Review of Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, by Erel Shalit
5.0 out of 5 stars Slender, Succinct, Superb, February 3, 2010
By Edith Sobel (Fort Lee, New Jersey)
This slim but incisive novella is a philosophical but completely comprehensible take on contemporary Israel. From a "litany of lamentations" drawn from the current generation which appears to be the antithesis of their idealistic founding fathers, the thoughtful narrator Eli Shimeoni (about to give a lecture in New York) recounts his overriding despair - but eventually concludes with hope. Elegantly and thoughtfully mourning today's saga of Israeli disillusion without hope, bitter alienation, and collapse of Zionist ideals, Shimeoni indicts the present movement out of the country for profit and the concomitant surrender of "soul." But relying on the consistency of past Jewish history and the "triumphalism of hope" the reader reluctantly puts the book down - and smiles!
Download a free pdf sampler of Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return
Erel Shalit's Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, and his previously published books can be purchased at http://www.fisherkingpress.com/ or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at +1-831-238-7799
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Thriving in Turbulent Times: How Relevant is Psychoanalysis Today?
Thriving in Turbulent Times:
How Relevant is Psychoanalysis Today?
National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis Conference October 24, 2009
Excerpt from the Gradiva Awards Banquet, by Erel Shalit, delivered by Dr. Jeffrey Werden
Times are, indeed, turbulent; there is crisis and uncertainty, as well as global processes of social, psychological and ecological change. We do not know where they will lead, but an analytical approach to the psyche may shed light on those dark corners in which shadowy, otherwise unaccounted for aspects of progress that elude our conscious vision, thrive in hiding. In our post-modern condition, the real is being replaced by the virtual, and the virtual is taking on its own autonomous reality. In this present condition of increasing non-locality and transiency, an erosion of the real, as the French philosopher Baudrillard has said, is taking place. By association we centrifugally 'flee the center' – thus, Freud suggested free association as a technique to flee the bonds of ego consciousness. The freer our associations, the more able we are to break away from the rigidities and the imperatives of collective consciousness. Yet, as we associatively follow the clues into the endlessness of cyberspace, deconstructing the structures of convention, we may get lost, like the Flying Dutchman, as we crisscross the World Wide Waters, at a speed that often leaves no time for digestion – which is so essential, if we are to turn the food of living experience into soul-matter. Our condition is becoming increasingly transient, as we can discern in the traits of the Transient Personality - the non-locality and temporality of airports, as Temples of Transiency, assuage his restlessness and suit him better than being-in-therapy and holding on to the analytical relationship. In his imperative book Technopoly, Neal Postman sadly concludes that “the average psychotherapist … barely has even superficial knowledge of literature, philosophy, social history, art, religion, and biology, and is not expected to have such knowledge.” In a world in which practically everything can be copied and indiscreetly forwarded, it may seem as if psychoanalysis is obsolete, but, in fact, this may precisely be the time where it, psychoanalysis, can possibly serve as a liaison between the world of poets – who, as Freud said, are apt to know a whole host of things between heaven and earth of which our philosophy has not yet let us dream – between the world of poets and the poetry of one's individual soul, a meeting taking place, discretely and authentically, in the analytical relationship. I thank you for having honored me by nominating my book for the Gradiva Award.
Erel Shalit's Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published book The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego can be purchased at http://www.fisherkingpress.com/ or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at +1-831-238-7799
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return- a new publication by Erel Shalit
Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return by Erel Shalit
Dear friends and colleagues,
I am pleased to share with you the announcement of my newly published novella, Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return
, in which I have fictionalized my ruminations on issues of exile and return.The razor-sharp edge of religious beliefs and national conflict, of shadowy projections and existential anxiety, that characterize Israel and its neighbors, gives rise to a particular blend of archetypal fate and personal destiny, of doubt and conviction, despair and commitment, of collective identity and personal choice. However, I do believe that the essence of my wonderings reach beyond the shores of the eastern Mediterranean or Jewish tradition. I believe the tension between a sense of exile and return, belongingness and estrangement, are universal aspects, certainly in our post-modern world.
While Israeli reality provides the external context, the story serves, as well, as a metaphor for the exile and return of the soul, which necessarily is a journey through shadowy valleys.
With gratitude,
Erel Shalit
Download a free pdf sampler of Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return
_____________________________________________________
Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel. He is a training and supervising analyst, and past president of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He is the author of several publications, including Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path, The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel, and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego.
All of Erel Shalit’s titles and many more Jungian psychological publications are available for purchase at the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore or by phoning 1-800-228-9316 in the US and Canada, or 1+831-238-7799 from abroad.
Requiem ISBN 978-1-926715-03-2 can be purchased at Amazon or directly from the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore.
