanalyst.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mahler
In her final years it was said that she went to temple every shabbus. This in Freudian circles was a big no-no, certainly in the group centered around the NY Psychoanalytic Society, the Edah Hacharedis of psychoanalysis. Look at her, they said, a lifetime of teaching and writing on separation-individuation, and here in her old age she gets all soft and woozy.In Chicago, analysts who were students of Kohut read her actions differently.She managed to transform her own inner demons into a creative, meaningful life. If in her old age,childless and alone, she found comfort in a temple service, only a cruel, heartless person would say she needed an opiate, a crutch. The strict atheism of the first two generations of Freudians was so cold, so lacking in empathy, that it provided only an incomplete picture of a good life lived in accordance of reason. Whether religion is a crutch depends very much on the entire life, and how religion was integrated into a larger self narrative.
Moshe - I believe it is called a veneer, a mask, chitzoniyut, praxt, and/or culturally acceptable behavior. Very useful tool for living among the dox.
Read the Shulchan aruch. It is a handbook for the obsessive-compulsive.
wicked, masses, weak are 3 of the 4 sons of the hagada. the question is what is in the hands of the wise?
Check out Hirhurim's latest on torah and science.
>what is in the hands of the wise?
Skepticism.
bingo
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