Albert I. Rabin

Dr. Rabin, an eminent scholar of the psychology of personality and well versed in Hebrew, reviews the chronicles of the Old Testament through the lens of modern psychology. The topics established by the author follow familiar themes such as life course, family, gender, sexuality, and special states. The biblical accounts provide abundant "case examples" for these aspects of psychology and amply resemble our modern universe of human behavior and personality issues, including family problems, violence, rivalry, and greed. Balancing the negative record of human nature depicted in the Bible's scriptures, the respect for God's law and striving for lawful behavior within one's own tribe permeates the writings throughout the centuries. This book opens doors to historical, timeless themes that will surprise, enlighten, and inspite psychologists as well as readers of any background.

Relatively few accounts of the development of children in the Kibbutz are available in professional literature. The purpose of this volume is to present a systematic account of child rearing and education in the Kibbutz, and a systematic exploration and interpretation of the personalities of Kibbutz children at several age levels- from infancy to maturity. Moreover, this is a comparative study in which the Kibbutz child is assessed alongside the Israeli child born and reared in the conventional family setting. Thus, the Kibbutz child is not compared with the norms of Western society, but with those of representatives of the broader culture which he shares. -- from Preface.

This important volume explores the process through which personality emerges and is maintained across significant periods of life. Also presented is a framework for a theory of personality development that helps to account for the similarities and differences in personality structure.