PTSD and the Politics of Trauma in Israel

Two-way cultural transfer: the case of the Israeli TV series BeTipul and its American adaptation In Treatment

“…In particular, the polarized reception of BeTipul in Israel points to the ambivalent status of western psychological-oriented content in the domestic setting. As studies show, psychotherapy praxis and worldviews encounter considerable antagonism by large sections of Israeli society (Friedman-Peleg, 2014;Katriel, 2004). The viewers' responses to BeTipul suggest that this antagonism has to do with a social tension between 'those above', who have access to the psychotherapy-oriented world, and 'those below', who do not.…”

“The Goal Is Not to Cheer You Up”: Empathetic Care in Israeli Life Coaching

“…They demonstrate the use of clinical practice to transform grand collective narratives into private ones and vice versa to link private experiences of patients to grand collective narratives (Friedman‐Peleg and Bilu ; Kidron ). Scholars examined these tensions in a variety of sites, for example, support groups for children of Holocaust survivors (Kidron ), victims of war and terror (Friedman‐Peleg ), and radio talk shows (Katriel ). Scholars claim that these tensions between private versus collective ethos have been increasing in past 30 years as part of the extensive processes of economic liberalization (Gutwein ; Svirsky and Connor‐Atias ).…”

Routinergency: Domestic securitization in contemporary Israel

“…Resilience in this context is understood as ‘the ability to withstand tension despite interference, shortages, and internal-conflicts … [and] the ability to function in a positive manner even in situations of uncertainty, continuous stress and severe trauma’ (Peletz, 2009: 23). The government thus increased the number of therapists, social workers and mental health professionals employed directly or through charities in specialized resilience centres that were set up in the municipalities closest to Lebanon and Gaza (Friedman-Peleg, 2014). 10 It also subsidized the construction of mamad extensions in every residential unit up to a perimeter of 7 km from the southern and northern borders.…”

“…The HFC has established and trained specialized emergency teams in the localities close to these borders and the IDF has created a new ‘Municipality Connection Unit’ to attend people’s needs ‘on the ground’ during crisis situations. 11 While public shelters still informed imaginaries of national fortitude in Israel in the previous decade (Handelman, 2004), emphasis on domestic resilience has increasingly become dominant in the Israeli civil protection doctrine at large (Friedman-Peleg, 2014). A former high-ranking IDF officer called Zvika exemplifies this:Combined with Iron Dome, mamads give us a maximum protection casing that increases civilian resilience at times of war.…”

“…earthquakes, bush fires, floods), colossal technological and organizational fallacies, and man-made confrontational threats such as missile attacks, suicide bombers or a full-scale military invasion. The neoliberalization of risk may also apply to an expansive preparedness infrastructure in Israel that includes nation-wide distribution and annual ‘refreshment’ of gas masks; the HFC ongoing ‘awareness campaigns’ on television, radio and social media platforms; annual ‘preparedness’ drills and workshops that IDF soldiers conduct in both primary- and high-schools; security checks at the entrance to every public institution, including shopping malls and bus stations; and the medicalization of security-related anxieties (Friedman-Peleg and Goodman 2011).…”