Phone orders welcomed, Credit Cards accepted. 1-800-228-9316 toll free in the US and Canada, International +1-831-238-7799. http://www.fisherkingpress.com/
Fisher King Press / PO Box 222321 / Carmel, CA 93230 /
Phone: 831-238-7799 / info@fisherkingpress.com / http://www.fisherkingpress.com/
Monday, January 18, 2010
Erel Shalit's articles recently published in the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion
The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, has now been published by Springer, New York edited by David Leeming, Kathryn Madden and Stanton Marlan).
I have contributed three articles, Dreams in the Old Testament (Vol. 1, pp. 251-53), Jerusalem (Vol. 1, pp. 449-451) and Sacrifice of Isaac (Vol. 2, pp. 809-811).
The following is an excerpt from my entry on the Sacrifice of Isaac:
Sacrifice of Isaac by Erel Shalit
The sacrifice of Isaac, in Hebrew the akedah, i.e., the binding of Isaac, is one of the Bible’s most dramatic stories. In its extreme brevity, the narrative is an archetypal skeleton, not fleshed out by personal details or human feelings. It thus lends itself to innumerable theological explanations, philosophical readings and psychological interpretations.
God tells Abraham to go to the land of Moriah (possibly meaning the land of the Amorites, the land of worship, or the teaching-place of God) and offer his beloved son Isaac for a burnt offering. Abraham does not question his God, with whom he has sealed a covenant. He has been promised that he will ‘‘multiply exceedingly,’’ and become a father of many nations. He binds his son Isaac and lays him upon the wood on the altar he has built, but when raising his knife, the angel calls upon him not to slay his son. He has passed God’s test of devotion, and a ram is offered in place of Isaac. Abraham then calls the place Adonai-yireh, because ‘‘the Lord has been seen’’ (Genesis 22: 1–14).
For philosophers and religious commentators, the test of Abraham has provided a stage, similar to the trial of Job, for contemplating good and evil. Kierkegaard emphasized Abraham’s anguish and suffering in preserving his faith. For him, ‘‘only one who draws the knife gets Isaac’’ (Kierkegaard, 2006: 27). The willingness to fulfill the command (or rather, as phrased in Hebrew, the request) to sacrifice Isaac becomes, then, for Kierkegaard, a rekindling of faith in the good God, while for Kant it represents an act of evil to be rebelled against.
In Jewish thought, the perception of the story has commonly emphasized Abraham’s devotion to God, to the extent of sacrificing the embodiment of his future. It has been considered a paradigm of the readiness to give up life in order to sanctify the divine name, but also as punishment for Abraham having sent Ishmael into the wilderness.
Some biblical scholars have read the account as a prohibition against child sacrifice, such as mentioned for instance in Jeremiah (7: 31; see also Exodus 22: 28–29; 2 Kings 3: 27, 16: 3, 21: 6), with the angel intervening to prevent Abraham’s act of filicide. The narrative has also served as a model for anti-Semitic blood libels accusing Jews of ritual murder of non-Jewish children.
Already some early legends told the story that Abraham in fact did slay and then burned Isaac. The lad ‘‘was reduced to ashes,’’ only to be revived by God’s ‘‘life-giving dew’’ (Spiegel, 1993: 37). Thus, Isaac served as a ‘‘symbol for the archetypal experience of death and re-birth’’ (Dreifuss, 1971: 72).
The symbolic death of Isaac has been understood as transformative, confirming him in his role as chosen to carry out God’s promise to Abraham, to be the one in whom the seed shall be called (cf. Abramovitch, 1994: 123; Genesis 21: 12). This seed, says St. Augustine, while called in Isaac, is gathered together in Christ by the call of grace. The sacrifice of Isaac becomes the precursor of Christ; like Jesus carried His cross, Isaac himself carried the wood to the place of sacrifice, and like the ram was offered in place of Isaac, so Jesus would die on the cross for humankind.
The name of the sacrificial child is not mentioned in the Quran. Consequently, Muslim scholars have disagreed whether it concerns Ishmael or Isaac. Since it is said that Abraham offered up his only son, scholars have argued this could only mean Ishmael, the elder of the two. The importance ascribed to the sacrifice is reflected in Eid-ul-Adha, the Feast and Festival of Sacrifice, celebrated immediately after the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Psychological Aspects
The akedah offers a kaleidoscope of psychological facets and interpretations. Abraham, Urvater of the monotheistic religions, stands in the center, between the Father-God, who now requires of him the sacrifice of his repeatedly promised seed, and the late-born son, predestined to fulfill the covenant and conceive the earthly offspring. The offering of a child to appease the gods is a common theme in myth and legend in many traditions.
