As I read Yael’s words about her therapy, I was concerned about Breger’s over-involvement in her life. I was anxious about a closeness that creates dependence and does not allow distance. Instead, what I found was that both Louis Breger and Yael had introspection and mutual awareness in terms of their relationship. Louis Breger created modeling for a beneficial conversation that allows for tuned and awakens hope in Yael. She can now copy this model to implement in her internal psychological life as well as her external one. Using Jewish psychological terminology, I would say that what the therapist in this case introduced was the soul.
The Soul and Psychotherapy: Personal Reduction and Expansion
According to the Jewish Hassidic terminology in KABBALA (Jewish mysticism), the soul is that part of God above from which humans are created. The soul here is different from the psychological definition, which is reliant on life circumstances and is conflictual in its essence. The mystical Jewish Kabalistic tradition proclaims that the soul is directly connected to the process of human creation. In Kabalistic terms, the soul is one unity not dialectical. The process by which the therapist brings elements of hope into the therapeutic practice is called reduction and expansion.
The Hassidic Kabalistic approach to the human soul is different from that of the Freudian one, which is perceived as conflictual, as opposed to that of the mind-soul \spirit that is one and united and therefore not in conflict. As the Torah says, “A bit of God from above”. During a lifetime, there is tension between the psychological soul, the body (bodily needs) and the spirit. They yearn for unification and discovery of the light of good in the world. The quality of the light appears – and its quality is to have positive influence. Psychological problems occur when the light of a human being (which is located in the soul\spirit) cannot appear.
Prof. Rotenberg (1990), who originated Jewish Hassidic psychology, says that according to the Lurian Kabbalah, in order for God to create the world, which was filled with God, God needed to reduce himself so that there would be space for humans to be at the center of creation. The infinite light of God was broken. And it is this reaction that is the cause of suffering in life. From this, we understand that all human actions, from the moment of birth, are done in order to create a space within which two essential actions will occur: personal and interpersonal reduction and expansion.
Given this approach, the soul is not in conflict. It was created by the endless light of the Creator. This light was broken in order to create a space for additional beings, not only God. This breaking created pain, disease, Sufism borders, and death – which is imminent in our lives. In the therapeutic process between caregiver and patient there is a reference to the internal light which demands to be revealed and preform in person’s life in order to recover from this essential” break” and to continue creating.
Jewish psychology sees humans as moving between places of crises and a space for repair (“Angels stand, people move” Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzek 1859-1787) – and the creation of hope in action (not only as an ideal). There are elements of intersubjectivity in the therapeutic process that allow both destruction and recreation. This affects the therapist and exposes him to his own pain, needs and vulnerability in transference and countertransference. Yet these do not pose a threat to the therapist. Quite the contrary. They serve as tools, which allow the light of both souls to be contained and performed in a vivid way. This emphasizes the power of life, which exists within a relationship of healthy dialogue.
