Sunday, July 15, 2018

Understanding Personality Disorders with Dr Nachum Andrew Klafter, MD



I am a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. I specialize in treating adolescents and adults with complex psychological disorders, for whom less intensive treatments have not been successful. Another major aspect of my professional work is providing supervision for psychotherapists who wish to deepen their psychotherapy technique. I have provided supervision to therapists in North America, Israel, and Europe. 

I have provided forensic evaluations and delivered expert testimony for plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving psychiatric and psychotherapy malpractice, competency and guardianship, and psychological damages associated with personal injuries. I have also provided expert testimony for civil Jewish law proceedings in Jewish religious courts (Batei Dinim). 

I have spoken at numerous professional conferences and have delivered psychotherapy training seminars regionally, nationally, and overseas

Specialties: Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy, Psychopharmacology, Adolescents, Psychotherapy Supervision, and Forensic Consultation










individuality RAV WOLBE

rav Wolbe עלי שור חלק ב ע תטו

Deadly Choices about vaccination

The year 2011 is starting out rather promisingly, at least from the point of view of science-based medicine. Its beginning coincides with the release of two — count ’em, two! — books taking a skeptical, science-based look at vaccines and, in particular, the anti-vaccine movement. First off the mark is a new book by a man whom the anti-vaccine movement views as the Dark Lord of Vaccination, sitting up in Barad-dûr(apparently the University of pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia), a man utterly reviled by anti-vaccine quacks everywhere, Dr. Paul Offit. He has been subjected to considerable bile and harassment due to his simply standing up for the science behind vaccines. The book is entitled, appropriately enough, Deadly Choices: How the Anti-vaccine Movement Threatens Us All. Also being released is a new book by Seth Mnookin entitled The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear. Mnookin is a contributing editor at Vanity Fairand whose work has appeared in numerous publications. Because I got a copy of Deadly Choices before my copy of The Panic Virus arrived, I decided to review Deadly Choices first; after I’ve managed to read The Panic Virus, I’ll write a review of it as well. Both books are arrows shot at the heart of the pseudoscience and fear at the heart of the vaccine manufactroversy, and it might well be useful to compare and contrast the two once I’ve finished The Panic Virus.
In the meantime, let’s take a look at Deadly Choices, an excellent, well-researched book with which I have relatively few disagreements. It is a followup to Dr. Offit’s last book, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, which I reviewed back when it first came out. In contrast to Autism’s False Prophets, which concentrated primarily on the manufactroversy that claims that vaccines are responsible for the “autism epidemic,” Deadly Choices steps back to take a broader look at the anti-vaccine movement. Regular readers of SBM hardly need to be reminded how pervasive and dangerous the modern-day anti-vaccine movement has become. Indeed, it is a frequently discussed theme of this blog, given that the anti-vaccine movement is such a major force among the forces that deny the efficacy of scientific medicine and seek either to replace it with unscientific or pseudoscientific “alternatives” or to “integrate” pseudoscience into science-based medicine. Indeed, anti-vaccine sentiment infuses large swaths of what we refer to as “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM), be it chiropractic, homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, or a wide variety of other modalities and systems.
In examining the modern anti-vaccine movement, Dr. Offit structures his book into three major sections. First, beginning in a chapter entitled The Birth of Fear, Dr. Offit begins with a description of the birth of the modern anti-vaccine movement, which in the U.S. Dr. Offit traces, in large part, to the broadcast of an irresponsible and anecdote-driven news documentary about the diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine in 1982, and in the U.K. to a scare about the DPT triggered by a presentation by Dr. John Wilson to the Royal Society of Medicine about horrific complications thought to be due to the pertussis vaccine in the DPT. Next, Dr. Offit goes back into history to describe the development of the anti-vaccine movement in the 1800s in England and notes parallels with the modern day anti-vaccine movement. Finally, the story shifts back to today, where he describes the situation now, how demands for vaccines turned into fear of vaccines, and what we might do about it.based medicine./

US indicts 12 Russians for hacking DNC emails during the 2016 election

guardian



A dozen Russians were criminally charged on Friday with hacking and leaking the emails of senior Democrats during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
Grand jury indictments against the 12 alleged Russian intelligence officials were announced by Rod Rosenstein, the deputy US attorney general, at a press conference in Washington.

