Standing in Two Worlds-66-The Overturning of Roe V.Wade-Exposing Raw Nerves and Exploring the Unique Mindset of the Pregnant Woman

R. Kivelevitz frames the discussion in dual directions: What is the mindset of a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, and how has this issue become so firmly identified as one of right vs. wrong which is evoking anger and even violence on both sides?

Prof. Juni uses the contrast between the fallout of this issue in the United States vs. Israel to inform a major social-political underlying dynamic. The Israeli Haredi establishment are not crusading against abortion because they are not fervently concerned about the moral character of Israel outside of their narrow society. This contrasts with many Christians and Evangelicals who identify strongly as Americans and are willing to fight for American moral standards.

Both discussants agree that abortion is an issue which is much more salient to women than to men. At the same time, the concurrent hormonal features of pregnancy heighten the emotional components of the dilemma of the unwanted pregnancy and inject the quandary with subjectivity. Juni argues, however, that emotionality is a bone fide basis for decision making which is no less valid than rationality.

What is seen as confounding the debate and uproar here is the confluence of emotional subjectivity with the rational aspects of morality and legality. The “right to choose” is merely one facet of the debate, as it stands alongside a number of distinct moral, religious, and ethical issues. “Right for me” is seen as an oxymoron, since right is objective value and not a personal value. Politically, the right to choose has been drawn into the construct of Intersectionality, where so-called minority rights of various stripes have all been conflated into one general hodgepodge of political advocacy which bridges unrelated moral and social realities. Thus, we see here a demonization of the Supreme Court justices, even as individual activists on either side of the divide are vilified as deficient human beings with perverted values.

From a clinical perspective, Juni argues that any decision about abortion – whether pro or con – by a woman will always result in bouts of second thoughts, regrets, and guilt since decisions always feature ambivalence to some extent. He stresses that these dissonant feelings must be dealt with at the psychological level to avoid subsequent maladjustment and pathology.

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 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 andclinical 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 ofNervous 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 inTshuvos and Poskim.

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

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