Known as the "book of books," the Bible is the most successful bestselling book of all times. It lays the foundations for the worldview and moral stance of followers of all monotheistic religions. Beyond its religious significance and its contribution to the faith in one God, the Bible presents a framework that provides meaning and value to human existence in our world. The Bible provides lifestyle guidance, and suggests responses to crisis situations that are inevitable in human life. For the religious and non-religious alike, the Bible constitutes an important source of cultural heritage, worldviews, fundamental values, and basic codes of social conduct and personal beliefs. What is the secret of the Bible's perpetual appeal and the value attributed to it by so many individuals? The Bible presents the entire range of human characteristics, positive and negative. No human emotion or feeling, no matter how difficult or subversive, is foreign to the Bible. The Bible covers it all. Examination of the stories and contents of the Bible reveals their interest to all ages and across the ages. Thousands of years old, the stories continue to resonate with us, deepening our self-awareness and awareness of those around us. Nevertheless modern psychology and psychiatry have made relatively very little use of these materials, being based largely on a classical Greek view of mental life. Instead, much of traditional psychotherapy has been based on classical Greek foundation legends (for example, Oedipus, Electra, and Narcissus). This view unfortunately seems to carry the tragic vision of classical Greece into modern life. In this view, no real change is possible, whereas in the Biblical stories, life is not tragic but hopeful, and people can and do change. The idea that people's lives are not determined and that people have free will to change things around them is essential in empowering people to fight for social justice, and to generally show concern for other people. In this book, we present seven Biblical tales, ordered to the days of Creation. Just as God created the Earth in the Biblical tales, so it is that we can create our own journeys, filled with insight, ingenuity and compassion. Each of these stories has been adapted for children in pre K-5th grades. Commentaries, questions and activities follow each story. We suggest using these stories to deepen a child's understanding of the ebb and flow of life. Because the Bible addresses human emotions and human interactions, its stories seem to provide appropriate means of encouraging interest in and discussion of fundamental human issues, fostering social skills and values.

We live in an age when it is not uncommon for politicians to invoke religious doctrine to explain their beliefs and positions on everything from domestic to foreign policy. And yet, many of us would be hard pressed to pinpoint the exact source of these political beliefs in the religious texts that are said to have spawned them. In Politics in the Hebrew Bible: God, Man, and Government, Kalman J. Kaplan and Matthew B. Schwartz offer a genre-straddling examination of the political themes in the Jewish Bible. By studying the political implications of 42 biblical stories (organized into the categories Social Order, Government and Leadership, Domestic Relations, Societal Relations, Morale and Mission, and Foreign Policy), the authors seek to discern a cohesive political viewpoint embodied by the Jewish Bible. Throughout the text, the views put forth in the Jewish Bible are compared to those put forth by Greco-Roman philosophers in order to argue that the Bible offers a worldview that fosters a "high degree of creative individualism within a supportive non-chaotic and well-functioning society". Kaplan and Schwartz are generous with their explanations of Greco-Roman philosophical concepts in the introductory chapters and with giving background information about the biblical stories engaged in the text.

In The Seven Habits of the Good Life, the authors highlight seven biblical gifts_self-esteem, wisdom, righteousness, love, healthy appetite, prudence, and purpose_and present each one as an alternative to one of the seven deadly sins. Each gift gives readers a chance to enrich their lives by integrating concern for themselves with a healthy concern for others rather than punishing themselves for bad behavior. Incorporating clinical case studies, the voices of real people, and biblical stories, this book shows how the wisdom of the scriptures can provide us concrete ways of redefining difficult situations and approaching life in a way that strives for fullness, harmony, and balance.

Looking at schizophrenia from the point of view of individuals actually suffering from the disease, this text gives a first-hand insight into the process and effects of the disease. Throughout the narratives, poetry and artwork, Kaplan and Harrow add comments illuminating the meaning and pyschological significance of the stories.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