The indictment says Clinton’s personal office was targeted for the first time on 27 July 2016 – hours after Trump called on Russian hacker
US intelligence agencies concluded that the accounts were hacked as part of a wide-ranging operation ordered by Putin to damage Clinton’s bid for the presidency and assist Trump’s campaign.
Trump has consistently tried to cast doubt over the conclusions of the intelligence agencies that he now controls, and highlighted denials from Putin about the election interference. He continued on Friday to dismiss Mueller’s inquiry as a “witch-hunt”.s to find her emails.


The indicted Russians were on Friday also accused of hacking into the computer systems of American state election authorities and of companies that produced software used by states for running elections. Rosenstein said there was no evidence of any vote tallies being affected.
The Russians used techniques including “spearphishing” and spying software, before publishing the emails through well-known online accounts including Guccifer 2.0 and DCLeaks, which purported to be independent American and Romanian hackers. Rosenstein said both personas were in fact operated by the GRU.


In February this year, Mueller’s team filed criminal charges against 13 Russians and three Russian companies for interfering in the presidential campaign, using social media and coordinating with low-level Trump campaign activists.




Curtain GradientTabletTablet THE SCROLL ‘Business Insider’ Columnist Resigns After Publication Pulls Her Piece for Being ‘Culturally Insensitive’

tablet


On Friday, Daniella Greenbaum, a columnist for Business Insider, wrote a column about the recent controversy surrounding the actress Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming role as a transgender man. Some of Twitter’s loudest social justice warriors yelped that a nontransgender actor wasn’t allowed, according to the dogma of the high church of political correctness, to portray a transgender character, and Greenbaum wanted to present the far more reasonable view that an actor’s job is, well, just to act. Pretending to be someone else is literally the job description. It was about as anodyne an argument one could make; a few hours and a few hundred angry tweets later, however, the publication pulled it from print.
The reason, according to a note affixed to the no-longer-available column (you can read it here, courtesy of a different publication), is that the piece did not meet Business Insider‘s editorial standards. Just what those standards may be was confusing to some readers of BI, not an outfit routinely accused of journalistic excellence; to clarify things, the publication’s editor in chief, Nicholas Carlson, issued new guidelines earlier this week, saying that pieces pertaining to “culturally sensitive topics, such as marginalized communities, race, or LGBTQ+ issues,” will be handled with special care by several editors at the publication prior to being approved. “We should be as careful about culturally sensitive pieces as we are legally sensitive pieces,” Carlson wrote, “and this policy reflects that.”

Friday, July 13, 2018

dont learn from an unfit gadol


רמב"ם יד החזקה (כתב יד תימני) - הלכות תלמוד תורה פרק ד
(א) אין מלמדין תורה, אלא לתלמיד הגון, נאה במעשיו, או לתם. אבל אם היה הולך בדרך לא טובה, מחזירין אותו למוטב, ומנהיגין אותו בדרך ישרה, ובודקין אותו; ואחר כך מכניסין אותו לבית המדרש, ומלמדין אותו. אמרו חכמים, כל השונה לתלמיד שאינו הגון, כאילו זרק אבן למרקוליס, שנאמר "כצרור אבן, במרגמה; כן נותן לכסיל, כבוד" (משלי כו, ח), אין כבוד אלא תורה, שנאמר "כבוד, חכמים ינחלו" (משלי ג, לה):
(ב) וכן הרב שאינו הולך בדרך טובה, אף על פי שחכם גדול הוא וכל העם צריכין לו - אין מתלמדין ממנו, עד שיחזור למוטב, שנאמר "כי שפתי כוהן ישמרו דעת, ותורה יבקשו מפיהו - כי מלאך ה' צבאות, הוא" (מלאכי ב, ז), אמרו חכמים, אם הרב דומה למלאך ה' צבאות, תורה יבקשו מפיהו; אם לאו, אל יבקשו תורה מפיהו:

The ‘King’ of Shambhala Buddhism Is Undone by Abuse Report

In a shrine on the sixth floor of a Manhattan office building, a photo of a man in golden robes hangs above an altar. Another photo of him sits upon a throne.

He is the head of one of the largest Buddhist organizations in the West, Shambhala International, a network of more than 200 outposts in over 30 countries where thousands come for training in meditation and mindfulness and some delve into deeper mysteries.

The man is Mipham Rinpoche. He is known as the Sakyong, a Tibetan word that translates roughly as king, and his students take vows to follow him that are binding across lifetimes. These days, they are feeling sad, confused, angry and betrayed.

