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The 'Nachas Ruach' Treatment Model
Excerpts from "Nachas Ruach: Torah-Based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth and Healing"
Preface:
A Way Out of Addiction for Orthodox Jews?
From Internet addiction to marital and family problems, from "teens at risk" to the psychological challenges facing those who are frum from birth and baalei teshuvah, today's changing world can be a confusing one. The religious Jewish community is also not immune to many sensitive contemporary issues, which can no longer be ignored. Yet sadly, some people who need psychological advice refrain from seeking it, believing that contemporary psychology and psychiatry are antagonistic to Yiddishkeit.
This important work by well-known therapist Dr. Naftali Fish offers a solid conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between Torah and psychology - including the Twelve Step program - showing clearly where they are compatible and where they are not. Dr. Fish is uniquely qualified to bridge this gap, as an Orthodox Jew grounded in Torah Judaism and the wisdom of our sages, and as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Jerusalem, with over twenty-five years' experience working with a variety of clinical issues, including the treatment of addictions and healing the inner wounded child. Here he presents the Nachas Ruach Treatment Model (NRTM), an innovative, effective approach that integrates Torah values and spirituality within the context of professional psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, as illustrated by intriguing case studies.
This book is a must-read for all professionals in the field of mental health, as well as for rabbis, educators, students studying psychology, and educated lay readers. Blending theory and practice, this book also provides practical tools and exercises for personal growth that anyone can gain from in their daily lives.
Preface:
A Way Out of Addiction for Orthodox Jews?
From Internet addiction to marital and family problems, from "teens at risk" to the psychological challenges facing those who are frum from birth and baalei teshuvah, today's changing world can be a confusing one. The religious Jewish community is also not immune to many sensitive contemporary issues, which can no longer be ignored. Yet sadly, some people who need psychological advice refrain from seeking it, believing that contemporary psychology and psychiatry are antagonistic to Yiddishkeit.
This important work by well-known therapist Dr. Naftali Fish offers a solid conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between Torah and psychology - including the Twelve Step program - showing clearly where they are compatible and where they are not. Dr. Fish is uniquely qualified to bridge this gap, as an Orthodox Jew grounded in Torah Judaism and the wisdom of our sages, and as a licensed clinical psychologist living in Jerusalem, with over twenty-five years' experience working with a variety of clinical issues, including the treatment of addictions and healing the inner wounded child. Here he presents the Nachas Ruach Treatment Model (NRTM), an innovative, effective approach that integrates Torah values and spirituality within the context of professional psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, as illustrated by intriguing case studies.
This book is a must-read for all professionals in the field of mental health, as well as for rabbis, educators, students studying psychology, and educated lay readers. Blending theory and practice, this book also provides practical tools and exercises for personal growth that anyone can gain from in their daily lives.
Concept 2: Part 2
2. Taste and see that God is good. Happy is the man who trusts in Him - Psalms 34:9
The Torah's Position on the Pleasure Principle or the Pursuit of Happiness
Freud defined man's basic motivator to be the "pleasure principle." Historically, Western society has vacillated between two extremes in relation to how to express the pleasure principle. American culture was initially strongly influenced by the Puritan ethic, which viewed pleasure as a sin and sought to suppress this drive. This led in the early 1930s to the era of Prohibition, where the production and consumption of alcohol was constitutionally declared illegal, before being repealed only several years later. To a great degree, the "counter-culture" of the late 1960s and early 1970s was a reaction against the "straight" WASP work ethic and lifestyle of the pre-'60s era, and it sought to legitimatize the pursuit of pleasure and immediate gratification as an end in itself. For the hippies of this era, smoking marijuana became mainstream and the symbol of their rebellion against the "establishment." This ideology was expressed in popular slogans of the time such as: "Make love, not war" and "If it feels good, do it." It also included challenging previously accepted norms and inhibitions concerning sexual behavior.
Since the mid 1970s, much of the idealism of the hippie culture has been lost. However, what has remained from it is that in many ways contemporary society has become more and more a "fun" or "hedonistic" culture, and within this context the increase in the frequency and range of addictive behaviors has been almost inevitable. One could almost describe modern Western society as being a "culture of addictions." In many ways Freud's critique that civilization overly repressed man's natural instinctive drives had a major effect on the way Western culture developed in the twentieth century. Freud developed his theory in what could be characterized as being a "super ego society," where morals were too rigid, whereas since the 1960s, Western society has become what can be characterized as more of an "id society," where free expression is encouraged.
From a comparative historical-social perspective, the Torah viewpoint on pleasure can be seen as taking a balanced or middle position between the two extremes of hedonism and asceticism. The Torah does not view the drive for pleasure as a sin per se. On the contrary, as we mentioned above, ultimately man was created in order to have the delight(oneg) of experiencing Hashem's presence. Thus, from a Torah perspective, man's choice is not whether to experience pleasure, but rather how to experience it.
Physical pleasures in this world, including sexuality, are legitimate as long as they are expressed through the framework of halachah, which guides man how to "walk the tightrope" between seeking and expressing pleasure in a constructive or destructive way, both for the individual and in its implications for society. This principle is related to the idea that "the Almighty has created one thing opposite the other" -זה לאומת זה עשה האלוקים (Ecclesiastes 7:14). This is interpreted to mean that in general, things in the realm of holiness have their opposite in the realm of the profane. Therefore, the implication is that if there are negative ways to have pleasure, there also must be positive ways. Beyond that, it includes the goal of sublimating one's passions to allow them to be expressed within the framework of serving Hashem.
This can be seen in the remarks by the classic commentator Rashi on the first verseof the Shema prayer, which a Jew recites twice a day. Commenting on the verse, "And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). Rashi quotes Chazal as understanding that "with all your heart" means serving God with both the good and the evil inclinations.
It is understood that the good inclination naturally wants to serve Hashem, while the evil inclination opposes accepting Hashem's will; being connected to the body, it is naturally drawn after seeking physical pleasures. Rashi made this comment based on the word levavcha, "your heart," being spelled with two letter "beits" when only one was necessary, and he suggested that each letter stands for one of the two inclinations. In relation to this goal, the Baal Shem Tov taught in the name of Rav Saadia Gaon that "one should learn from his desire for physical things how to desire to serve Hashem and to love Him.[1]
[1] Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, The Light Beyond: Adventures in Hassidic Thought (Moznaim Publishing, 1981).