Standing in Two Worlds with Doctor Sam Juni -Episode 15 -Mental Health Fallout of Coping (and Mis-Coping) with Corona Anxiety

Recent events of social and community upheaval in the USA and Israel are examined through the general lens of Ego Psychology. Misguided coping strategies with the anxiety spawned by the Corona Pandemic are seen as contributing to the unraveling of the social fabric globally, resulting in general discord, eruptions of violence, and vocal intergroup hatred. Rabbi Kivelevitz suggests that the failure of these strategies has been the primary fuel for the destruction associated with BLM protests, election-related conspiracies, the erosion of civility in politics, and group-engendered dangerous health practices. Prof. Juni spells out adaptive and disruptive psychological Defense Mechanism options which we all use to deal with in coping with personal, family, and prolonged crisis situations, and outlines specific stances which are most likely to protect individuals and families from decompensation. He highlights extant American conspiracy theories, anti-mask movements, outrageous violence/looting protests, grouping these phenomena with extremist Israeli agitation of religious wars among certain sects, rock throwers, police baiting, and “Shabbes” or “Shiksa” yellers – pointing to such extremist behaviors as telltale signs of reactive defensive processes against intolerable threats of anxiety.Prodded by Rabbi Kivelevitz to articulate a recipe for coping, Prof. Juni outlines adaptive strategies with Corona anxiety, stressing rational assessments of contagion chance based on accurate data and urging those with severe coping difficulties to request from their physiciansprescription anti-anxiety medicationto be taken PRN (as needed).Doctor Samuel Juniis one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today.He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.Samuel Juni studied inYeshivas Chaim Berlinunder Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as aTalmidof Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick.ProfessorJuni is a prominent member of theAssociation of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.Associated with NYU since 1979,Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research.Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded onpsychometric methodologyand based on a psycho-dynamicpsychopathologyperspective.He is arguably the preeminent expert inDifferential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studiesentailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titledCross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments.Based inYerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.Below is a partial list of the journalsto which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles.Many are available on lineJournal of Forensic PsychologyJournal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.International Review of VictimologyThe Journal of Nervous and Mental DiseaseInternational Forum of PsychoanalysisJournal of Personality AssessmentJournal of Abnormal PsychologyJournal of Psychoanalytic AnthropologyPsychophysiologyPsychology and Human DevelopmentJournal of Sex ResearchJournal of Psychology and JudaismContemporary Family TherapyAmerican Journal on AddictionsJournal of Criminal PsychologyMental Health, Religion & CultureAs Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves asRavandPosekfor the morningminyanat IDT.Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weeklyShiurinTshuvos and Poskim.Rav Kivelevitz is aMaggid ShiurforDirshu Internationalin Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with theBeth Din of America.Please leave us a review or email us at [email protected] more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate