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- Title
סוד הנעורים.
- Authors
ברנשטיין, שמואל
- Abstract
Secrecy is an important component of development. This essay attempts to decipher the special meaning of the secret and its key role in human life, specifically as a developmental component of adolescent rites of passage. Secrets, and their complement, disclosure or discernment,are connected etymologically and appear together already as a basic element of the formative myth of human consciousness – the expulsion from Eden. Secrets feature widely in mythology, literary mysteries, medieval alchemy, religious ceremonies, and in the initiation processes of cults worldwide. I will study the role of the secret in some of these instances using historical, anthropological, and psychological knowledge, in the light of interpretations based upon analytical psychology, drawn both from this literature and from the author's clinical work with adolescents.The initiation rite, in particular, with its characteristically mysterious atmosphere, reveals itself as the secret of transforming the curse of work (“By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground" [Gen. 3:19]) into the creative opus of human life, through individuation and even to transcendence. The paper concludes by expressing concern about the increasing absence of complete initiation ceremonies in Western civilization, and especially their lack of a spiritual dimension.
- Publication
Ma'arag: Israeli Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2010, Vol 1, p65
- ISSN
2413-290X
- Publication type
Article