Drawing on Rabbi Kivelevitz’s extensive pastoral mentoring experience and Prof. Juni’s clinical and research findings, the discussants annotate how electronic media has insidiously been chipping away at the foundations of healthy interpersonal relationships and adaptive self-representations. These have especially as these have stymied healthy psychological development of adolescents. Initially, the telephone – and then radio entertainment and television -- fostered increased passivity. Then, as we went from email to instant messaging, the notions of downtime, leisurely conversations, curling up with a book, living-in-the-world, and even taking time to ponder were steadily banished to the realm of the boring. These have been replaced by ever-metastasizing short-term bucket-lists powered by FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) fueled by fictitious friendships and goals. Unrealistic ideals and norms aggressively usurped all aspects of personal values and social life. Presently, virtual reality is deteriorating the foundations of mental health -- especially among adolescents -- as relentless online schedules foster additive patterns, fatigue-based depression, and emotional exhaustion. 

Prof. Juni couches this tsunami in terms of Object Relations Theory which posits that meaningful interpersonal relationships entail a basic human need. The patterns described above have thus been tearing at the very essence of the human experience, and their psychiatric repercussions are of no surprise to Mental Health professionals. 

Kivelevitz extends the analysis to the specific acculturation of the Haredi world to this new reality, outlining the substantial changes manifest among both the leadership and the lay community.

As for stemming the tide in general, and specific family reparative strategies, Dr. Juni insists that the horse has left the barn and envisions no reasonable corrective strategies. The discussants do, however, explore some options which may blunt its repercussions in terms of self-concept and family relationships. 

Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking 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.

He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association 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 cutting-edge research. Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, 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 journals to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 article (many are available online): Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture.

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

Please leave us a review or email us at [email protected]