Between Rationality and Irrationality: The Jewish Psychotherapeutic System

For Rotenberg, a person’s life becomes the text,” subject to being read and interpreted. If that person wishes to change his or her behavior through psychotherapy, then a hermeneutic system must be employed to understand that person’s life. However, many systems interpret a person’s life according to the particular theory espoused by the therapist. Rotenberg, in contrast, introduces a balanced theory bridging the rational and the irrational. Between Rationality and Irrationality emphasizes that it is more important for a therapist to learn his client’s own language” than to impose his own doctrinaire interpretation.

Mordechai Rotenberg is a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.