An alternative to existing bipolar choices, this book looks at individuals and their distances from the self (individuation-deindividuation) and from others (attachment-detachment). Simultaneously theoretical, empirical, and applied, this book can be reasonably applied to all types of individuals involved in interpersonal situations regardless of culture, age, gender, or sexual orientations. Broken into four parts, in the first part, Definitions and Measurements, the author includes an introduction to the Individuation-Attachment Questionnaire.
Implications of TILT for Individuals is the basis for Part Two and includes a view of TILT across the life span. The next section extends the analysis to TILT for Couples and Families. The clinician, counselors, and individuals attempting to help himself/herself are addressed in the final part: TILT for the Clinician and includes application of TILT to everyday life.
The text brings to life, through extensive description, the questions and situations consistently raised in couples therapy: space-too much or not enough.
TILT: Teaching Individuals To Live Together presents a unique model of individuation and attachment and was developed to facilitate the understanding of the complex relationship between these two developmental processes across the life span. The model shows how we gradually develop our boundaries and hence reduce the need for defensive interpersonal walls. The TILT model has applications in the fields of therapy, education, and organizational development. Thus, it will be of interest to mental health professionals including psychotherapists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists. Practitioners of transactional analysis will find this book of supreme interest and usefulness.

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In Biblical Psychotherapy, Kalman J. Kaplan and Paul Cantz offer a new approach to suicide prevention based on biblical narratives that is designed to overcome the suicidogenic patterns in Greek and Roman stories implicit in modern mental health. More than sixteen suicides and self-mutilations emerge in the twenty-six surviving tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides and countless others occurred in Greek and Roman lives. In contrast, only six suicides are found in the Hebrew Scriptures, in addition to a number of suicide-prevention narratives. Kaplan and Cantz reclaim life-enhancing biblical narratives as alternatives to matched suicidal stories in Greek and Roman society with regard to seven evidence-based risk factors. These biblical narratives are employed to treat fourteen patients fitting into the outlined Graeco-Roman suicidal syndromes and to provide an in-depth positive psychology aimed at promoting life rather than simply preventing suicide.

Known as the "book of books," the Bible is the most successful bestselling book of all times. It lays the foundations for the worldview and moral stance of followers of all monotheistic religions. Beyond its religious significance and its contribution to the faith in one God, the Bible presents a framework that provides meaning and value to human existence in our world. The Bible provides lifestyle guidance, and suggests responses to crisis situations that are inevitable in human life. For the religious and non-religious alike, the Bible constitutes an important source of cultural heritage, worldviews, fundamental values, and basic codes of social conduct and personal beliefs. What is the secret of the Bible's perpetual appeal and the value attributed to it by so many individuals? The Bible presents the entire range of human characteristics, positive and negative. No human emotion or feeling, no matter how difficult or subversive, is foreign to the Bible. The Bible covers it all. Examination of the stories and contents of the Bible reveals their interest to all ages and across the ages. Thousands of years old, the stories continue to resonate with us, deepening our self-awareness and awareness of those around us. Nevertheless modern psychology and psychiatry have made relatively very little use of these materials, being based largely on a classical Greek view of mental life. Instead, much of traditional psychotherapy has been based on classical Greek foundation legends (for example, Oedipus, Electra, and Narcissus). This view unfortunately seems to carry the tragic vision of classical Greece into modern life. In this view, no real change is possible, whereas in the Biblical stories, life is not tragic but hopeful, and people can and do change. The idea that people's lives are not determined and that people have free will to change things around them is essential in empowering people to fight for social justice, and to generally show concern for other people. In this book, we present seven Biblical tales, ordered to the days of Creation. Just as God created the Earth in the Biblical tales, so it is that we can create our own journeys, filled with insight, ingenuity and compassion. Each of these stories has been adapted for children in pre K-5th grades. Commentaries, questions and activities follow each story. We suggest using these stories to deepen a child's understanding of the ebb and flow of life. Because the Bible addresses human emotions and human interactions, its stories seem to provide appropriate means of encouraging interest in and discussion of fundamental human issues, fostering social skills and values.