Late last month, a former Shambhala teacher released a report alleging that the Sakyong had sexually abused and exploited some of his most devoted female followers for years. Women quoted in the report wrote of drunken groping and forcefully extracted sexual favors. The report said that senior leaders at Shambhala — an organization whose motto is “Making Enlightened Society Possible” — knew of the Sakyong’s misconduct and covered it up.

The Sakyong apologized a few days before the report was formally released, admitting to “relationships” with women in the community, some of whom “shared experiences of feeling harmed as a result.” Followers and Shambhala groups around the world demanded more action.

On Friday, it came: The governing council of Shambhala International, which is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, resigned en masse, “in the interest of beginning a healing


WATCH Trump at NATO 'Like Watching Psychiatrists With a Disturbed Child,' Says Ralph Peters

haaretz
WATCH 

Trump at NATO 'Like Watching Psychiatrists With a Disturbed Child,' Says Ralph Peters

U.S. President Donald Trump has caused much controversy following his meeting with his allies at the NATO summit in Brussels, discussing the future of NATO and the defense spending of the member states.
Lt. Colonel  Ralph Peters, former strategic and military analyst for Fox News, slammed Trump in an interview on the CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." He strongly criticized Trump's behavior saying that: "We're faced with the real, immediate and perhaps irreparable damage to this greatest of alliances, NATO." Peters continues, saying that "one thing that Trump is indisputably brilliant at is propaganda."
When talking about how the other NATO leaders dealt with Trump, he said, "It was like watching psychiatrists patiently deal with a disturbed child. Trump is not only shaming our nation, he is doing real damage to our security, to our interests and to our allies and Vladimir Putin could not be happier."Peters concluded with saying that Merkel is an "admirable leader, God knows I wish we had a leader like that ourselves, instead we have a fool for a president."






Thursday, July 12, 2018

It’s Either A Fraud Or Black Magic – Either Way, It’s Assur By Dovid Tepper

Jewish press


Having followed the articles about energy healing over the last couple of weeks, I feel it is important to inform your readers of some facts that have not yet been discussed.
On Amazon.com, the description of Mr. Blum’s book, Ki Power: Healing Power at Your Fingertips, reads as follows:
“Imagine healing someone in minutes with the stroke of your hand or the touch of your toes. Imagine the warmth of your fingers eliminating bruises overnight. Imagine harnessing a power so great that it can be used to stop that pain and suffering of others. Now imagine that you could acquire such knowledge by training just a few minutes a day. Author Robert Blum, one of the world’s foremost experts on KI Power development, shows you how to cultivate internal power and then use it to instantly heal yourself and others.”
I don’t have to be a sceptic to realize that if I have to “imagine” something medical that my doctor has not heard of, and makes no sense scientifically, then it is probably imaginary. Blum tells us to “[i]magine harnessing a power so great…” What is this power? If it exists, surely it must have been discussed by scientists.

basis that Rav Greenblatt permits adultery by Joe Orlow


This is a follow up to my last email.

Yoni clarified why Rabbi Greenblatt cut off the conversation.

Apparently, Yoni had confronted Rabbi Greenblatt in person in the past. At that time, Yoni brought up that Rabbi Dovid Feinstein ruled against the remarriage. Apparently, Rabbi Greenblatt did not want to discuss the matter then.

Yoni brought up Rabbi Feinstein in this conversation in order to lead up to asking a question about the status of any children Tamar Epstein will have with Adam Fleischer before she receives a Get from Aharon Friedman. In particular, will the child be a Safek Mamzer.

What I think I sensed was the concern Rabbi Greenblatt has that Rabbi Dovid Feinstein ruled against the remarriage.


Rabbi Greeblatt writes in a letter published elsewhere on this blog a statement about mental health. He seems to assume that mental health professionals have an agreed upon list of mental illnesses. I assume he is referring to the contents of the DSM. He writes, if I understand him correctly, that the professionals have agreed upon which of these conditions are curable, and which are incurable.

I do not think that this is the case. I am not going to prove that here. I will say that the burden of proof is on Rabbi Greenblatt to demonstrate that his assertion is true. As far as I can tell, mental health professionals tend to talk in terms of treating mental illness, not curing it. Cf. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/braintalk/201408/cure-mental-illness%3famp

Rabbi Greenblatt basically told me the following. Say a doctor diagnoses a man with an incurable mental illness, determines the illness pre-existed the man's marriage, and is confident that the man's wife was unaware of the condition at the time of marriage. Those circumstances are the basis for a Heter to annul a marriage.

