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
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... seems to repress all forms of sexual expression? It is thus important to stress at the outset that the current study focuses on the Jewish ideological approach to sexuality and not on its sociological expression. In her book Educated ...
... seems to stem from a compartmentalizing tradition that differentiates between the ideological and the sociological applications of Jewish ethics. Accordingly, it is highly possible that this Hasidic Jew, who is accustomed to say the L ...
... seem to perplex or rather haunt Western society in our AIDS-inflicted era, I decided therefore to go all the way back to Genesis in order to learn whether our aggressive patterns of sexuality and their vicissitudes are possibly shaped ...
... seems imperative, then, that since we have no way to determine the actual experiential nature of a behavioral phenomenon described as an "ought" category in texts written hundreds of years ago, a bilateral interdisciplinary effort ...
... seems, however, highly instructive concerning the actual experiential meaning of the hasidic norms, which are here under scrutiny, is the following fact. This young chabadnick reasoned his reluctance to eat due to his professed failures ...
Contents
Creation and Procreation | 1 |
Contraction and Emanation as Reading and Writing | 21 |
The Yetzer and Romantic Imagination | 49 |
Kabbalistic Sexuality as Spiritual Energy | 65 |
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 |