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This timely, fraught volume explores the intersection of psychodynamic thinking, traditional Judaism, and the contemporary revolution in the visibility of alternative object choice and non-binary sexual identity that has come to the Orthodox Jewish community. In the past, Orthodox rabbis and members of the communities were able to pretend that such persons did not exist. They were simply excluded and extruded. But the new expression, as quoted in this book—“We're here, We're queer, and We're Machmir (scrupulously observant)” — represents an increasingly prevalent reality. Gay and non-binary people have “come out” in sufficient numbers within their observant/traditional Jewish communities, and enough of them wish to remain, live their lives, practice their faith, and raise their own families within these communities. They will no longer remain invisible, and certainly will no longer remain silent in the face of rejection.
Psychiatric diagnosis and treatment enters into this messy mixture at a number of places. Until recently, the concept of the “sinfulness” of homosexual practices or non-binary sexual identity was consonant with the psychiatric practice of reparative therapy, which purported to be able to change sexual object choice. Only recently, with the withdrawal of approval of reparative therapy by both APAs and other mainstream medical organizations have the heads of the several Orthodox Rabbinate groups officially agreed to stop recommending it. The linkage between the concepts of “sin,” shame, and mental illness/mental disturbance still remains, however, along with the stigma accrued to the individual and their family.
Orthodox Judaism does not recognize a concept of a homosexual identity per se. It does not have a place for the expression of non-binary gender roles, nor for the transition from one gender to another. Psychodynamically informed practitioners who are raised in these traditions have their own set of (countertransference) difficulties in the evalu