Focus area: Psychology and the Tradition from Sinai

The focus of the Institute’s work in the interface between religious tradition and psychology has been on the work of Viktor Frankl.

 

One of the Institute’s Monographs in Judaism and Civilization – The Rediscovery of the Human – contains a number of translations from the German of key writings of Frankl on the interface of psychology and theology. Another Monograph – The Human Being in the Image of the Divine: the Psychology of Viktor E. Frankl – discusses Frankl’s relation to Freud and the relationship of both Frankl and Freud to religious tradition. The latter theme is discussed both by reference to Frankl and Freud’s work and their interactions with great modern leaders of Jewish religious orthodoxy.

See also the cumulative index of the volumes of the Institute’s Journal of Judaism and Civilization for articles published by the Institute on Judaism and Psychotherapy.

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Amongst the contributors to previous conferences and symposia of the Institute in this area are Professor Andrew Sims, former President of the Royal British College of Psychiatrists, Professor David Guttmann of the University of Haifa, Professor Kate Loewenthal of the University of London, Professor Sidney Bloch of the University of Melbourne and Drs George Halasz and Paul Brown, both based in Melbourne.

The Director was one of the founders of the Viktor Frankl Institute of Australia.