Psychological interpretations naturally tend to look at the father-son relation. One aspect of this is submission – both Abraham’s and Isaac’s – to the command of the father. It entails the recognition of God’s supremacy, interpreted on the psychological level as reflecting weakness in relation to authority. Yet, the archetypal scheme seems more important than personal character, since Abraham already had shown himself quite capable of challenging God, as when he argues and negotiates with God to spare the sinners with the righteous in Sodom (Genesis 18: 23–33).
Father’s Reluctance Against His Son
In a sense, the akedah is a reversal of and predecessor to the Oedipus complex. A complex would not have been born in Oedipus’s name if it were not for his father Laius, who frightened by the oracle’s prophesy of his son’s patricide and mother-incest exposed Oedipus to certain death. Only the shepherd’s compassion saved Oedipus the child from certain death by unprotected and defenceless exposure to archetypal forces. Likewise, Acrisius, fearing the prophesy that his grandson would kill him, locked hisdaughter Danae and grandson Perseus in a chest and threw them into the river to an unsure fate, though they were saved by the good fisherman. (Later, Perseus saved Andromeda, who was offered by her father, the king, to appease the sea monster Cetus.) The Laius complex, the father’s fear of the son, who eventually will destroy and replace him, precedes the son’s slaying of the father.
I have contributed three articles, Dreams in the Old Testament (Vol. 1, pp. 251-53), Jerusalem (Vol. 1, pp. 449-451) and Sacrifice of Isaac (Vol. 2, pp. 809-811).
The following is an excerpt from my entry on the Sacrifice of Isaac:
Sacrifice of Isaac by Erel Shalit
The sacrifice of Isaac, in Hebrew the akedah, i.e., the binding of Isaac, is one of the Bible’s most dramatic stories. In its extreme brevity, the narrative is an archetypal skeleton, not fleshed out by personal details or human feelings. It thus lends itself to innumerable theological explanations, philosophical readings and psychological interpretations.
God tells Abraham to go to the land of Moriah (possibly meaning the land of the Amorites, the land of worship, or the teaching-place of God) and offer his beloved son Isaac for a burnt offering. Abraham does not question his God, with whom he has sealed a covenant. He has been promised that he will ‘‘multiply exceedingly,’’ and become a father of many nations. He binds his son Isaac and lays him upon the wood on the altar he has built, but when raising his knife, the angel calls upon him not to slay his son. He has passed God’s test of devotion, and a ram is offered in place of Isaac. Abraham then calls the place Adonai-yireh, because ‘‘the Lord has been seen’’ (Genesis 22: 1–14).
For philosophers and religious commentators, the test of Abraham has provided a stage, similar to the trial of Job, for contemplating good and evil. Kierkegaard emphasized Abraham’s anguish and suffering in preserving his faith. For him, ‘‘only one who draws the knife gets Isaac’’ (Kierkegaard, 2006: 27). The willingness to fulfill the command (or rather, as phrased in Hebrew, the request) to sacrifice Isaac becomes, then, for Kierkegaard, a rekindling of faith in the good God, while for Kant it represents an act of evil to be rebelled against.
In Jewish thought, the perception of the story has commonly emphasized Abraham’s devotion to God, to the extent of sacrificing the embodiment of his future. It has been considered a paradigm of the readiness to give up life in order to sanctify the divine name, but also as punishment for Abraham having sent Ishmael into the wilderness.
Some biblical scholars have read the account as a prohibition against child sacrifice, such as mentioned for instance in Jeremiah (7: 31; see also Exodus 22: 28–29; 2 Kings 3: 27, 16: 3, 21: 6), with the angel intervening to prevent Abraham’s act of filicide. The narrative has also served as a model for anti-Semitic blood libels accusing Jews of ritual murder of non-Jewish children.
Already some early legends told the story that Abraham in fact did slay and then burned Isaac. The lad ‘‘was reduced to ashes,’’ only to be revived by God’s ‘‘life-giving dew’’ (Spiegel, 1993: 37). Thus, Isaac served as a ‘‘symbol for the archetypal experience of death and re-birth’’ (Dreifuss, 1971: 72).
The symbolic death of Isaac has been understood as transformative, confirming him in his role as chosen to carry out God’s promise to Abraham, to be the one in whom the seed shall be called (cf. Abramovitch, 1994: 123; Genesis 21: 12). This seed, says St. Augustine, while called in Isaac, is gathered together in Christ by the call of grace. The sacrifice of Isaac becomes the precursor of Christ; like Jesus carried His cross, Isaac himself carried the wood to the place of sacrifice, and like the ram was offered in place of Isaac, so Jesus would die on the cross for humankind.