Taken to a logical extreme, they are also the basis to effectively uproot the laws of Gittin.

Any woman can go to a psychiatrist and manipulate the psychiatrist into diagnosing her with an incurable, pre-existing, mental illness. Then, the woman can go to Rabbi Greenblatt, and ask him to annul her marriage. He will determine that it is unlikely her husband would have wanted to marry her if he had known she had such a mental illness.

For example, the woman could state to a psychiatrist that before she met her husband she was "hearing voices", feeling alternatively "depressed" for several weeks and "maniacal" for several weeks, and had an intense desire to kill herself. She can say she hid all this from her husband and/or all these conditions disappeared when she met her husband only to have them recur after the marriage; that is, she can say she is now back to hearing voices, the cycle of depression and mania, and having suicidal thought

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

was the el al delay story fake news?


times of israel


That ultra-Orthodox flight delay? It didn’t happen
True, the El Al flight took off 70 minutes late, but it wasn't for the reason everyone thinksiting the following question, I am filled with trepidation and frustration: Does every fact that is publicized need to be checked out personally?

For the past week, I have been unable to fathom how an ultra-Orthodox person dared delay an El Al flight for more than an hour. How did such a thing happen? Who dared to act with such audacity? Which cabin crew members allowed him to behave like that? Of course, I was certain that the facts were correct. After all, they were published everywhere, and people talked about the incident. So the facts simply had to be correct.

Well, no. I received the following email from Katriel Shem-Tov:

“Dear Sivan, I was on that flight from New York, the one that the media reported ‘took off an hour and a quarter late because of the Haredim.’ My wife and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary and at 6 p.m., we were supposed to take off on our way home. However, before we even boarded, there was an announcement of a 45-minute delay and take-off would be at 6:45 p.m. The same information appeared on the screen in the departure lounge. Of course, the delay had nothing to do with any of the passengers.

“Boarding took a long time, ’till at least 7:10, I believe. My guess is that the whole business with the Haredim didn’t take more than five minutes. Of course, I am not justifying their behavior and one should not cause a delay of even one minute. I am Haredi myself, but I have never seen such behavior like theirs.

“Then I heard you in the media expressing your outrage and I heard many other people who were so angry about the entire incident. Since I was actually a passenger on the flight, I cannot understand how everyone got so caught up in the story. It all sounds so unbelievable, how come no one actually checked the facts? It causes harm to Israel’s good name in the international arena, so why are we all in such a tizzy? It took me a few days to decide whether to contact you, but I feel it is important that the truth come out. There are many other passengers who can corroborate the story, if necessary.”

I contacted El Al straight away, and they responded with the following, surprising, statement:

“The details that were reported about the incident were not accurate, to put it mildly. In actual fact, the delay was totally unconnected to the incident. The plane’s journey to the runway at the airport in New York took about one hour and had nothing to do with the incident. Taking care of the two passengers who refused to sit in their allocated places occurred after the plane had already left the gate and only took a few moments. We will continue to do our best to transport our customers safely, comfortably, and according to schedule.”

I certainly do not intend this post to defend those two passengers. I do want to ensure that it will defend 8 million people from a heated public debate which has no basis in fact.

Satmer Rebbe as troll

the ocr was not 100% accurate


השאלה הבסיסית שלי לאדמו"ר חיתה:
אבזרתי לו: "כי הלא אני מהונגריה, וגם באותן השנים )תרצ"ד( נוכחתי לראות את ר r תנגזותו הנחרצת של האדמו"ר ל'אגודת ישראל', אף על פי שנציגינו עדיין לא ישבר בממשלה, עדיין לא הלכו לבחירות לכנסת, כי לא היתה קיימת עדיין נזדיכת ישראל, לא היתה מגבית מאוחדת - ובכל זאת ההתנגדות של האדמו"ר לאו.ודת ישראל היתה בכל ההחלטיות והתקיפות".
ובנו צחק ואמר: "ברצוני לשאול אותן שוב. אם כן, מהי, לדעתך, הסיבה ,• n תנגדותי לאגודת ישראל?"
ח, v בתי: "אינני בטוח, אבל נדמה לי שהסיבה, או לפחות אחת הסיבות ;ז 1 ,יקויות - בנוסף לאותן ארבע סיבות שהזכיר הרבי - היא כי האדמו"ר אינו ן Jt \רו,יין שחסידיו יתערבו ויהיו מאורגנים ביחד עם חלקים אחרים ביהדות. אנוננו גם הם חרדים לכל דבר, אבל בכל אחד מחלקי היהדות ישנם, באופן נ\בוגי I דברים שונים, הן לחיוב והן לשלילה, כגון: אני יודע שהאד p ו"ר מחשיב I ~ת לימוד התורה של יהדות רוסיה-ליטא, וגם יודע על יראת השמ(כ:i הקיימת


