Repairing Worlds: Reparation and Tikkun
The Isbitz-Radzin Institute is proud to present the following article by noted psychotherapist and writer Joseph H. Berke. It is the first in what we hope to be a series of guest articles exploring expressions of Chassidus and Kabbalah in psychology and other fields. Doctor Berke studied under R. D. Laing and is the founder and and director of the Arbours Crisis Centre, London. He has authored numerous books on psychology, most recently Malice: Through the Looking Glass.This excerpt is taken from the final chapter of his forthcoming book, written together with Stanley Schneider, entitled Centers of Power: The Convergence of Psychoanalysis and Kabbalah, to be published by Jason Aronson, fall 2007.
Tikkun has to do with correction, restoration and renewal. It is the core concept, the raison d’être of Kabbalah and coincides with the impetus for reparation, perhaps the most significant psychoanalytic formulation of Melanie Klein and her followers.
As in Kabbalah, Klein set out to describe how to overcome fragmentation and loss, evil and exile. But her terms of reference were different. Klein was concerned with the self in relation to ‘internal objects,’ internalized representations of significant persons, and, to a lesser extent, ‘external objects,’ actual life-important people. For her, exile meant separation from Mother, while evil equaled death. For Kabbalists, however, evil means fragmentation of the soul and separation from God.
Reparation is the will, means and action of repairing an inner world shattered under the pressure of destructive impulses and an outer world of damaged relationships, peoples and things. Reparation, like tikkun, is both a goal and the movement towards this goal. According to Kleinian psychology, reparation is never complete, rather it is an active process of striving towards completeness, whether of the head or heart or entire being. It is intimately related to its Kabbalistic counterpart, which is also a constant ongoing process, but with a larger purpose: to unify the universe.
How can one put back together a loved one, loved ones, after we have hurt them? And how strong are our reparative capacities when, as R. D. Laing has noted, “the dreadful has already happened?”
It is fitting to conclude this extended study of psychoanalysis and Kabbalah with a discussion of tikkun. Essentially tikkun has to do with healing -- physical, emotional and spiritual. For ‘man’ this has to do with healing the rifts within himself and between himself and others, in order to gain and regain shlaimoot- wholeness and shalom - peace (of mind).
Essentially, the Kabbalah teaches that when a person restores his self-balance, that is, restores the proper weight of his thought, feelings and actions on a personal scale, he will simultaneously perform a tikkun ha-olam, a transformation of the cosmos. Therefore, what happens internally will happen externally, what happens on a micro scale will also happen on a macro scale. So we learn that there is a continual interplay between the ultimate goal of creation, which is to bring completeness to the world, tikkin ha-olam, and the action or personal praxis that has to be taken, to bring this about.
As in Kabbalah, Klein set out to describe how to overcome fragmentation and loss, evil and exile. But her terms of reference were different. Klein was concerned with the self in relation to ‘internal objects,’ internalized representations of significant persons, and, to a lesser extent, ‘external objects,’ actual life-important people. For her, exile meant separation from Mother, while evil equaled death. For Kabbalists, however, evil means fragmentation of the soul and separation from God.
Reparation is the will, means and action of repairing an inner world shattered under the pressure of destructive impulses and an outer world of damaged relationships, peoples and things. Reparation, like tikkun, is both a goal and the movement towards this goal. According to Kleinian psychology, reparation is never complete, rather it is an active process of striving towards completeness, whether of the head or heart or entire being. It is intimately related to its Kabbalistic counterpart, which is also a constant ongoing process, but with a larger purpose: to unify the universe.
How can one put back together a loved one, loved ones, after we have hurt them? And how strong are our reparative capacities when, as R. D. Laing has noted, “the dreadful has already happened?”
It is fitting to conclude this extended study of psychoanalysis and Kabbalah with a discussion of tikkun. Essentially tikkun has to do with healing -- physical, emotional and spiritual. For ‘man’ this has to do with healing the rifts within himself and between himself and others, in order to gain and regain shlaimoot- wholeness and shalom - peace (of mind).
Essentially, the Kabbalah teaches that when a person restores his self-balance, that is, restores the proper weight of his thought, feelings and actions on a personal scale, he will simultaneously perform a tikkun ha-olam, a transformation of the cosmos. Therefore, what happens internally will happen externally, what happens on a micro scale will also happen on a macro scale. So we learn that there is a continual interplay between the ultimate goal of creation, which is to bring completeness to the world, tikkin ha-olam, and the action or personal praxis that has to be taken, to bring this about.
posted by Betzalel Philip Edwards @ 2:31 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
We are never complete, but healthy people reach certain successes. The first thing that came to mind when reading this excerpt was Yaakov Avinu, who had suffered dearly in his life, succeeding in "healing rifts" with himself and his brother, (he conquered his brothers angel, and at the fact to face meeting, avoided war and loss), stood up to his father in law Lavan, and then just wanted to sit in peace, which in hebrew means, "completeness." What happened? His sons sold his dear Josef to the arabs. The masters of the Talmud tell us that the righteous never have peace in this world. No matter what successes we have in healing such rifts, there is always another level of tikkun. Complete restoration and wholeness only comes at the end, in the world to Come. It is for this reason that the eighteen benedictions ends with the blessing for "shalom."
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