The name of the sacrificial child is not mentioned in the Quran. Consequently, Muslim scholars have disagreed whether it concerns Ishmael or Isaac. Since it is said that Abraham offered up his only son, scholars have argued this could only mean Ishmael, the elder of the two. The importance ascribed to the sacrifice is reflected in Eid-ul-Adha, the Feast and Festival of Sacrifice, celebrated immediately after the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Psychological Aspects
The akedah offers a kaleidoscope of psychological facets and interpretations. Abraham, Urvater of the monotheistic religions, stands in the center, between the Father-God, who now requires of him the sacrifice of his repeatedly promised seed, and the late-born son, predestined to fulfill the covenant and conceive the earthly offspring. The offering of a child to appease the gods is a common theme in myth and legend in many traditions.
Psychological interpretations naturally tend to look at the father-son relation. One aspect of this is submission – both Abraham’s and Isaac’s – to the command of the father. It entails the recognition of God’s supremacy, interpreted on the psychological level as reflecting weakness in relation to authority. Yet, the archetypal scheme seems more important than personal character, since Abraham already had shown himself quite capable of challenging God, as when he argues and negotiates with God to spare the sinners with the righteous in Sodom (Genesis 18: 23–33).
Father’s Reluctance Against His Son
In a sense, the akedah is a reversal of and predecessor to the Oedipus complex. A complex would not have been born in Oedipus’s name if it were not for his father Laius, who frightened by the oracle’s prophesy of his son’s patricide and mother-incest exposed Oedipus to certain death. Only the shepherd’s compassion saved Oedipus the child from certain death by unprotected and defenceless exposure to archetypal forces. Likewise, Acrisius, fearing the prophesy that his grandson would kill him, locked hisdaughter Danae and grandson Perseus in a chest and threw them into the river to an unsure fate, though they were saved by the good fisherman. (Later, Perseus saved Andromeda, who was offered by her father, the king, to appease the sea monster Cetus.) The Laius complex, the father’s fear of the son, who eventually will destroy and replace him, precedes the son’s slaying of the father.
Erel Shalit's Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, and Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published book The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
2010 Lecture Schedule for Dr. Erel Shalit
January 26,
Tel Aviv University
Israel Sandplay Therapy Association
Symbols in the Sand
January- February
Jerusalem
Israel Institute for Jungian Psychology
Jerusalem
Israel Institute for Jungian Psychology
Dream Seminar
March-July
Oranim
Jungian Psychotherapy Program
Oranim
Jungian Psychotherapy Program
Archetypal Images of the Life Cycle
June
Sofia
Sofia
Jungian Perspectives on Psychopathology
July 20-27,
Assisi Institute, Italy
Assisi Institute, Italy
Self, Meaning and Transiency
July 29-August 1,
Tallin
Tallin
Summer Seminar on Dreams
August 22-27,
IAAP Congress, Montreal
IAAP Congress, Montreal
The Transient Personality
October
Sofia
To be announced
Sofia
To be announced
May 13-14, 2011
Dallas
Dallas
To be announced
Erel Shalit's novella Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, as well as Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path and his previously published books can be purchased at www.fisherkingpress.com or by phoning Fisher King Press directly at 1-831-238-7799
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Press Release: Requiem
With Great Pleasure Fisher King Press Announced the Publication of
Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return
a novella by Erel Shalit
a novella by Erel Shalit
Official Publication Date: January 2010
ISBN 978-1-926715-03-2, 106 pp
ISBN 978-1-926715-03-2, 106 pp
Requiem returns us to an eternal theme, a dialogue with Soul, and we know quite well what happens when one dialogues with Soul—we change, consciousness is enlarged, the impossible becomes possible and we no longer are compelled to blindly follow in the deathly path of our forefathers.
Requiem is a fictitious account of a scenario played out in the mind of many Israelis, pertaining to existential reflections and apocalyptic fears, but then, as well, the hope and commitment that arise from the abyss of trepidation. While set in Israel sometime in the present, it is a story that reaches into the timelessness of history, weaving discussions with Heine and Kafka into a tale of universal implications.
Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel. He is a training and supervising analyst, and past president of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He is the author of several publications, including Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path, The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego.
Dr. Shalit lectures at professional institutes, universities, and cultural forums in Israel, Europe, and the United States. One of his popular lectures includes Requiem and is the basis for Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Fisher King Press announces a new publication by Erel Shalit
.
a novella by Erel Shalit
Publication Date: January 2010
Requiem is a fictitious account of a scenario played out in the mind of many Israelis, pertaining to existential reflections and apocalyptic fears, but then, as well, the hope and commitment that arise from the abyss of trepidation. While set in Israel sometime in the present, it is a story that reaches into the timelessness of history, weaving discussions with Heine and Kafka into a tale of universal implications.
Learn more about this forthcoming publication by clicking on the following link to the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore.
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