) 0\1 1 אבל הם רחוקים לגמרי מדרך החסידות, ובדברים מסויימים דרכיהם אינן

J ~נ!י רוחו של האדמו"ר. כנ"ל גם בנוגע ליהדות גרמניה: בטוחני שהאדמו"ר יודע 1 \ן כנוח הם מקפידים על שמירת התורה והמצוות, אבל אני מבין שהאדמו"ר גותג,.ד לדון שלהם - הם מתירים השכלה, כגון לימוד באוניברסיטה ונו'. כך גנ r ביהדות של שאר ארצות אירופה ואמריקה, שנוסף על הצד החיובי שבהם, j:t יים אצ~ם גם חלק שלילי, ולפי הבנתי, האדמו"ר גורס שמוטב שכל שבט וחלק
ביהדות יpואר בפני עצמו, כדי שלא יתנסו ולא יסתכנו בכך שילמדו זה מזה דברים שליליים".
על השערתי זו לא קיבלתי תשובה מהאדמו"ר, אבל, לפי הבנתי, היה נדמה לי שהאדמו"ר קיבל את דברי.

ניסיתי שוב ושוב להעלות אפשרויות לשיתוף פעולה, אפילו חלקי, אבל מאמצי עלו בתוהו. האדמו"ר דחה כל אפשרות לשיתוף פעולה, אף על פי שצייד שהוא יודע שישנם באגודת ישראל גדולי תורה וצדיקים גדולים, ואף הזכיר בהערכה את הגאון ר' אהרן קוטלר ואת פועליו הרבים וגדולי תורה נוספים

שהעריך.
מדוע תום ובנו לחינון העצמאי?
כאשר ביקר רבנו בלונדון, כמדומני בשנת תשי"ח, פרסם מר הארי גודמן, יושב ראש הועד הפועל של אגודת ישראל באירופה, בעיתון של אגודת ישראל מאמר 'ברון הבא' לכבוד ביאתו של הרבי. בין השאר סיפר מר גודמן במאמר הנ"ל, שכאשר ביקר אצל האדמו"ר בניו יורק, נתן לו הרבי אלפיים וחמש מאות

דולר למען 'החינון העצמאי'.
כאשו קרא אחז מאנשי נטווי קותא הקיצוניים )י.ד.( את הידיעה בעיתון, מיהו אל האזמר"ו כזי לספו לו, שהעיתון של אגודת ישראל מוציא עליו לעז שכאילו הוא, חס ושלרם, תום כסף לחינון העצמאי.

השיב לו ובנר: "מה שכתוב זה נכןן. אכן תומתי, כפי שכתוב שם". על תמיהתו של י.ז. הוסיף: "כשמבקרים מפעל, צריכים לרעת גם לעזור, כרי שיהיה ברור שהביקורת היא ענינית. שנית", אמו הוני, "אמנם אני מתנגד לכך שילדים מבתים חרדיים ילמדו בבתי ספר של החינוך העצמאי' אבל אינני מתנגד לכך שילדים מכל אותם הבתים שאינם שולחים את ילדיהם לתשב"ר' כולל ילדים מבני ערות המזרח, ילמדו במוסרות של ה'חינוך העצמאי'". כאשו הדשה י.ז. לעצמו להתווכח עם הרבי, ביקש ממנו הוני לעזוב את הבית.
פעם אחת, כאשו היה האזמו"ו בירושלים, התקיימו שם בחידות לעידית.
''כאז לוקחים ממני כסף, ונותנים לי עצות ... "

יחסו של הוני להשתתפות בבחירות לעיריית ירושלים היה חיובי )בניגוד
פעם אחת, כאשו היה האזמו"ו בירושלים, התקיימו שם בחידות לעידית.