Synopsis: Living Biblically de-situates biblical wisdom from its formally religious-theological underpinnings and offers it as a guide for fulfilled, happy living. Although over 95 percent of Americans have some sense of a meaning-providing transcendent power, 75 percent of clinical psychologists and psychiatrists lack such belief. Without intelligent, applicable access to biblical wisdom, many unwittingly live out the tragic patterns emerging from classical Greece underlying much of modern life and psychotherapy. People are stuck, even trapped, without hope of redemptive change. They spin their wheels, cycling back and forth. Biblical narratives, in contrast, portray people as growing, developing, and overcoming problematic life situations. This book presents a systematic yet readable delineation of how biblical wisdom can apply to ten issues of daily life: 1) Relating to the Environment, 2) Relating to Another as Yourself, 3) Relating to Authority, 4) Relating to the Opposite Sex, 5) Relating to a Son, 6) Relating to a Daughter, 7) Relating to Siblings, 8) Relating Body to Soul, 9) Relating to a Self-Destructive Person, and 10) Relating to Misfortune. In each chapter, a specific psychological issue is discussed, applicable Greek and biblical narratives are compared, and contemporary illustrations are provided, enabling the reader to live in a more fulfilling and happy manner. Endorsements: "In this groundbreaking work, Kalman Kaplan demonstrates how the humanistic values and the wisdom of Hebrew Scripture can be effectively applied both to clinical psychology and to living a life of joy, freedom, hope, happiness, and fulfillment." --Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin, Distinguished Service Professor, Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies "While many in the sciences and humanities are dismissive of the biblical narratives, Kalman Kaplan finds in them healing both for the heart and mind, as opposed to the hopelessness of Greek tragedies. This unique approach is refreshing and informing. Kaplan gets you to rethink the validity of the Greek tragedy as the basis for modern psychology and offers a helpful alternative." --Woodrow Kroll, Founder, The Center for Bible Engagement "In this informative and easy-to-read book, Kalman Kaplan juxtaposes stories of the ancient Greeks and the biblical Hebrews, highlighting the striking contrasts between the worldviews of these two cultures. Kaplan encourages readers to consider the conceptual and practical implications of psychology's heavy reliance on Greek mythology, which is often pessimistic and fatalistic, in contrast to a more hopeful biblical perspective. He brings these connections to light with superb storytelling skill and clinical acumen." --Julie J. Exline, Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University Author Biography: Kalman J. Kaplan, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Psychology at The University of Illinois College of Medicine. Dr. Kaplan has pioneered the emerging field of biblical psychology and has received a Fulbright Fellowship and a John Templeton Foundation grant to develop programs face to face, online, and in print, both nationally and internationally. Among his books are TILT: Teaching Individuals to Live Together, Biblical Stories for Psychotherapy/Counseling, The Fruit of Her Hands, and A Psychology of Hope.

In much of Western literature and Greek mythology, women have an evident lack of purpose; a woman needs to either enter or leave a relationship in order to find herself and her own identity. Matthew Schwartz and Kalman Kaplan set out to prove that the converse is true in the text of the Hebrew Bible. Examining the stories of women in Scripture ? Rebecca, Miriam, Gomer, Ruth and Naomi, Lot's wife, Zipporah, and dozens more ? Schwartz and Kaplan illustrate the biblical woman's strong feminine sense of being crucial to God's plan for the world and for history, courageously seeking the greatest good for herself and others whatever the circumstances. Empowering, illuminating, and fascinating, The Fruit of Her Hands makes a singular contribution to the fields of biblical and women's studies.

This book offers a new approach by combining the disciplines of history, psychology, and religion to explain the suicidal element in both Western culture and the individual, and how to treat it. Ancient Greek society displays in its literature and the lives of its people an obsessive interest in suicide and death. Kaplan and Schwartz have explored the psychodynamic roots of this problem--in particular, the tragic confusion of the Greek heroic impulse and its commitment to unsatisfactory choices that are destructively rigid and harsh. The ancient Hebraic writings speak little of suicide and approach reality and freedom in vastly different terms: God is an involved parent, caring for his children. Therefore, heroism, in the Greek sense, is not needed nor is the individual compelled to choose between impossible alternatives. In each of the first three sections, the authors discuss the issues of suicide from a comparative framework, whether in thought or myth, then the suicide-inducing effects of the Graeco-Roman world, and finally, the suicide-preventing effects of the Hebrew world. The final section draws on this material to present a suicide prevention therapy. Historical in scope, the book offers a new psychological model linking culture to the suicidal personality and suggests an antidote, especially with regard to the treatment of the suicidal individual.

This book is about the difference between parables and riddles, and between different views and definitions of wisdom and various attitudes towards the possibility of its attainment. Both parables and riddles go beyond a simple rote presentation of facts, which may become tedious and likely to be tuned out or rejected. However, there is a major difference between the two. Parables are a dominant form of transmission of information in biblical writings, while riddles dominate those of ancient Greece. Parables transmit an underlying, useful life-message in a way that will not be rejected. Riddles, in contrast, are largely unintelligible, leaving one helpless, unable to derive any life-lesson. This book will be of intellectual value to educators, writers, therapists, story-tellers, clergy, and classicists, as well as anyone interested in the implications of ancient views of wisdom for modern education.