Sanity and Sanctity: Mental Health Work Among the Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem
David Greenberg and Eliezer Witztum
Abstract
Ultra-orthodox Jews in Jerusalem are isolated from the secular community that surrounds them not only physically but by their dress, behaviors, and beliefs. Their relationship with secular society is characterized by social, religious, and political tensions. The differences between the ultra-orthodox and secular often pose special difficulties for psychiatrists who attempt to deal with their needs. In this book, two Western-trained psychiatrists discuss their mental health work with this community over the past two decades. With humor and affection they elaborate on some of the factors that m ... More
Ultra-orthodox Jews in Jerusalem are isolated from the secular community that surrounds them not only physically but by their dress, behaviors, and beliefs. Their relationship with secular society is characterized by social, religious, and political tensions. The differences between the ultra-orthodox and secular often pose special difficulties for psychiatrists who attempt to deal with their needs. In this book, two Western-trained psychiatrists discuss their mental health work with this community over the past two decades. With humor and affection they elaborate on some of the factors that make it difficult to treat or even to diagnose the ultra-orthodox, present case studies, and relate their observations of this religious community to the management of mental health services for other fundamentalist, anti-secular groups.
Keywords:
ultra-orthodox Jews,
Jerusalem,
secular community,
dress,
behaviors,
beliefs,
secular society,
political tensions,
mental health work,
anti-secular groups
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2001 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780300071917 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 |
DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300071917.001.0001 |
